Computex 2006: Abit is back, Biostar expands, and Thermaltake dazzles
by Gary Key on June 10, 2006 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Abit: AMD Motherboards
All of the following motherboards are expected to be available within the next few weeks. Here are Abit's offerings for the various price ranges.
The AN9-32X is Abit's mainstream NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI board featuring two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132 chipset along with the AudioMax riser card. The target price is around US $185.
Abit's lone ATI AM2 board is the AT9-32X featuring the ATI Xpress 3200 and SB600 chipsets along two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132. Pricing has not been finalized but expect it to be in the US $150~$175 range.
Abit's AMD AM2 Fatal1ty board features the NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI chipset, Guru 2005, and AudioMax technology. Pricing should be around US $200 dependent upon options.
Abit's KN9-SLI board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset, Realtek ALC-883 HD audio, and will be aggressively priced in the US $115~$125 range.
The KN9 Ultra board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra chipset, passive cooling, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. Expected pricing is US $90~$105.
Last but not least is the Abit NF-M2 micro-ATX board featuring the NVIDIA GeForce 6100 chipset, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. This will be a value offering targeting the US $65~$70 price range.
All of Abit's new release motherboard products now feature passive cooling, a trend we witnessed with other manufacturers at the show. Abit will be aggressively pricing their products this summer so expect to see some very good price to performance ratios along with excellent product quality. In fact, the price targets we listed were very early estimates and could drop further at release.
The general tone around the Abit booth was one of excitement, certainly not the air of depression we witnessed last year. We were told that the first boards coming off USI assembly lines last week were approved without reservations and the quality even exceeded internal expectations. We expect to see some great products out of Abit shortly and hopefully the boards will perform as well as they look.
All of the following motherboards are expected to be available within the next few weeks. Here are Abit's offerings for the various price ranges.
The AN9-32X is Abit's mainstream NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI board featuring two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132 chipset along with the AudioMax riser card. The target price is around US $185.
Abit's lone ATI AM2 board is the AT9-32X featuring the ATI Xpress 3200 and SB600 chipsets along two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132. Pricing has not been finalized but expect it to be in the US $150~$175 range.
Abit's AMD AM2 Fatal1ty board features the NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI chipset, Guru 2005, and AudioMax technology. Pricing should be around US $200 dependent upon options.
Abit's KN9-SLI board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset, Realtek ALC-883 HD audio, and will be aggressively priced in the US $115~$125 range.
The KN9 Ultra board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra chipset, passive cooling, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. Expected pricing is US $90~$105.
Last but not least is the Abit NF-M2 micro-ATX board featuring the NVIDIA GeForce 6100 chipset, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. This will be a value offering targeting the US $65~$70 price range.
All of Abit's new release motherboard products now feature passive cooling, a trend we witnessed with other manufacturers at the show. Abit will be aggressively pricing their products this summer so expect to see some very good price to performance ratios along with excellent product quality. In fact, the price targets we listed were very early estimates and could drop further at release.
The general tone around the Abit booth was one of excitement, certainly not the air of depression we witnessed last year. We were told that the first boards coming off USI assembly lines last week were approved without reservations and the quality even exceeded internal expectations. We expect to see some great products out of Abit shortly and hopefully the boards will perform as well as they look.
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Gary Key - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
The on-board sound on this board will be the Realtek ALC-882M that is placed on a riser card. The sound was significantly better audio quality wise than some of the 882m solutions we have heard placed on the motherboard. We also spoke with Abit about utilizing the new Realtek ALC-888 which sounded a generation better to us and that was on a $85 ASRock board the same day. We are hoping the transition to the ALC-888 will be a quick one for most manufacturers as it would suffice for about 90% of the users. The balance will want a X-FI or something else discreet.
My issue with Abit, the Product Managers agreed, is that the buyer for these boards will typically not only want a discreet sound solution but also a slot for a TV tuner card or a professional audio interface card. PCI is not dead until the multimedia companies move over to PCI-E, it is that simple and until such time, the board should have two if not three PCI slots that are not blocked, take one of the PCI-E x1 slots, combine the lanes, and give us a universal x4 slot if need be to make room but do not block this slot also. We were able to play with the 975x board before the show opened and although it was pre-production, it ran like a banshee. ;-)
xsilver - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
any indication of what the prices are going to be?hopefully prices will stay the same and just replace a 600w one with a 1200w one?
or if the price is going to be 2x the 600w one, who could afford it??
Gary Key - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
Pricing was not set yet but we would estimate in the $250~$325 range at this time. Yikes.....
emilyek - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
You'd think 50 engineers could rub their heads together and come up with something decent.Have the Thermaltake boys been watching 'Pimp My Ride' or something? The only decent thing in their lineup as shown is the HTPC.
Xenoid - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
The Thermaltake cases were all very nice (and I'm sure very expensive), but is it just me or do the LAN-style carry cases still look ridiculous? Same with that big box for 2 systems in one..I'd rather just have 2 full-towers..they'd take up a lot less room and cost less too.toyota - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
what a waste of ram. i guess this means we will start seeing 1 gig on next gen cards that might actually utilise it.JarredWalton - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
We've already got the GX2 with 1GB, though granted that's really 2x512MB. Vista may actually be able to use the GPU RAM for lots of other things, though - that's the theory anyway. Imagine, no longer getting the slow background refresh when Windows decides to swap some of that information out of RAM and into the page file....