PCSTATS     
[X]   Directory of
Guides & Reviews

Beginners Guides
Motherboards by Brand
Weekly Newsletter
Archived Newsletters

ABIT AN8-SLI nForce4-SLI Motherboard Review
ABIT AN8-SLI nForce4-SLI Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
Hardware goodies include IEEE 1394 firewire, a Gigabit NIC, a stand-alone 7.1 channel AC'97 audio card, a Port 80 diagnostics card.
 84% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: ABIT Aug 16 2005   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > ABIT AN8-SLI

7-Channel Audio and Overclocking!

You may have noticed the little black slot just above the first PCI Express x1 slot. It's for a bundled Realtek ALC850 AC'97 audio card that comes with the AN8-SLI - and the jack is proprietory so that's also all it can be used with it. Looking at the specs for the sound card we see that the chipset supports 7.1 channel audio which means it is compatible with higher end computer speaker systems. The Realtek ALC850 also sports a SPDIF output, so go right ahead and hook up a digital audio device via an optical cable.

While the quality of AC'97 audio has increased over the years, it is still no match for dedicated audio hardware controllers. Anyone who thinks onboard audio sounds as good or is as versatile as say an Audigy 2 class sound card is simply nuts. ;-)

When using the AudioMAX 7.1 sound card with the ABIT AN8-SLI, I noticed a slight buzz from my headphones when the volume was turned up all the way, even though no sound was being played. Also when listening to some classical instrumental music, again with the volume level turned up high, the lows seemed to be distorted. At more moderate volume levels, the audio quality sounded decent, however when I 'm gaming or watching a DVD on my computer, I like to turn up the sound...

Less noticeable with a high powered AMD Athlon64 4000+ system, is how much CPU power the Realtek ALC850 saps - it's the codec, so the audio controller duties are offloaded to the CPU.

For a quick comparison, I grabbed a two year old Mad Dog Entertainment 7.1-channel DSP PCI sound card (which features the VIA Vinyl audio hardware controller) and compared Doom 3 results. With audio disabled entirely on the ABIT AN8-SLI the frame rate was 124.6FPS, with the Mad Dog Entertainment PCI sound card frame rates were 122.3FPS. With the ABIT AudioMAX 7.1 sound card and its Realtek ALC850 codec, the frame rates fell to 117.4FPS.

Compared to a diabled audio setup, the ABIT AudioMAX 7.1 saps about 6% of the CPU power, overall not a bad sacrifice to have audio. The real surprise (well not really) was compared to the dedicated sound card, the AudioMAX 7.1 uses an additional 4% more system power. Again this won't be noticeable on a high end Athlon64 4000+ machine but can be devastating on a slower rig. In any case the AudioMAX 7.1 is pretty neat, and it gets the job done. Still, wherever possible PCSTATS recommends using a hardware-controller based audio solution.

Does ABIT = Overclocking?

Overclocking Results:
stock max. oc
motherboard speed: 200 mhz

343 mhz

if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers:
Overclocking the CPU and Memory
Overclocking the Videocard

Even before the motherboard was released, rumors were flying that the AN8-SLI would bring ABIT back to the overclocking forefront. Its Intel boards are pretty good, but realistically Socket 775 enthusiasts are few and far between... the game to win is in the Athlon64 world. Let's see if those rumors were founded in fact!

Before we started increasing the motherboard clock speed, I first lowered the CPU multiplier to 6x, and set the memory to run with the 166 MHz divider. With these settings, neither the CPU nor memory would hold back the board, or at least this was the plan...

Starting at 200 MHz I increased the mobo clock speed slowly in 10 MHz intervals. The ABIT AN8-SLI was a pleasure to work with and didn't pose any problems until the 260 MHz mark. At this speed, HyperTransport was causing a "67" error on the Port 80 card, and failed to POST. Lowering the HTT multiplier from 5x to 4x solved that issue. The next hurdle came at 270 MHz when the DDR memory started to flake out, causing BSOD or crashing benchmarks. This time we had to lower the divider to 100 MHz, its lowest setting.

At 290 MHz I had to raise the nVidia NF4-SLI chipset slightly to 1.7V, if I did not the AN8-SLI would occasionally BSOD while loading Windows, or lock up at the POST screen. After that, things were pretty much smooth sailing and the board coasted all the way up to 343 MHz, anything higher and the system would not POST.

343 MHz is not as high as what the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR overclocked to, but it is definitely good enough for most enthusiasts. Point one, DFI. Next up, a walk through the BIOS and then with dive right into the benchmarks!

< Previous Page © 2023 PCSTATS.com Next Page >

 

Contents of Article: ABIT AN8-SLI
 Pg 1.  ABIT AN8-SLI nForce4-SLI Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  Closer look at the AN8-SLI
 Pg 3.  — 7-Channel Audio and Overclocking!
 Pg 4.  ABIT AN8-SLI BIOS and Test Specs
 Pg 5.  Benchmarks: SYSmark 2004
 Pg 6.  Benchmarks: Winstone 2004, Winbench 99
 Pg 7.  Benchmarks: SiSoft Sandra, Super Pi
 Pg 8.  Benchmarks: PCMark04, 3DMark2001
 Pg 9.  Benchmarks: 3DMark05, Comanche 4
 Pg 10.  Benchmarks: X2: The Threat, UT2003
 Pg 11.  Benchmarks: UT2004, Doom 3
 Pg 12.  ABIT's Furthering Overclocking

 
Hardware Sections 


 
PCSTATS Network Features Information About Us Contact
FrostyTech
PCSTATS Newsletter
Tech Glossary
Technology WebSite Listings
News Archives
(Review RSS Feed)
Site Map
PCstats Wallpaper
About Us
Privacy Policy
Advertise on PCSTATS

How's Our Driving?
© Copyright 1999-2023 www.pcstats.com All rights reserved. Privacy policy and Terms of Use.