# What happened to ABIT?



## notb (Jul 27, 2017)

I have to admit I didn't really bother to track the PC industry between 2006 and 2011 (because of studies). When I got back to reading forums like this one, it turned out one of my favourite brands - ABIT - was closed.

Does anyone know what exactly happened? I've read a few articles but they all lack details.
Sure, ABIT had some financial problems, but from 2017's POV they don't seem that bad or unique. Quite a lot of companies survived longer and more severe troubles.


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## m0nt3 (Jul 27, 2017)

They had financial trouble, got bought out by another company and were shutdown. I always loved my Abit boards, still happily own my Abit NF7-S.


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## dorsetknob (Jul 27, 2017)

I do Believe a member here Downloaded the entire Abit Motherboard Database for Posterity ( before it was taken offline )
*Trekkie4* or 
*stinger608*
might remember who that was


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## revin (Jul 27, 2017)

it was acquired by Universal Scientific International (USI) in May 2006, then started to operate under the brand name Universal ABIT.
I feel it was a hostile takeover in the hiding. They were a top contender and tbh I think Intel could have had a hand especially after the 865PE boards (AI7) implemented GAT which was.a sidestep around 875 chipset. So probably pissed tbem off. But any way buyout then bye bye............I still have 2 AI7and 1BX6 Rev. 2


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## notb (Jul 27, 2017)

m0nt3 said:


> They had financial trouble, got bought out by another company and were shutdown. I always loved my Abit boards, still happily own my Abit NF7-S.


That I know, but financial troubles are not a death sentence. They could have survived.
Maybe this is about Taiwan and mentality there. They make most motherboards anyway. The ABIT project failed so no one really cared. They closed down the business and the people moved to the other side of the road (e.g. ASRock).
I do believe that if ABIT was operating from a different country (Japan or something in Europe/US), it would be taken care of somehow.

And I also had the NF7-S. This was the mobo to get for overclocking Athlons.


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## qubit (Jul 27, 2017)

dorsetknob said:


> I do Believe a member here Downloaded the entire Abit Motherboard Database for Posterity ( before it was taken offline )
> *Trekkie4* or
> *stinger608*
> might remember who that was


Maybe @Solaris17 - was it you, buddy?

Abit were my go-to brand and I was gutted to see them go. I've still got an AN7, AI7 and AN8 Ultra. I had a Via based board from them too, forget the model number now, which I gave away to a friend. Via chipsets were always a bit second rate, but somehow it worked just fine on that board and the CPU overclocked well - all the Abits were good overclockers, in fact. I can find out the model number if someone really wants to know.


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## jboydgolfer (Jul 28, 2017)

dorsetknob said:


> I do Believe a member here Downloaded the entire Abit Motherboard Database for Posterity ( before it was taken offline )
> *Trekkie4* or
> *stinger608*
> might remember who that was



*is this it?*


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## bogmali (Jul 28, 2017)

dorsetknob said:


> I do Believe a member here Downloaded the entire Abit Motherboard Database for Posterity ( before it was taken offline )
> might remember who that was



@Solaris17 and myself (there were others I think)


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## Norton (Jul 28, 2017)

bogmali said:


> @Solaris17 and myself (there were others I think)



https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/abit-website.162183/

Not sure how much remains but there's some stuff in that thread


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## R-T-B (Jul 28, 2017)

Of all the motherboard brands I miss, I think I miss ABIT the most.  DFI is nothing compared to the awesome that was ABIT IMO.


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## WhiteNoise (Jul 28, 2017)

m0nt3 said:


> They had financial trouble, got bought out by another company and were shutdown. I always loved my Abit boards, still happily own my Abit NF7-S.



I owned that board as well! Great one that.


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## Solaris17 (Jul 28, 2017)

yup. I did, ford easyrhino bog and a few others helped seed. A nice guy kept it (the domain) unil about 4 months ago. I even emailed him my thanks. but alas its no more.


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## Red_Machine (Jul 28, 2017)

Whatever happened to DFI?  They're still around, they just don't make consumer products anymore by the looks of it.


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## Bill_Bright (Jul 28, 2017)

notb said:


> That I know, but financial troubles are not a death sentence. They could have survived.


It is not just that ABIT had financial problems. They were also investigated for questionable accounting practices and some of the executives for embezzling. Also, their chief designer/engineer jumped ship and hired on at DFI. 

It does not matter how great a product a company makes if management are crooks and don't properly manage. Even a buyout by a sound company can't save that sinking ship.


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## uuuaaaaaa (Jul 28, 2017)

dorsetknob said:


> I do Believe a member here Downloaded the entire Abit Motherboard Database for Posterity ( before it was taken offline )
> *Trekkie4* or
> *stinger608*
> might remember who that was



I have the it too  Over 20GB of glorious ABIT material!


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## qubit (Jul 28, 2017)

R-T-B said:


> Of all the motherboard brands I miss, I think I miss ABIT the most.  DFI is nothing compared to the awesome that was ABIT IMO.


I dunno, it's kinda swings and roundabouts with this one. I think DFI in their (short) heyday had even more overclockable mobos with more advanced features not seen anywhere else


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## Gasaraki (Jul 28, 2017)

m0nt3 said:


> They had financial trouble, got bought out by another company and were shutdown. I always loved my Abit boards, still happily own my Abit NF7-S.



Loved my IC7-MAX3


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## uuuaaaaaa (Jul 28, 2017)

Gasaraki said:


> Loved my IC7-MAX3



Best board I have ever owned! I still have it, check my "Purple Haze" build system!


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## RejZoR (Jul 29, 2017)

It's how things go. I still wonder how things would be if 3dfx and S3 (as well as Matrox for the gaming cards) still existed in graphics industry and all were making comparable graphic cards in terms of performance. I kinda miss the days when we had tons of options. Although I'm sure developers prefer it now since they have less work to do with just 2 vendors.


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## Robert B (Jul 29, 2017)

http://forums.hexus.net/abit-care-hexus/244569-abit-ftp-backup-including-e0-updates.html

ftp://91.121.194.115/ - get the Abit.torrent file. I downloaded the entire site this year. 19.8 GB


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## Frick (Jul 29, 2017)

I've had just two ABIT boards: BH6 and NF7-S (2.0), both absolutely excellent.


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## notb (Jul 29, 2017)

Frick said:


> I've had just two ABIT boards: BH6 and NF7-S (2.0), both absolutely excellent.


I generally miss the times when you could buy a high-end motherboard that looked like proper electronics - i.e. your computer was made to run futuristic video games, not look like one.

But I have to admit that I had the CM Aero 7+ - possibly one of the most bonkers CPU coolers ever.  Still, it was form following function, not the other way around. And it was fully copper - matching NF7-S pretty well.


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## P4-630 (Jul 29, 2017)

notb said:


> But I have to admit that I had the CM Aero 7+ - possibly one of the most bonkers CPU coolers ever.  Still, it was form following function, not the other way around. And it was fully copper - matching NF7-S pretty well.



Copper cooling is nice but just don't touch it with your fingers or your fingerprints will sit on it forever...


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## qubit (Jul 29, 2017)

Bill_Bright said:


> It is not just that ABIT had financial problems. They were also investigated for questionable accounting practices and some of the executives for embezzling. *Also, their chief designer/engineer jumped ship and hired on at DFI.*
> 
> It does not matter how great a product a company makes if management are crooks and don't properly manage. Even a buyout by a sound company can't save that sinking ship.


Ah, no wonder DFI turned into such a fantastic enthusiast brand.
And yeah, crooks running a company risk running it into the ground if they go too far, I remember the scandals in the news. Way to go assholes.


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## _JP_ (Jul 29, 2017)

I want to bet some of them went to SuperMicro and are now having fun making consumer boards, advertised as GAMING but no bad taste whatsoever with a bucket load of features, which was the ABIT mindset


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## BumbleBee (Jul 29, 2017)

who cares about Abit?

RIP DFI


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## RejZoR (Jul 29, 2017)

I never owned a DFI mobo, but I remember they were quite highly regarded among overclockers.


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## TheLostSwede (Jul 29, 2017)

You guys should try asking people that worked there at the time. I know quite a few, but they don't hang out here as far as I know.

From what I've read here, it seems only about a third of what really went on is "public" knowledge and I don't know all the details, but the main reason that Abit went bankrupt was because one of the owners took a fair chunk of money and absconded to China.
This was after the management had done some questionable investments and what not, which they were under investigation for, as mentioned. Without any money and the main owner gone, it's hard to operate a company.

I know some ex-staff are at DFI, Corsair, Fractal Design and what not. The industry isn't that big, so people move on to the next company...

USI only really bought the brand and didn't understand the market they got into. They started to make a bunch of crappy products that they slapped the Abit brand on, hence why they didn't really last long.

A miss Abit as well, they made some truly unique products and they were great to deal with.


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## vega22 (Jul 29, 2017)

don't both abit and dfi still exist, just not in the retail chains now?

lanparty boards defined what is cool about building pc imo. the green and yellow one with the thermalright ifx cooling is still a stand out product, possible hall of fame product, for pc enthusiast hardware. 

as for others, gone but not forgotten, rip bfg.


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## BumbleBee (Jul 29, 2017)

RejZoR said:


> I never owned a DFI mobo, but I remember they were quite highly regarded among overclockers.



DFI is a saint that can do no wrong


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## jboydgolfer (Jul 29, 2017)

i always loved that Bios splash screen "LAN PARTY" i dont know why. the last one i saw was a PC a old roommate of mine had , he asked me to look at it, and my diagnoses was retirment, and replacement. That was when he became a fellow PC junkie  But iirc, i tossed that PC in the Trash  wish i had saved it, but i guess if i did that with all the older systems i have "fixed" or replaced, id have a moutain of old tech.


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## BumbleBee (Jul 29, 2017)

DFI UV paint


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## sneekypeet (Jul 29, 2017)

Cleaned and edited the thread of the back and forth about who is right and wrong. Simply put, ABIT couldn't continue making mainstream motherboards! Who cares why, DFI was the better board anyways (OPINION) 






Please keep it civil from here on out! Fair warning to everyone!


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## notb (Jul 29, 2017)

sneekypeet said:


> Cleaned and edited the thread of the back and forth about who is right and wrong. Simply put, ABIT couldn't continue making mainstream motherboards! Who cares why, DFI was the better board anyways


I care. I've asked the question! And you've just been reported.


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## sneekypeet (Jul 29, 2017)

notb said:


> I care. I've asked the question! And you've just been reported.



Saw it, thanks, I also edited the post I made while you were reporting it. Also you were given sound reasons as to why ABIT is not around. Because you choose not to believe them, can't help you there!
If you cannot be civil and want to try to call someone out, we are going to put our foot down every time!


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## Ebo (Jul 29, 2017)

yeah, Abit in the day made some good products, so did DFI, Epox.


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## Bill_Bright (Jul 29, 2017)

sneekypeet said:


> DFI was the better board anyways (OPINION)


I've made builds with both ABIT and DFI and never had a problem with either. As an electronics technician, I tend to be a bit anal about soldering techniques, lead terminations and some of the finer details and it always seemed DFI did a better job in those areas. And while not an indication of quality or reliability, the DFIs just were more pleasing to look at aesthetically.

I forgot all about Epox - or rather EPoX - which apparently is still around. Tyan is another you no longer hear about.


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## dorsetknob (Jul 29, 2017)

Bill_Bright said:


> Tyan is another you no longer hear about.



Still Big and with good Rep in the server/workstation World


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## Norton (Jul 29, 2017)

Bill_Bright said:


> I forgot all about Epox - or rather EPoX - which apparently is still around. Tyan is another you no longer hear about.


*Soyo* made some nice stuff _back in the day_ also iirc


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## Bill_Bright (Jul 29, 2017)

dorsetknob said:


> Still Big and with good Rep in the server/workstation World


That's true. They do still make good server boards, which reminds me of SuperMicro. 

Yeah - Soyo too.


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## WhiteNoise (Aug 7, 2017)

looking through some old pictures and look what I found...my old Abit KD7 board. I think I had a AMD Athlon 1GHz AXIA in there too.


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## Bones (Aug 7, 2017)

Have several boards from each here. 
I also have enough of them I'll never be short a board with either make and also have a working Soyo from way back too - Bought it brandnew in 2002 and it's still kicking after all these years.


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## R-T-B (Aug 7, 2017)

Bill_Bright said:


> That's true. They do still make good server boards, which reminds me of SuperMicro.
> 
> Yeah - Soyo too.



Speaking of which, SuperMicro has been dipping its toes in consumer waters lately...


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## FYFI13 (Aug 7, 2017)

They went bankrupt, just A Bit


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## Solaris17 (Aug 7, 2017)

I miss Albatron too back in the day miss you socket A


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## vega22 (Aug 7, 2017)

sneekypeet said:


>



this image should be on every page imo


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## johnnyfiive (Aug 8, 2017)

Speaking of DFI...

https://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/2231/station-i7

Still my favorite board of all time, the LANParty UT-T3eH8.


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## Solaris17 (Aug 8, 2017)

johnnyfiive said:


> Speaking of DFI...
> 
> https://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/2231/station-i7
> 
> Still my favorite board of all time, the LANParty UT-T3eH8.



I had one of those it was my baby.


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## yogurt_21 (Aug 11, 2017)

Ah for a bit there EpoX and Soyo were the only board makers with purple pcbs. It was unique and fun to scheme around. 

Abit you think of more in the Pentium 4/Athlon XP days Their boards were king back then.

DFI was more in the Athlon 64/X2 days prior to Conroe. Those mosfets were huge and those boards could pump more voltage through nearly everything (northbridge, southbridge, cpu, memory, etc) It was extreme and you could hit max clocks, but it was easy to fry your rig. 

In the end Conroe's instantaneous 4GHZ made it difficult for DFI to set itself apart. First AMD stops being competitive and then every jim bob mobo company could hit great clocks on even lowend boards on Conroe.

I really never liked the color scheme of the Lanparty myself. I just couldn't get enough components to match. 

Asus/Gigabyte were of course around this whole time but I can't help think that they survived because they could pump out more generic boards than any of the others (and they diversified their businesses)

But it does seem like the best board makers all shut up shop long ago. (that or went enterprise)


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## qubit (Aug 11, 2017)

TheLostSwede said:


> You guys should try asking people that worked there at the time. I know quite a few, but they don't hang out here as far as I know.
> 
> From what I've read here, it seems only about a third of what really went on is "public" knowledge and I don't know all the details, but the main reason that Abit went bankrupt was because one of the owners took a fair chunk of money and absconded to China.
> This was after the management had done some questionable investments and what not, which they were under investigation for, as mentioned. Without any money and the main owner gone, it's hard to operate a company.
> ...


Yeah, I loved that brand as well and got their Guru Clock to go with a couple of their motherboards. Nice little monitoring and overclocking gadget that supported BIOS profiles. Oh and those orange motherboards...
It's disgusting how that company was run into the ground due to fraud/dishonest practices with the money. They were something special.



sneekypeet said:


> Simply put, ABIT couldn't continue making mainstream motherboards! Who cares why, DFI was the better board anyways (OPINION)


I remember seeing reviews of some of their boards and the overclocking options were second to none, especially for memory tuning. I don't think even Abit had as many options. I was considering buying one back in late 2011 when I got my current Sandy Bridge system, but they'd just got out of the motherboard business.


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## INSTG8R (Aug 11, 2017)

Still got my AT-8 32X and IP-35 Pro in the closet. Miss Abit a lot.


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## Artas1984 (Aug 11, 2017)

Every time i would watch those Abit, Foxconn or DFI X38/X48 boards my saliva would drop down. I wanted them so badly back in the day!

Do you remember Abit sponsoring Fatal1ty's gaming rigs for multiplayer championships back in the old days? Who remembers that? Before Asrock overtook that mission.


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## jlewis02 (Aug 11, 2017)

Still have an abit nf7-s v2 with bh-5 memory and a 2500+ the first one I had was volt modded and had heatsinks everywhere.


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## Hood (Aug 12, 2017)

sneekypeet said:


> Cleaned and edited the thread of the back and forth about who is right and wrong. Simply put, ABIT couldn't continue making mainstream motherboards! Who cares why, DFI was the better board anyways (OPINION)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Very nice, the heat sinks are functional and ugly, unlike more recent boards, which prize looks at the expense of effectiveness.  Maybe we'll see some X299 or X399 boards with decent, functional coolers on the VRM and chipset, now that it's a "thing" (click bait, mostly).


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## R-T-B (Aug 12, 2017)

Hood said:


> Maybe we'll see some X299 or X399 boards with decent, functional coolers on the VRM and chipset, now that it's a "thing" (click bait, mostly).



What's clickbait?  The heatsinks being offered, or the core issue?

Honestly, I don't see either as click bait.  Both new HEDT platforms need heatsinks and initially (Intel at least), was getting pathetic ones.


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## Hood (Aug 12, 2017)

R-T-B said:


> What's clickbait?  The heatsinks being offered, or the core issue?
> 
> Honestly, I don't see either as click bait.  Both new HEDT platforms need heatsinks and initially (Intel at least), was getting pathetic ones.


I meant the original der8auer video titled "The X299 VRM Disaster", which was hardly a disaster, more like "click bait", since he was doing extreme overclocking on a mid-level new untested board with no air flow.  Any self-respecting PC enthusiast from either camp was almost guaranteed to click on such a title, either to gloat, or to call BS, which is why they call it "click bait".   Wasn't he mad at Intel anyway because they quit sending him free parts, or something?


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## R-T-B (Aug 12, 2017)

Hood said:


> I meant the original der8auer video titled "The X299 VRM Disaster", which was hardly a disaster, more like "click bait", since he was doing extreme overclocking on a mid-level new untested board with no air flow.  Any self-respecting PC enthusiast from either camp was almost guaranteed to click on such a title, either to gloat, or to call BS, which is why they call it "click bait".   Wasn't he mad at Intel anyway because they quit sending him free parts, or something?



No idea, but after watching the video, I found his claims pretty legitimate beyond just extreme OCs.  Those heatsinks were suckage on wheels (especially the GIGABYTE ones, he was right to call them more "thermal insulators").

Probably why I posted the news here, heh.


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## Hood (Aug 12, 2017)

R-T-B said:


> No idea, but after watching the video, I found his claims pretty legitimate beyond just extreme OCs.  Those heatsinks were suckage on wheels (especially the GIGABYTE ones, he was right to call them more "thermal insulators").
> 
> Probably why I posted the news here, heh.


It's always been a problem when overclocking on a budget.  On low and mid-range boards it's possible to OC with the right chipset, but any experienced overclocker, much less a so-called "professional", should know that the cheaper boards should be avoided.  At least a top channel board should be used, if not a more expensive niche board like ROG Extreme or OC Formula.  They used to call this a "publicity stunt", with derision, now people pat the guy on the back and quote him like he found some amazing new "fact".


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## R-T-B (Aug 12, 2017)

Hood said:


> It's always been a problem when overclocking on a budget.  On low and mid-range boards it's possible to OC with the right chipset, but any experienced overclocker, much less a so-called "professional", should know that the cheaper boards should be avoided.  At least a top channel board should be used, if not a more expensive niche board like ROG Extreme or OC Formula.  They used to call this a "publicity stunt", with derision, now people pat the guy on the back and quote him like he found some amazing new "fact".



I don't believe better launch options were available?

Either way, way off topic now.  I understand where your coming from.  Not really for this thread though.  I know, I started it.


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## Athlonite (Aug 12, 2017)

m0nt3 said:


> They had financial trouble, got bought out by another company and were shutdown. I always loved my Abit boards, still happily own my Abit NF7-S.



YUS my fav mobo ever really great dual channel memory support and dual SATA was a great mobo lasted me an age before I finally went socket754

Neked NF7s


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## uuuaaaaaa (Aug 12, 2017)

Artas1984 said:


> Every time i would watch those Abit, Foxconn or DFI X38/X48 boards my saliva would drop down. I wanted them so badly back in the day!
> 
> Do you remember Abit sponsoring Fatal1ty's gaming rigs for multiplayer championships back in the old days? Who remembers that? Before Asrock overtook that mission.



One particular board comes to mind, the ABIT AN8 Fatal1ty SLI! Damn, those days!


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 12, 2017)

All this talk of DFI made me feel in the mood to share.........


this is the one i am using today







And this is the one my son is using







Both have W3520 running at 3.9 ghz ( 4C/8Th)





Long live socket 1366................................and may DFI live long ( in my house anyway)


@jboydgolfer

just for you...( i can take a better one if you like)


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## INSTG8R (Aug 12, 2017)




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## Artas1984 (Aug 12, 2017)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> All this talk of DFI made me feel in the mood to share.........
> 
> 
> this is the one i am using today
> ...


NOOOOO!!!! IT HURTS ME THAT SOMEONE HAS THIS SETUP!!! I AM SO PISSED OF THAT I HAD TO BUY AN ORDINARY Z97 motherboard for my Core i7 5775C!

I wanted to have this particular DFI X58 board SO FUKIN BAD! SO BAD!!! It could have lasted me for so long. With an overclocked Nehalem Core i7 to 4.5 GHz i would have still used it with my GF GTX1080!!! NOOOO!!! It's 2017 now and it's too late now!!! This is biggest regret in PC world i ever had by not having this DFI board! DFI is still my favorite MB manufacturer of all times!


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## Bones (Aug 12, 2017)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> All this talk of DFI made me feel in the mood to share.........
> 
> 
> this is the one i am using today
> ...



Gee...... Now I'm in a sharing mood so here goes. 

A good portion of the DFI's I have but clearly not all of them.




One of the NF2 Infinity boards I scored and repaired last year - Grabbed them for a song and were like new except for the bulging caps caused by being stored somewhere.




You've seen this one before..... NF2 LanParty Ultra B.


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## INSTG8R (Aug 12, 2017)

AT8-32X The box is in my storage. And can we stop with the DFI love in here, this is about Abit...


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## Bones (Aug 13, 2017)

INSTG8R said:


> AT8-32X The box is in my storage. And can we stop with the DFI love in here, this is about Abit...



Now you gonna make me breakout the Abit collection I have.... I own a few of those too.


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## R-T-B (Aug 13, 2017)

INSTG8R said:


> AT8-32X The box is in my storage. And can we stop with the DFI love in here, this is about Abit...




Last ABIT Board I owned, that there.  'Twas a pretty good board.


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## Solaris17 (Aug 13, 2017)

R-T-B said:


> No idea, but after watching the video, I found his claims pretty legitimate beyond just extreme OCs.  Those heatsinks were suckage on wheels (especially the GIGABYTE ones, he was right to call them more "thermal insulators").
> 
> Probably why I posted the news here, heh.



Probably has alot to do with Voltage and current load.

I respect him but I think the VRM problems had alot to do with HIS VRM needs.

https://valid.x86.fr/e5fd9c

My VRMs run fine.


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## rockit00 (Aug 13, 2017)

Used to have an Abit IX38-Quad GT and the DFI LanParty UT X48 T2R back in the day. Ran them side by side in Cooler Master Wave Master cases. They seemed indestructable. Great Overclockers. Started with E8400's then E8500's to E8600's. Managed to snag one of the first E8700's. I ended up with a pair of Xeon X3380's doing 4GHz in each board. Kept them until the Devils Canyons came out. Those were the good old days.


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## Kissamies (Aug 13, 2017)

Abit was my favourite manufacturer back in the day. Loved KT7A and NF7-S the most, damn Athlon/Athlon XP's clocked like mad on those!


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## uuuaaaaaa (Aug 13, 2017)

uuuaaaaaa said:


> Here it is guys my old school P4 retro build: "Purple Haze"
> I had to mod a couple of things in the case, as well as work some magic on some ramsinks and the cpu cooler!
> 
> Motherboard: Abit IC7-MAX3
> ...




My Abit IC7-MAX3 build, already posted it on another thread:

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/tpus-nostalgic-hardware-club.108251/page-148


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