Conclusions on the AN8 32x

ABIT is a sentimental favorite for many old school overclockers, and with the recent merger with Universal Scientific Industries ABIT lives on.

The new ABIT AN8 32X takes off where the older ABIT AN8-SLI left off, dishing out faster SLI support and an additional Serial ATA II controller as well. Of course because the motherboards are based on the same design, the quirks that popped up with the AN8-SLI are still present with the AN8 32X.

The nForce4 SLI x16 chipset is a small evolutionary step above the nForce4 SLI chipset that we all known and love. With the help of the C51D Northbridge, the nForce4 SLI x16 allows two nVIDIA videocards to run in SLI mode with each card able to access 16 PCI Express lanes. It may not make much of a difference right now, but as future generation PCI Express videocards start to chew up more bandwidth it will.

	experts tip: double check your drivers
	so much for unified motherboard drivers... when searching nvidia's website for driver updates for the nForce4 SLI x16, make sure you download the right driver. While that might sound strange, the nForce4 SLI driver will install on nForce4 x16 platforms (and vice versa) however it's possible that the wrong driver could cause compatibility problems. Pay attention to which driver package is being downloaded and it can save headaches.
	Comments and Feedback? Suggest a Tweak.

Like all other flagship motherboards, the ABIT AN8 32X is a very quick board that can handle the most intensive applications there are. From 2D workstation office style apps to the latest 3D games, if you give the ABIT AN8 32X the supporting cast it deserves, it will make things fly.

This ABIT motherboard held up very well against the DFI LANPartyUT NF4 SLI-DR Expert and MSI K8N Diamond Plus, both of which are two of the fastest boards on the market.

The ABIT AN8 32X BIOS has good overclocking and voltage options, enough to keep hardcore enthusiasts happy for quite some time. The results with this board were a mixed bag, and our overclock of 280 MHz while respectable is less than we would have expected from one of ABIT's flagship parts.

With a retail price of $208 CDN ($178 USD, $102 GBP), the ABIT AN8 32X motherboard is aggressively priced compared to other nForce4 SLI x16 motherboards, and that gives it an edge. The ABIT AN8 32X has all the hardcore options overclockers expect, and is a great alternative to the usual DFI dominated based Athlon64 setups.

Find out about this and many other reviews by joining the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today! Catch all of PCSTATS latest reviews right here.

Related Articles
Here are a few other articles that you might enjoy as well...
- Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS Motherboard Review
- ASRock 939NF4G-SATA2 Geforce 6100 Motherboard Review
- Asus A8N-VM CSM GeForce 6150 Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GV-K8N51PVMT-9 Geforce 6150 Motherboard Review
- DFI LANParty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert Motherboard Review