Conclusion
Abit’s premiere Core 2 Duo motherboard is a return to form for them. Aesthetically, this may be the best looking C2D motherboard around. From the colors to the LED’s, it all fits together to offer a package we can show off proudly. The extra features like the AudioMax sound card, which performs great we might add, and the SATA cables, the SLI bridge, etc., put this board near the top with accessories and options. The solid state capacitors, which are much more reliable and unlikely to break/burst, don’t come cheap but it’s an option that is very welcome.

Speaking of the SLI bridge, Abit does include it even though the 975X chipset from Intel doesn’t support it. Why? Well it seems that there are modified drivers out there in the wild that actually allow SLI on these chipsets and motherboards. Thus, with certain drivers you can run dual Nvidia cards just like you can dual ATI cards on these boards and Abit makes it that much easier with the included SLI bridge.

My main gripe about this high-end board from Abit comes from the layout and its lack of PCI slots and or access. If you are using a single graphics card then by all means give this board a chance to impress you. But if you use dual cards, then more consideration needs to be taken. In a high-end board that is meant to compete with the best of the best, this is something we have to take Abit to task on. With CrossFire and SLI becoming more and more popular, especially within the enthusiast market which this board is aimed at, blocking the lone PCI slot and limiting users to onboard audio is a serious issue. The same high-end users who run dual GPU’s are also buying high-end sound cards or physx cards. Thus, using this board and dual video cards, and those PCI cards, is impossible. Other boards offer multiple PCI slots, with 1 to 2 of them available even with dual GPU’s. My other complaint comes from the overclocking and the BIOS. While the BIOS is plenty deep, and uGuru is an amazing utility and feature, I was really expecting to be able to push this board even further. If later BIOS revisions fix this with a increased boot strap, then this will be nothing to worry about. If some of you are still using legacy connections like serial or parallel ports, you may want to rethink purchasing this, or just upgrade that old out-dated hardware and get with the new like the AW9D-Max.

All in all, I was impressed with this motherboard. Abit is on point with this release with only a few minor gripes that take away from this board being nearly perfect. We will be using this board for some time to come and look forward to future tests with it. My fellow enthusiasts out there should rest assured they are getting a great product from Abit. If you don’t overclock and only run one video card this board could be perfect for you; the rest of you should be more cautious. We definitely have to give this board our recommendation from the great performance and looks, and the excellent price that makes it very competitive with other Core 2 boards out there.

Pros
+ OTES 2 silent cooling is very impressive
+ Sharp and stylish in the looks department
+ Removal of legacy connections
+ Packed full of accessories
+ uGuru software and the rest of the suite is easy to use and feature packed
+ Great performance and stability
Cons
- Layout layout layout: Mainly the PCI slot issues but a few more things could be tweaked too
- Overclocking not as far as other Intel 975x chipsets (hopefully this is remedied)
Rating
8.8 out of 10