Introduction

Universal abit (Uabit) has gone through its ups and downs but nevertheless retains the allure as being one of the first motherboard manufacturers to offer overclocking abilities beyond what others were doing in the 1980's. Fast forward to the 21st century and ABIT, now Universal abit, is focused more than ever on catering to the overclocking enthusiast crowd with its brand of Fatal1ty products. Now we know what you're thinking, "Fatal1ty?!? Yeah right! That's just a gimmick to jip us gamers out of our cold hard cash, I'll pass kthxbuhbai." And come to think of it, you're right. Most products out on the market that just have an 'edgy' logo slapped on the box instantly satisfy the PR department but leave us gamers with a nasty taste in our mouths when it comes to made-for-gamer products.

There isn't one news headline or forum post that goes without complaint when someone mentions or suggests a Fatal1ty branded product. This isn't without merit, as many products resold under the Fatal1ty brand are simply colored, packaged, marketed differently and present no additional real-world performance boost. The Fatal1ty AN9 32X however is different. Not only is this Uabit's flagship AM2 motherboard, but it offers the features and good performance one would expect from a board of this brand and price.

Specifications

Hardware Configuration

• Case: Antec Solo
  
• Power Supply: Antec TruePower Trio 650
• Motherboard: Universal abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X
• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 100GB IDE HDD
• Hard Drive: Seagate 300GB SATA HDD
• Hard Drive: Maxtor 250GB SATA HDD
• Video: eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express
• Memory: Mushkin EM6400 Dual-Channel PC2 6400 2048MB
• Optical: Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW
• Audio: 7.1 HD Realtek AudioMAX Riser Card
  
• Cooling: Zalman CNPS9500 AM2 CPU Cooler
• Display: Samsung Syncmaster 710N 17" LCD

• Motherboard BIOS: v1.2 Beta 1 (03/29/2007)
• Chipset: nForce 590 SLI AMD Windows XP 32-Bit v9.35 WHQL Certified
• Operating System: Windows XP Media Center Edition with Service Pack 2
• Video Driver: NVIDIA ForceWare Version 158.27 WHQL 32-bit WHQL Certified (May 15th release)
  
• Audio Driver: Realtek HD R1.70 (6/28/2007)
• Test Software: Futuremark PCMark 1.2.0
• Test Software: Futuremark 3DMark 2003 3.6.0
  
• Test Software: Futuremark 3DMark 2005 1.3.0
  
• Test Software: Futuremark 3DMark 2006 1.1.0
• Test Software: Massive Publishing Aquamark 1.0
• Test Software: SiSoftware Sandra Pro Home XI SP3 2007 6.10.9
• Test Software: SuperPI 1.1e
• Test Software: Everest Ultimate 3.01.652
• Test Software: Maxon Cinebench 9.5
• Test Software: RarLab WinRAR 3.70
  
• Test Software: Nero Recode 2
  
• Test Software: Apple iTunes 7.3
• Test Software: Retouch Artists Photoshop Speed Test
• Test Game: Valve Software - Half-Life 2: Episode One
  
• Test Game: Valve Software - Counter-Strike: Source Stress Test
• Test Game: Digital Illusions CE - Battlefield 2142
• Test Game: Relic Entertainment - Company of Heroes
• Test Game: Bethesda Softworks - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• Test Game: Monolith Productions, Inc. - F.E.A.R.
  
• Test Game: Infinity Ward - Call of Duty 2
  
• Test Game: GSC Game World - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
• Test Game: Human Head Studios - Prey
  
• Test Game: Techland - Call of Juarez