Abit AB9 Motherboard Review

The Abit AB9 motherboard has been around for awhile, so it's nothing new. However, recently I have had quite a few people asking about motherboards for a solid office / home office computer. This is one board that I have no hesitations recommending. It is priced nicely at around $80 or so, and has quite a few connections as we'll see. The only catch on this board is that it does not support the Intel Quad Core processors, but if you are looking to build an office computer, a Core 2 Duo will provide plenty of processing power.

Board Features

The ABit AB9 sports the Intel P965 chipset which will take Intel processors including Core 2 Duo, Pentium 4, Pentium D, and Celeron D in the LGA775 socket. Processor front side bus speeds up to 1066 are supported, with the board's front side bus running at 1066Mhz. As mentioned, the Northbridge uses the P965 chipset, while the Southbridge is using the ICH8R chipset. The board can use up to 8GB of DDR2 800 memory in up to 4 slots.

Onboard the Abit AB9 you get all of the following:

• 4 DIMM slots with support for up to 8GB memory
• 1 PCI-e 2.0 slot running at x16 speed
• 2 PCI-e x1 slots
• 2 PCI slots
• 1 IDE connection
• 9 SATA connections
• RAID support for SATA 0, 1, 5, and 10
• 8 channel HD audio
• One Floppy drive connection

The back panel connections on the Abit AB9 will give you a nice selection of connections:

• PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports
• 4 USB ports
• Optical S/PDIF port
• 6 Audio ports
• 6 additional onboard USB ports for front panel connections
• Dual RJ-45 Gigabit LAN ports

One of the nice features of the Abit AB9 is the wealth of cables that are included. A lot of lower priced motherboards will save some money by not including very much in the way of cabling, but the AB9 throws in the following:

• 6 SATA cables
• 1 IDE cable
• 1 FDD cable
• 1 PSI bracket for back panel USB / Firewire connections
• Guides and layout diagrams
• Driver and Utilities CD

For the most part, the board is laid out pretty nicely. The 24 pin power connector is easily accessible, as are the 4 DIMM slots for RAM. Abit uses what they call "SilentOTES" for cooling the Northbridge, with a heatpipe running to the PWM on the board. It's an odd name, but it actually works very well. The only exception on the layout is the IDE connection placement. It's stuck in-between the PCI and PCI-E slots, which can be a hassle for running cables. However, if you are building a PC from scratch, chances are you won't need an IDE connection, and can do everything with SATA.

The AB9 is also ROHS compliant, with a lead-free manufacturing process. The Phoenix BIOS is pretty straight forward and easy to use, and it is displayed in a nice shade of pink. Go figure that one.

Conclusion

For the money, this board is a great buy. If you are looking to build an office or home office computer, this board will provide a nice base for the system. The fact that it has been on the market for awhile now means that you will get a nice solid BIOS which will provide system stability.

Pros:

• Great price
• Cables and connectors included with the board will cover your needs
• Good value for the money
• Multiple USB and SATA connections
• Great board for overclocking

Cons:

• Poor IDE connection placement
• Lack of PCI-e x4 slots

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