Introduction

I would like to thank ABIT for supplying the tested motherboard.

For years ABIT has been making highest end motherboards for enthusiasts and gamers. While there were financial irregularities in the past these were (hopefully) solved by the merger with USI.

Since ABIT is an ATI video cards manufacturer it's just logical for them to add motherboards to their lineup which use chipsets of one of their closest partners.

The chipset in use is the ATI RD480 which is ATI's latest product for the AMD Socket939 platform. It offers the same features as the other Rx480 chipsets but also supports CrossFire. In the near future (February/March), ATI will release a follow up chipset called RD580 which will support PCI-E x16 for each video card when in Crossfire mode. The RD480 supports only x8 per card when Crossfire is active. However, the theoretical bandwidth increase will not have that much of an effect on actual gaming performance since data is transferred to the card once, for example when the level is loaded, and then stays there while rendering.

Features

Specifications from Manufacturer

Processor

• Socket 939 for AMD Athlon 64X2/ 64FX/ 64 Processors
• 2000MT/s System Bus using Hyper Transport™ Technology
• AMD CPU Cool 'n' Quiet Technology

Chipset

• ATI RD480 Radeon Xpress 200 chip
• ULI 1575 SB chip
• 4 Lanes PCI Express interface between NB and SB

Memory

• Four 184-pin DIMM sockets
• Supports dual channel DDR400 ECC/non-ECC un-buffered memory
• Supports maximum memory capacity up to 8GB

Graphic

• Two PCI-Express X16 slots support Dual Graphic card by ATI CrossFire™ Technology

ABIT Engineered Technology

• ABIT Silent OTES™ Technology
• ABIT µGuru™ Technology

Serial ATA

• 4 x SATAII 3Gb/s RAID 0/1/0+1/5
• Supports SATA AHCI, providing native command queuing & native hot plug

LAN

• On board 10/100/1000M PCI controller

IEEE1394

• Support IEEE 1394 at 400 Mb/s transfer rate

Audio

• On board 7.1 CH HD Audio CODEC
• Auto Jack Sensing and optical S/P DIF In/Out

Expansion Slots

• 2 x PCI Express X16
• 2 x PCI Express X1
• 2 x PCI slots

Internal I/O Connectors

• Floppy Port supports up to 2.88MB
• 2 x Ultra DMA 133/100/66/33 IDE Connectors
• 4 x SATA Connectors
• 2 x USB headers, 1 x IEEE 1394 headers

Back Panel I/O

• 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 mouse
• Silent OTESII, 1 x S/P DIF In, 1 x S/P DIF Out
• 7.1 CH Audio connector (Front, Line-in, MIC-in, Center/Subwoofer, Surround, Rear Surround)
• 4 x USB, 1 x RJ-45 LAN Connector, 1 x IEEE 1394

Dimension

• ATX form factor 305 x 245mm