 January 16, 2006 – HotHardware finds ABIT to be the best and most popular motherboard maker around for the enthusiast market:
"ABIT has earned a reputation over the years, as a builder of top-quality motherboards geared for high-performance enthusiasts and extreme overclockers. They've produced some exceedingly popular products in the past, like the legendary BX6 and long-time favorite the TH7-II RAID, and the company continues to innovate today. In our tenure here at HotHardware, we've taken a look dozens of products from ABIT…they've all been very good and deserving of consideration. That's something we can't always say about a few other motherboard manufacturers."
They compared two of our SLI platforms the one high end and the other mainstream:
"The Fatal1ty AN8 SLI is targeted squarely at hardcore overclockers with its actively-cooled VRM and well appointed BIOS and bundle. The NI8 SLI, while targeted at a similar audience, goes about things differently with its Q-OTES silent chipset cooling and more subdued accessory bundle."
The Fatal1ty AN8 SLI: "There was also a very complete user's manual, a quick installation guide, and a sticker for a case in there as well, highlighting many of the board's jumpers and headers. Of course, driver disks were included too, such as a floppy with RAID drivers, and a CD with chipset drivers and other assorted utilities."
They found the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI bundled accessories and add-on features were perfectly suitable for almost every function needed:
"The utilities that reside on the CD include a few very useful proprietary ABIT applications, namely ABITEQ, OC Guru, FlashMenu, BlackBox and Guru Clock. … the ABITEQ section of this motherboard's BIOS houses a myriad of hardware monitoring tools. The ABITEQ application essentially gives user's access to all of these same tools through Windows. OC Guru is similar, in that it gives users access to all of the overclocking tools that are also available within the OC Guru portion of the system BIOS, voltages, fan speeds, clock speeds, etc. FlashMenu is for updating the system BIOS from within Windows, and BlackBox is an application used to gather data about the system should users need technical support. Lastly, Guru Clock is used to configure the uGuru Panel that's also included with the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI."
Hothardware did an excellent overview of both boards, highlighting features they thought stood out:
"The ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 SLI and NI8 SLI motherboards both performed very well throughout our entire battery of tests. Due to the fact that each board is designed for a different platform, the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI for AMD processors and the NI8 SLI for Intel processors, each one excelled in different areas, however. Video encoding, synthetic benchmarks, and 3D rendering applications ran best on the NI8 SLI / Intel P4 670J combo, while the gaming tests, content creation applications, and audio encoding tests ran best on the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI / AMD A64 4000+ combo."
Fatal1ty AN8 SLI Conclusion:
"We really liked the ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 SLI. This is a very streamlined motherboard with just the right feature set for hardcore gamers or overclockers. …the board's top-notch performance, great overclockability, and jam-packed accessory bundle justify the somewhat higher price tag in our opinion. After using this motherboard for quite some time, with a variety of processors and video cards, we can also say with conviction that the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI is rock-solid stable. When used in conjunction with the right assortment of other hardware, the Fatal1ty AN8 SLI would make an excellent foundation to a high-end rig. We're giving the ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 SLI a solid 8.5 on the Heat Meter."
NI8 SLI Conclusion:
"The NI8 SLI remained stable throughout all of our testing, and its performance is right up there with other motherboards in its class. …The silent "Q-OTES" Northbridge cooler appealed to us, as did the heatsinks in the VRM and on the Southbridge. The NI8 SLI also has a top-notch BIOS, its feature set is very complete, and perhaps best of all, the board is priced well at about $150. Intel fans looking to move to an SLI capable motherboard should certainly take a look at the ABIT NI8 SLI. We're giving this board a 7.5 on the Heat Meter."
For the full review, go to: http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx
For more information on Fatal1ty AN8 SLI or NI8-SLI GR, go here: ABIT Motherboard |
