Abit AX8 review

Verdict:

Review Date: 21 Jul 2005

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: David Ludlow

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Abit's AX8 is based on VIA's K8T890 chipset. While this chipset might not have as many features as its nVidia-based rivals, it is a lot cheaper.

The AX8 has a decent range of options. It supports Socket 939 AMD processors and dual-channel DDR memory over four DIMM slots. We tested it with an Athlon 64 3400+ and 1GB of memory in a dual-channel configuration. It scored 130 in our application benchmarks and 4,421 in PCMark04, significantly better than our reference computer, and way ahead of Biostar's iDEQ 330P, which is reviewed opposite.

Hardware error detection is easy as there is an LED readout on the motherboard. This gives you an error code that you can look up in the manual. However, we had a bit of trouble installing Windows, as our Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk wasn't detected by the installer. To get it working, we had to use the driver floppy disk provided as the installer doesn't recognise other media. This was fine for us, but if you don't have a spare floppy disk drive you could be in trouble.

Once in Windows, Abit's driver CD provides all you need to get up and running, including the Guru overclocking software. Using this utility, you can adjust your processor's speed. However, this is only recommended for those who are comfortable with overclocking.

This is a well-priced motherboard that supports all recent Socket 939 Athlon 64 processors.

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