Abit AB9 Pro: A sneak peek at Intel's new P965 chipset
by Gary Key on July 3, 2006 3:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
Our preview of the Abit AB9 Pro shows a board with a high level of performance potential provided the production BIOS allows tweaking of the memory settings. Abit ensures us we will have a BIOS with this capability shortly and we look forward to testing the board again with our Pentium D processors and providing Core 2 Duo results in the near future. While we did not notice any other issues with the Abit system during a rigorous test schedule, we have to state once again that the overall layout is unusual if not chaotic. While this may appeal to some, we found the location of the IDE and floppy port connectors to be very difficult to work with in our test case. These port locations required the use of long cables and the partial blockage of airflow over the CPU and memory locations, certainly not what you want with a Pentium D processor.
Our other issue is the lack of a secondary PCI-E X16 physical slot that could provide PCI-E X4 capability for an additional graphics card or other PCI-E peripherals. We feel like this would have been a better option than providing two PCI-E X1 slots -- in fact, we would like to see all motherboard manufacturers begin to only use X16 physical connectors for all PCI-E slots; there ought to be at least some cost benefit in only purchasing one type of plastic connector, though of course we're simplifying things a bit. We do commend Abit on providing Dolby Digital support via the Realtek ALC882D, dual Gigabit Ethernet controllers that use the PCI-E interface, an e-SATA port, Silent OTES system, and their impressive µGuru technology for overclocking and full system monitoring/control capabilities. We will provide a full feature list and results for networking, storage, and audio in our full review of this interesting if not funky board once our Core 2 Duo NDA expires.
This was our first experience with the Intel P965 Express chipset and even with the lack of memory settings and limited overclocking capabilities due to our early BIOS, we have to say this chipset was impressive from both a performance and stability viewpoint. This has generally been the trademark of Intel chipsets and the P965 is no different. However, the lack of official dual X8 GPU capability at this time means you will have to look elsewhere for CrossFire or SLI support. This really is a huge oversight or mistake by Intel as this chipset certainly offers very good performance across the board. Our other issue is the lack of native PATA support on the ICH8R; this is not acceptable considering the almost absolute reliance on the PATA interface for optical drives at this time. Look for additional Core 2 Duo supporting i975X, P965, and NVIDIA 590/570 SLI Intel Edition motherboard previews in the near future, along with a surprise or two from VIA and SIS.
Our preview of the Abit AB9 Pro shows a board with a high level of performance potential provided the production BIOS allows tweaking of the memory settings. Abit ensures us we will have a BIOS with this capability shortly and we look forward to testing the board again with our Pentium D processors and providing Core 2 Duo results in the near future. While we did not notice any other issues with the Abit system during a rigorous test schedule, we have to state once again that the overall layout is unusual if not chaotic. While this may appeal to some, we found the location of the IDE and floppy port connectors to be very difficult to work with in our test case. These port locations required the use of long cables and the partial blockage of airflow over the CPU and memory locations, certainly not what you want with a Pentium D processor.
Our other issue is the lack of a secondary PCI-E X16 physical slot that could provide PCI-E X4 capability for an additional graphics card or other PCI-E peripherals. We feel like this would have been a better option than providing two PCI-E X1 slots -- in fact, we would like to see all motherboard manufacturers begin to only use X16 physical connectors for all PCI-E slots; there ought to be at least some cost benefit in only purchasing one type of plastic connector, though of course we're simplifying things a bit. We do commend Abit on providing Dolby Digital support via the Realtek ALC882D, dual Gigabit Ethernet controllers that use the PCI-E interface, an e-SATA port, Silent OTES system, and their impressive µGuru technology for overclocking and full system monitoring/control capabilities. We will provide a full feature list and results for networking, storage, and audio in our full review of this interesting if not funky board once our Core 2 Duo NDA expires.
This was our first experience with the Intel P965 Express chipset and even with the lack of memory settings and limited overclocking capabilities due to our early BIOS, we have to say this chipset was impressive from both a performance and stability viewpoint. This has generally been the trademark of Intel chipsets and the P965 is no different. However, the lack of official dual X8 GPU capability at this time means you will have to look elsewhere for CrossFire or SLI support. This really is a huge oversight or mistake by Intel as this chipset certainly offers very good performance across the board. Our other issue is the lack of native PATA support on the ICH8R; this is not acceptable considering the almost absolute reliance on the PATA interface for optical drives at this time. Look for additional Core 2 Duo supporting i975X, P965, and NVIDIA 590/570 SLI Intel Edition motherboard previews in the near future, along with a surprise or two from VIA and SIS.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
33 Comments
View All Comments
JarredWalton - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
Corrected - the retail HSF was used, but it doesn't really matter since we didn't perform thorough overclocking, noise, or temperature testing yet. As mentioned in the article, we're waiting for a new BIOS release with memory timing adjustments before we do that.Heidfirst - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
"This heatsink is part of the Abit Silent OTES technology that includes a heatpipe system and additional passive cooling for the VRM components. This system kept the MCH cool enough that additional chipset voltage was not a factor in our overclocking tests. Our only concern is the lifespan of the fanbut it is very quiet during operation"What fan?
JarredWalton - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
Sorry - that was a fragment from an earlier article that slipped in. No fans. :)ALCX - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
You didn't mention anything about how well this board overclocks! I would think with this 'stable' power and the D805 you would have an excellent opportunity. I'm also thinking getting a mboard like this with a $100 D805 and wait out Conroe supply issue/price until XMAS....ALCX
jones377 - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
Do you have any plans to investigate I/O performance on this chipset? Those Winrar benches suggests these were vastly improved somehow. Memory latency/bandwidth benchmarks would be nice too. All compared to 975x, nvidia and ATI chipsets (for the Intel platform).mine - Saturday, July 8, 2006 - link
yes rightthis is what I am exspecting from anand in near future
if you like the info a little bit earlier
over@ xs
Chadder007 - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
Im thinking about getting a motherboard like this and a Pentium D 805....and then waiting for the prices to go down and performance to go up for the Core 2's after maybe 1 year to upgrade.rqle - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
I prefer a next gen board without the floopy, am still waiting. Keep PATA, well, third party chipset now, but kill off the floopy.Calin - Tuesday, July 4, 2006 - link
I'm all for it too - as long as you can install Windows on any computer without needing a floppy disk driveMacGuffin - Monday, July 3, 2006 - link
Or atleast X4 physical connectors, if X16 slots make things cramped for capacitors and other parts on the board. And what's up with this trend of 5/6 expansion slots on high-end motherboards? There was a time when most boards had 7 expansion slots. I guess the elaborate heatpipe mechanisms for 2-chip core logic interfere (eg. M2N-SLI vs. M2N32-SLI) with more expandability.
This is going to be a good year for technology!