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Abit has new boards and a brighter outlook?
Author: Richard SwinburnePublished: 6th March 2008
The Abit IX48 MAX, as show to us at CeBIT 2008.
Both will have a standard 8-phase CPU power regulation, without any extra “power efficient” features like the competition. The IP35 is also getting a relaunch into the “XE” model which features support for 1,600MHz FSB instead of your standard 1,333MHz.
The MAX range is still alive and kicking too – the IX48 MAX will launch without a heatpipe and instead will have separate north, south and power regulation heatsinks. To compensate for this the northbridge now has a fan. We were told that enthusiasts will often change the northbridge cooler, so heatpipes were a hindrance, not a value-add.
The CPU gets a five phase digital PWM power system like the IX38 Quad GT, but a black PCB and extra features like the Realtek ALC888 Dolby Digital sound chipset and a funky new black box it’s packaged in.
Abit’s mainsteam range is still alive too – it has the new Nvidia 8200 and AMD 780G IGP motherboards which both come with HDMI, Hybrid SLI or CrossFire, four phase CPU power but also a somewhat unappealing orange-brown PCB instead. While the blue and black PCB boards from the Pro's, GT3's and MAX's get all solid aluminium capacitors - in comparison, the mainstream range looks far cheaper.
Apart from Abit’s ‘wares, we were also alerted that the UK office has lost all but one person and has effectively shut down. To RMA a board now you have to send it directly to the Netherlands instead – while we were told this should prove a faster turnaround time, it’s also more expensive for us end users to ship it out of the country. So while there were a lot of smiles from (most of) the Abit crowd here in CeBit, it still looks like tough times ahead for UK customers. Tell us what you think in the forums.
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Comments (16)
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Oh and have they given any reson as to why they lost all but one of their staff?
I've put it down to making it appeal to the mass market more, I wonder if more money is spent on the Intel variants, since the enthusiast and home computer market seem intent on Intel based computers at the time being.
they went through lots of financial trouble and are still trying to recover... so people most likely left in search for a job with a smaller risk of the company going down.
As for the office being down to 1 person I suspect that it's down to abit Europe cost-cutting rather than people voluntarily leaving - shame as UK tech support/RMA was very good.
your referring to this part?
it says its two different boards and the hybrid doesnt mean it supports both sli and crossfire, but that it supports hybrid sli (which is mixing nvidia onboard graphics and nvidia dedicated graphics).
I do worry about us being left only with Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, ECS & Foxconn for mainstream retail mobos though (I even have doubts about MSI).
Look at all the others that have gone (Soltek, Soyo etc.), retreated into a niche (Shuttle, Albatron etc.) or are hard to find (at least in the UK Biostar & DFI).
so did Richard ask my question: have they get their act together and caught up with Asus/Gigabyte with I/O stability and speed?
(eg, front panel USB don't seems to be able to supply my portable HDD enough power even WITH 2 USB ports. and front IO seems slower than rare IO pannels)
but boooooooo for now UK RMA, this was one of the reason i bought Abit
http://www.bit-tech.net/news_images/2008/03/abit_has_new_boards_and_a_brighter_outlook_/abit-3.jpg
not sure about sideways, but im sure a TRUE will fit vertically.
many, many thanks Richard!