Computex 2008: Pre-show products

Abit motherboards

Motherboard wise, Abit is bursting to launch its new products. For IP35 lovers, be ready for the IP45 Pro which is DDR2 and has a nice elongated north bridge heatsink.

The board is coloured in the now usual Abit blue and black, featuring two PCI-Express x16 2.0 lanes (at 1x16 or 2x8), a couple of PCI and PCI-Express x1, Gigabit Ethernet, Realtek ALC888 HD audio, all solid aluminium capped capacitors and onboard diagnostic LEDs. The clear CMOS button the rear I/O and the power and reset buttons on board are all backlit, too.

The IP45 MAX is almost identical to the IP45 except for the colour, which is now entirely black and blue (no orange), and it uses DDR3 exclusively. On the back there are also a dozen blue LEDs that backlight the board (they are masked in tape below), and we were told the box package would also be more sufficient to complement the MAX name.


We know plenty of you liked the IP35-E which was more inexpensive than the Pro, and the IP43 Pro might fit into the same sort of price range. However ,the CPU power phase use has been chopped from eight to just four and there’s no CrossFire option. It does still keep the same great colour scheme and style, as well as a few high-end features like the clear CMOS button on the rear I/O and diagnostic POST LEDs.


For those looking for something AMD, Abit has a GeForce 8200 chipset based board – but this one is full ATX unlike the usual micro-ATX or even mini-ITX like we've reviewed recently. On the rear there is the option of HDMI, DVI (only one digital out at a time) and VGA outputs, but the PCI-Express x16 slot can be used for Hybrid Graphics or just a faster card altogether. Again it has the same great colour scheme as the others but lacks all solid capacitors and sealed chokes – this should bring the price down quite a bit, although whether it affects some aspect of performance we’re as yet unsure.