FPSLabs - FPSLabs Home News Story - Universal abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X Review

Category: Motherboard
Manufacturer: Universal abit
Product: Fatal1ty AN9 32X
Gallery: Click Here
Price: $143.50

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

Test Setup

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

Software Configuration

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

User Comments

It seems a bit large, or maybe its just me? :o

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

if the cons outweigh the pros then y is it still rated 7 out of 10? i dont know the rating system used here nor do i do whether the cons r jsut minor when compared to the pros. but one thing i do know is that when hardware is reviewed it seems that everything is given a top score. maybe u only test high quality products? i dont know. just making u aware of this

It may seem like everything is given a top score, but it certainly isn't the case. Anyway you are correct in your assumption that not everything is weighed equally when it comes to the Pros and Cons list at the end of the reviews. Consider it more of a grocery list summarizing most of what was talked about throughout the review. In this case you really can't deny how great the product performs, but the oddities are what brings it down to a rating that it deserves according to our Rating Criteria found here: http://hardware.gotfrag.com/portal/Scoring/

now i get it. the rating system clarifies it for me. ta

Damn that's a sexy motherboard..

Was a bit shocked that it was a 7/10 after I was done reading the review though.

As is often the case, it looks much better than it actually is at firsthand.
Certainly not a bad motherboard, but not close to being impressive either.

yeh. I supposed you were limited by other components but I would've liked to see some overclocking performance... maybe compare the best OC achieved with the next mobo you will be reviewing ?
If you say OC is the main reason to buy this board, it would be great to see how it performs in this domain...

nice review though, the BIOS sure is great...

This comment was edited at 07/09/2007 10:51 PM

meh

But realize that widescreen gamers do have a distinct advantage in Source over those who play on traditional 4:3 ratio screens.

---

Is there truth to this? If so, how?

Of course there's truth to that statement! Check it out for yourself:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki..

I think that comparison speaks for itself.

AMD MOBO

wow #9 lol

Silence is a Beached Whale

ASUS Striker Extreme the best ! up to 12Ghz & 8Gb RAM
Quad-Core ready

This comment was edited at 07/20/2007 12:06 AM

t.steel

Holy never knew the higher the res you Source, the more we are enabled to see in widescreen.

Go Read a Book =)

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