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abit: Multimedia Products

Universal abit is the successor to the abit motherboard brand that has partnered with USI for their manufacturing and engineering expertise. The abit name will remain as the main identity for products but expect to hear more from Universal abit as the company transitions itself from strictly IT manufacturing to leading technology design and brand management. abit is entering the growing Media Center PC market with their first products that include the ViiV based IL90-MV motherboard and the iDome digital speaker series.


The IL90-MV micro-ATX motherboard is based on the Intel 945GT and ICH7mDH Express chipsets with support for the Core 2 Duo (Merom) and Core Duo/Solo (Yonah) processor range. Note that this is a socket 478 motherboard, supporting the standard mobile Intel CPUs. Audio support from the Realtek 882M includes full Dolby Home Studio certification, 7.1 channel output, and optical S/PDIF in and out connections. HDMI 1.2 output is fully supported by the on-board Intel GMA-950 graphics chipset with 1080P and 1600x1200 UXGA capability. The system is basically silent, thermals are terrific, and in our testing it has offered excellent performance along with very good video output.


abit is introduced the iDome DS500 speaker and iDome SW510 subwoofer to the market late this summer. The iDome speakers feature a pure digital audio stream process from input to output. The speakers and subwoofer will be sold separately but the 2.1 system on display consisted of two fairly compact speakers, the subwoofer, and an integrated digital amplifier. The cost for the two speakers will be around US $115 and another US $110 will get you the subwoofer. Both units will work other manufacturer's products although for the price we recommend buying the set for best performance.


Each satellite offers 25W/per channel with the subwoofer providing 50W. The subwoofer features a 6.5 inch Super Bass driver with DBX technology providing a very deep bass tone with very little distortion in our listening tests, with the result being extremely clear audio. The satellites offer an independent 1 inch dome tweeter and 4 inch Neodymium drivers in a high quality case.

The speakers are controlled by a unique uGuru chip that allows for six different sound environments to be selected by the user dependent upon the audio stream being played. These modes consist of Normal, Game, Music, Movie, Rock, and Jazz. We had the opportunity to listen to these various modes over the course of the last three weeks and were very impressed with the satellites ability to deliver a very clean audio stream in a variety of situations from movie playback to gaming.

The highs are clear and bright with the mids being warm while extending downward to the point where there was noticeable bass response without the subwoofer while listening to music. However, for games and movies we highly recommend the subwoofer. Our only knock on the system at this time is the audio volume output is suited for the desktop or a very small room environment. abit is addressing this issue with the upcoming 5.1 system based on this technology. Otherwise, we highly recommend the abit iDome DS500/SW510 combination at this time as they are clearly one of the best 2.1 speaker sets you can purchase currently.

Final Remarks

This concludes our first piece of tech bits and bytes, and we will take a look at some interesting media products from Bluegears and Compro Technology along with a significant number of motherboards in our next article.