ABIT AN8-SLI

Rounding things up:

Considering that this near to the top end of ABIT's product lineup, they have included quite a good selection of innovations on the motherboard including ABIT's CPU ThermalGuard; the uGuru clock utility (minus the 3rd Eye Guru clock); the AudioMAX daughterboard, which arguably delivers better sound quality; and the Q-OTES heatpipe cooling technology. However, there are some things that we feel are missing from the motherboard.

We are a little disappointed not to see dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, a second SATA controller for the most insane enthusiasts out there requiring terabytes of storage, and also some improved RAID functionality. Having said that, we guess the latter comes with the additional RAID controller, as the nForce4 SLI MCP only features support for RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD. The SLI switching card is slightly awkwardly placed, and a general pain to remove. The same could be said about all SLI motherboards using the same switching method, though. It would have been nicer to see a digital switch, and we expect to see something like that in later models.

The lack of USB 2.0 connectivity is a bit of a disappointment too - we'd like to see at least eight of the ten USB 2.0 ports usable out of the box. It's also a shame not to see the 3rd-eye Guru clock included, to give this board a bit more appeal over the budget KN8-SLI, but not so much that it steps on the toes of the Fatal1ty AN8-SLI, which comes with the uGuru front panel that fits into a 5.25" drive bay.

The Q-OTES heatpipe cooling technology is a nice feature of this motherboard, but we feel that it could have had some additional functionality with the inclusion of a removable fan for those of us who watercool their CPU. The lack of airflow around the PWM regulators near the CPU, coupled with the heat emitted by the Q-OTES could cause some problems with inadequate airflow as a result of using a CPU waterblock.

Stability is typical ABIT - we didn't suffer any instability at all. We did suffer some slight incompatibilities with WMP9 when playing High Definition content. A BIOS update that is available from ABIT's website fixed that problem, though. We also suffered problems with the uGuru clock utility conflicting with clockgen, so we had to go back to the more conventional way of BIOS overclocking, which seemed to be more successful. We managed to get the motherboard stable all the way up to 245MHz HTT, without lowering the LDT speed or using a memory divider.

ABIT's uGuru software gives you a little more functionality than the BIOS in some respects, as you can set up profiles that are easily switched between. However, the options that are available are somewhat inferior to what can be found in the BIOS. On that same note, we applaud the fantastic range of BIOS options, especially for voltage options and memory timing tweakability that will literally knock you off your chair.

Finally, we also love the colour scheme on the AN8-SLI. The natural copper, vibrant reds and blacks, along with the orange brown PCB colour really works well together. The heatpipe is the centre piece, providing a strong industrial feel as it stretches almost the length of the board.

Value:

There are several UK online retailers selling the ABIT AN8-SLI with Q-OTES technology. Most sell it for around £90, with Misco offering the best price at £86. In contrast, you can buy the ASUS A8N SLI for £85 from Ebuyer. That board comes with Dual Gigabit Ethernet connectors, an extra PCI slot, but there are no additional SATA ports on top of the four included in the nForce4 SLI MCP and it features a whiney fan that spins at 8000 RPM - quite a contrast to the ABIT Q-OTES technology, which is fanless. There is also ABIT's KN8-SLI, which Komplett are selling for £82 including VAT.

Newegg offers one of the best prices for the AN8-SLI at $139. Sticking with Newegg, Foxconn's NF4SK8AA 8EKRS is available for $125.50, while the ABIT KN8-SLI is $109 and the ASUS A8N SLI costs $121. The ABIT KN8 SLI still uses heatpipe technology, and is cheaper than the ECS KN1 SLI Extreme, which we recently reviewed.

ABIT seem to be in no mans land with the AN8-SLI, from a price point of view. However, that is not to say that this motherboard isn't another great product from ABIT, because it is. The KN8-SLI is some $30 cheaper in the US, but only £4 cheaper in the UK. The extra £4/$30 buys you the Q-OTES technology and the AudioMAX daughterboard. We've already mentioned that the KN8-SLI comes with heatpipe technology and onboard 7.1 audio with S/PDIF.

The AN8-SLI doesn't seem to offer much more over the KN8-SLI, as both solutions are silent and both have the same basic featureset, if it is in a slightly different form. If you're in America, we don't believe that the additional 'features' that come with the AN8-SLI warrant the extra $30, but in the UK it would make sense to spend that extra £4 for a nicer-looking motherboard. If the AN8-SLI was bundled with the Guru clock, we feel that it'd be better justification for spending the additional $30 in the US.

Final Thoughts...

Overall, the ABIT AN8-SLI comes with solid performance, stability and overclocking features at a decent middle ground price tag. The board offers a lot, but not quite enough to bowl us over. The price difference between the KN8-SLI and AN8-SLI in the UK seems to be justified, but it doesn't if you're buying in America.

If you're looking for dual ethernet and more than four SATA ports, you would be better looking elsewhere. However, if you aren't looking for an nForce4 SLI motherboard with more than one ethernet port and four SATA II ports, the AN8-SLI makes for a good purchase if you are planning on air cooling. If you are looking to use watercooling, you might want to consider something with an active cooling solution on the PWMs next to the CPU socket. As an air cooled overclockers motherboard, this board does its job remarkably well.