ABIT AN8-SLI

ABIT's AN8-SLI offers everything you expect in the form of ABIT's uGuru overclocking and system monitoring chip, ABIT Q-OTES with heatpipe technology, ABIT AudioMAX daughter card and ABIT CPU ThermalGuard technology. As the name depicts the AN8-SLI is based on NVIDIA’s nForce4 SLI chipset with two PCI-Express x16 slots (in either 16x1 or 8x8 configuration), SATA2 RAID, IEEE 1394a Firewire and Gigabit Ethernet.

ABIT also produce the recently released KN8-SLI for consumers who want to run NVIDIA's SLI on a budget, while the Fatal1ty AN8-SLI is a full-featured board for the hardcore gaming enthusiast. We find out how ABIT has landed their middle ground AN8-SLI between these two extremes, and how it stacks up against other SLI boards out there at the moment.

Overview:

• ABIT uGuru, OTES and CPU ThermalGuard technologies;
  
• Supports all socket 939 AMD Athlon 64/FX/X2 CPU with Cool 'n' Quiet;
  
• Four DDR memory slots supporting up to 4GB of DDR400;
  
• NVIDIA nForce4 SLI MCP;
  
• Physical Layer Gigabit Ethernet;
  
• Two PCI-Express x16 slots (either 16x1 or 8x8), two PCI-Express x1 slots and two PCI expansion slots;
  
• SATA II RAID, supports 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD;
  
• IEEE 1394a Firewire supporting a maximum of two devices
  
• 7.1 Channel AudioMAX daughterboard with AC'97 audio provided by Realtek ALC850. Includes jack sensing and S/PDIF in/out;
  
• Support for ten USB 2.0 ports (4 on back I/O panel and 6 onboard pin-outs);
  
• Two IDE ATA133 connectors;
  
• One floppy connector;
  
• POST LED readout.

Box Contents:

• Four, grey SATA cables;
  
• One, black ATA133 cable;
  
• One, black, single ended floppy cable;
  
• SLI bridge and retention bracket;
  
• Rear I/O bracket;
  
• PCI bracket for two extra USB ports and two extra IEEE 1394a Firewire ports (4 or 6 pin);
  
• Installation manuals, driver CD and floppy disk.

ABIT include a good selection of additional extras in the box; you get a complete complement of SATA cables, an SLI bridge and retention bracket and floppy cable if you need one. However, there is only a single one IDE cable, when there are two connectors on the motherboard. There are only enough USB ports for six out of the ten supported, with four on the back I/O panel and two via PCI expansion bracket.

You do get the option of either 4 or 6 pin IEEE 1394a Firewire as both are supplied on the same PCI expansion bracket, but only one extra pin-out is supplied onboard. We would prefer it if ABIT focused more on providing a full complement of USB 2.0 ports, as USB 2.0 is generally more popular than Firewire.

Since this isn't a 3rd-eye edition ABIT motherboard, there isn't the ever useful desktop LCD readout. It's disappointing ABIT don't offer an SLI edition with 3rd-eye seeing as nForce4 SLI represents the most enthusiast-orientated chipset NVIDIA offer. You can, however, buy a standard nForce4 edition of the AN8 (not even the Ultra variant) with 3rd-eye if you so wish.