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abit AB9 QuadGT Motherboard Review :: AB9 QuadGT Features
The P965 chipset supports all current Intel LGA-775 CPUs including the Core 2 CPUs like the E6700, E6600 and E4300 and the Quad Core CPUs like the QX6700. All current Intel Core CPUs use the 1066MHz FSB, but they will shortly release CPUs based upon the 1333MHz FSB. Some motherboard manufacturers have already advertised support for these CPUs, but abit has not with the AB9 QuadGT.  CPU Socket  DIMM Slots The AB9 QuadGT sports four DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Modules) sockets, which can hold up to 8GB of DDR2 non-ECC unbuffered memory. Some manufacturers advertise up to 32GB supported, but with the lack of memory modules larger than 2GB, this is a bit of a moot point. Further, the addition of memory above the 4GB level requires a 64-bit OS like Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit or Linux.  SATA ports One of the new things about the P965 chipset is the ICH8R Southbridge which controls the hard disks. The ICH8R can support up to 6 SATA devices natively, an improvement over the 4 on the ICH7R found on earlier chipsets. Also on the board are a PATA controller and a FDD controller.  PCI Express x16 slot  PCI slots  Intel Matrix Storage console Intel introduced the P965 chipset in June of last year. One of the interesting additions to this chipset is the ability to run ATI's Crossfire multi-GPU technology on it. There are two PCI Express x16 slots on the board. As the P965 chipset only has 22 PCI Express x16 lanes, meaning that the QuadGT needs to split the two lanes into x16 and x4 when running two cards in Crossfire mode.  Sound Effect  Microphone  Mixer  Audio IO  3D Audio Demo Onboard audio has improved immensely since the days of the 1W speakers included with virtually every store built computer years ago. Today every computer is sold with High Definition Audio compliant cards. HDA was introduced at the same time as Intel's LGA-775 CPUs and the 925X platform. The AB9 QuadGT has a Realtek ALC883 CODEC for the onboard sound, which offers full support for HDA.  IO  RTL81105C The rear IO on this board is about the most interesting and comprehensive I've seen in a long time. abit includes a Clear CMOS switch on the rear instead of the mostly useless COM1 port found on many boards. Another interesting addition to the rear IO is two external SATA ports that are controlled by a JMB363 chip, but more on that later. Rounding out the rear IO is the RJ-45 jack for the onboard Gigabit LAN, a Fire wire port, 4 USB 2.0 ports, 6 jacks for the onboard sound and two SPDIF Out ports. Contents:Discuss This Article
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