VR Features

Next, over at Cybermind, we spotted ABIT's flagship Intel based motherboard, the ABIT AW8. Based on the Intel i955X chipset, this board has high end features, to match users who has high end needs. It even comes with ABIT's Q-OTES cooling system for the Northbridge. Such cooling system provides a totally fanless, yet sufficient cooling, via copper fins, and heatpipes. This board goes for $339.

 

This is the packaging of the ABIT AW8.

 

A label found on the box of the packaging, with highlights to the key features found on the board.

 

This is how the board look from top down.

 

The silk screen label on the board, with a sticker, indicating the board revision. The board we found is Revision 1.0.

 

The block on top of the Northbridge. The heatpipe is attached to this block, while the other end goes to the copper fin portion, near the I/O connectors.

 

The other end of the heatpipe comes here. Thin copper fins would capture moving air, from the CPU heatsink, effectively cooling down the Northbridge.

 

All of the MOSFETs around the CPU area are all covered up with heatsinks. Since this board is made to overclock, such installations are pretty standard.

 

A Broadcom BCM5789KFB chip controls the Gigabit LAN via PCIe lanes.

 

It seems that such solid SATA ports are catching up the trend. The ABIT AW8 also has these solid ports.

 

This AW8, like most of the other recent ABIT boards, have this uGuru technology, which will assist in overclocking, and provide monitoring of vital information on the board.

 

The I/O connectors on the board. Due to the Q-OTES, the Audio connectors had been shifted on to a daughter card.

 

The separate AudioMax daughter card for the board. Though it's a separate card, it's still 7.1 audio like other boards.

 

A Realtek ALC882M chip is found of the AudioMax daughter card, providing 7.1 audio, HD audio, and supports Dolby Master Studio audio standards.