Tech Link (Motherboard): abit AB9 QuadGT – Fully fledged P965 motherboard

Tweaktown reviews the relatively new motherboard from Abit*, their AB9 QuadGT. This board got a very good high score from the author and can overclock well too. If you are planning to get this board, check out the review and see if it fits your needs.

Final Thoughts

As far as we are concerned, we believe the guys over at Universal abit are certainly on the comeback trail and they’ll continue to improve if they continue producing motherboards like the QuadGT.

We have so far been provided three successful motherboards from them and one mediocre board, and surprisingly it was the nForce 680i. The big mother of them all that failed the QuadGT, AB9 Pro and the A8N 32X which were all smashing successes, proving ABIT can do it when it has to but they just skipped a couple of important beats with the IN9 32X-MAX Wi-Fi.

When we tested the AB9 Pro, we criticized it for its lack of Crossfire support and extra PCI Express x16 slot. Since the Intel P965 chip was given the Crossfire seal of approval, it seemed a big shame to not put that to use. Finally ABIT has really listened and started to put boards out that people want, not telling people what they want. The latest P965 motherboard from ABIT not only see dual graphics support but further additions such as an extra e.SATA port, better heat pipe cooling, better stability and durability through the use of solid state capacitors and digital PWM and the list goes on.

One thing we must really criticise if the placement of the FDD connector - I mean come on, how hard is it to place it behind the memory sockets, Gigabyte does it, ASUS does it, time to shape up on that one ABIT and get that fixed. Sure, rarely the aging floppy drive is used these days but it does add a slightly sour note to an overall very impressive motherboard.

Overall though the placement of the FDD connector didn’t overshadow the great performance, very impressive features and solid package and we’d be silly not to recommend the ABIT AB9 QuadGT in a very high regard. It’s up there as one of the best Intel P965 motherboards on the market and it’s also cheaper than the Gigabyte DQ6 in Australia by about 15 - 20%.

Source:abit AB9 QuadGT – Fully fledged P965 motherboard

Tech Link (Chipset): Intel P35 "Bearlake" Chipset Performance Preview

TweakTown manage to put together a preview of benchmarks for the upcoming Intel P35 chipset, codenamed BearLake. The chipset puts a good showing on the series of benchmarks, and it's looking like a killer chipset for the performance FanBoys. Check it out...

Final Thoughts
While we have only got our hands on the first working silicon of Intel’s P35 Bearlake-P chipset, we are extremely impressed with it so far.

Intel has put a lot of work into this chipset by the design of it, and with more on the way we can only hope things do get even better. Intel is looking like they are setting themselves up for a great run for the remainder of 2007 and into next year with their upcoming Yorkfield and Wolfdale processors. And with massive price drops on the horizon for upcoming Intel processors since all Dual Core processors will become mainstream parts making room for Quad Core as premium high-end, it’s only going to mean good things for Intel. For instance, the E6850 processor will debut with a street price around $266 USD which is around 75% cheaper than what the X6800 was selling for and you’re getting a processor platform which is able to perform faster.

One thing that was very limited in this silicon revision was its overclocking. By default the motherboard supports 333MHz FSB but we only managed to get it to 350MHz and this wasn’t 100% stable. This wasn’t anything to do with the board itself, as our board was supplied with plenty of overclocking tweaks, just that the chipset is of first silicon and not ready for full release yet. As we said, the P35 is based on 65nm process technology and once it’s fully ready for public consumption, we expect it to perform as least as well as Intel P965 in FSB overclocking.

Intel’s Bearlake will soon make its debut onto the motherboard market with the P35 first to market with the G33 and G35 soon to follow for the value segments. X38 will be the big thing but don’t expect that till late in Q3 of 2007 when DDR-3 memory is shipping.

Looking good so far!

Source:Intel P35 "Bearlake" Chipset Performance Preview