Computex 2006: Abit is back, Biostar expands, and Thermaltake dazzles
by Gary Key on June 10, 2006 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Abit: AMD Motherboards
All of the following motherboards are expected to be available within the next few weeks. Here are Abit's offerings for the various price ranges.
The AN9-32X is Abit's mainstream NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI board featuring two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132 chipset along with the AudioMax riser card. The target price is around US $185.
Abit's lone ATI AM2 board is the AT9-32X featuring the ATI Xpress 3200 and SB600 chipsets along two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132. Pricing has not been finalized but expect it to be in the US $150~$175 range.
Abit's AMD AM2 Fatal1ty board features the NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI chipset, Guru 2005, and AudioMax technology. Pricing should be around US $200 dependent upon options.
Abit's KN9-SLI board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset, Realtek ALC-883 HD audio, and will be aggressively priced in the US $115~$125 range.
The KN9 Ultra board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra chipset, passive cooling, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. Expected pricing is US $90~$105.
Last but not least is the Abit NF-M2 micro-ATX board featuring the NVIDIA GeForce 6100 chipset, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. This will be a value offering targeting the US $65~$70 price range.
All of Abit's new release motherboard products now feature passive cooling, a trend we witnessed with other manufacturers at the show. Abit will be aggressively pricing their products this summer so expect to see some very good price to performance ratios along with excellent product quality. In fact, the price targets we listed were very early estimates and could drop further at release.
The general tone around the Abit booth was one of excitement, certainly not the air of depression we witnessed last year. We were told that the first boards coming off USI assembly lines last week were approved without reservations and the quality even exceeded internal expectations. We expect to see some great products out of Abit shortly and hopefully the boards will perform as well as they look.
All of the following motherboards are expected to be available within the next few weeks. Here are Abit's offerings for the various price ranges.
The AN9-32X is Abit's mainstream NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI board featuring two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132 chipset along with the AudioMax riser card. The target price is around US $185.
Abit's lone ATI AM2 board is the AT9-32X featuring the ATI Xpress 3200 and SB600 chipsets along two additional SATA 3Gb/s ports from a Silicon Image 3132. Pricing has not been finalized but expect it to be in the US $150~$175 range.
Abit's AMD AM2 Fatal1ty board features the NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI chipset, Guru 2005, and AudioMax technology. Pricing should be around US $200 dependent upon options.
Abit's KN9-SLI board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset, Realtek ALC-883 HD audio, and will be aggressively priced in the US $115~$125 range.
The KN9 Ultra board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra chipset, passive cooling, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. Expected pricing is US $90~$105.
Last but not least is the Abit NF-M2 micro-ATX board featuring the NVIDIA GeForce 6100 chipset, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. This will be a value offering targeting the US $65~$70 price range.
All of Abit's new release motherboard products now feature passive cooling, a trend we witnessed with other manufacturers at the show. Abit will be aggressively pricing their products this summer so expect to see some very good price to performance ratios along with excellent product quality. In fact, the price targets we listed were very early estimates and could drop further at release.
The general tone around the Abit booth was one of excitement, certainly not the air of depression we witnessed last year. We were told that the first boards coming off USI assembly lines last week were approved without reservations and the quality even exceeded internal expectations. We expect to see some great products out of Abit shortly and hopefully the boards will perform as well as they look.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
27 Comments
View All Comments
soydios - Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - link
Does anybody know when we can expect to begin seeing Socket AM2 motherboards based on RD580 in the retail channels? I'm still waiting for the M2R32-MVP. =\Gary Key - Thursday, June 15, 2006 - link
End of June for MSI and ECS, probably a week or so later for Asus. These schedules might change but they are still working with ATI on bios improvements.
Pythias - Sunday, June 11, 2006 - link
Thats a lot of juice. I though the industry was headed towards power conservation....poohbear - Sunday, June 11, 2006 - link
man abit needs to drop that Fatl1ty nonsense if they're trying to cater to enthusiasts. who's gonna buy an overpriced mobo just because of some gamers name attached to it?! we're not rabid teenagers who have a loyal following to some pop star like computer geek, we're mostly in our 20s/30s, so start catering to adults w/ quality mobos that dont need some geeks name attached to it to stand out. Let the quality and features speak for themselves please, not "fatal1tys" name. have they even done any market research to see if ppl actually buy products because of this guys name attached to em?darklight0tr - Sunday, June 11, 2006 - link
I agree. In fact, I avoid any product that has the Fatal1ty name on it, no matter how good it looks. All of these companies think gamers slobber over the name Fatal1ty, when in fact they don't give a crap. We want quality products, not marketing pieces.Gary Key - Sunday, June 11, 2006 - link
I agree also, this is all marketing and you will see more FataL1y products from Zalman and others in the near future. I would just assume Abit use the color scheme on the boards, add a couple of PCI slots, lower the price, and call it a day. However, these companies assume his name has leverage in the marketplace, whether it does or not, only Abit and others will know at the end of the day.
Abit recognizes this to some degree which is why they will be promoting the Max line heavily into the upper market tier segments. While the board needs a couple of PCI slots, I can tell you it has reached 435FSB with a "B" revision Conroe. ;-)
Missing Ghost - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
sincerely, I don't see what's the big deal about the products they show. They all seem to have ugly layouts and bad design choices.cornfedone - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
All of these new, useless, over-priced mobos are intended for what? As noted by others, the mobos don't have a practical number of USABLE PCI slots, the prices are way excessive, you can bet they will have long lists of defects based on virtually all Asian designed consumer mobos shipped in the past three or more years and there will be little if any customer support for the malfunctioning mobos customers will be stuck with if they purchase these POS. Instead of fixing the defective mobos properly the mobo companies will crank out new POS to great fanfare by the hardware review sites.It's as if the mobo makers are working in a vacuum and don't care that their products do not meet consumer demands and that they don't function properly. I say they can keep their defective products as I don't need them.
koomo - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
The PC world is increasingly becoming a common consumer item, and seems just a few years away from joining VCRs and microwave ovens as disposable-when-broken houseware.Conroe and the K8L seem like logical, traditional progression along the better/faster/cheaper curve.
But now we're looking at 1000W power supplies? How will the PC gaming developers handle this, with a smaller-and-smaller piece of the overall video gaming pie requiring such power-hungry and expensive toys?
I'll take a PC game over a console any day, but I wonder it would be best to take a holiday for a year on the latest software/hardware until the future lower-energy video cards are supposedly due. And in the meantime, spend more time playing boardgames with VASSAL ;)
dhei - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
Another day, another voltron inspired case. Honestly are people buying these? Or is this some sick joke from case manufactors. I want the guy who started this trend to be fired.:)Hey Thermaltake, 1960s Sc-fi movies called, they want there computer props back.