Layout
Packaging has always been a major distinguishing factor of whether a board has got attitude or not. They always say you can judge the book by its cover. That’s why most manufacturers put a lot of effort designing the box that comes with their motherboard. The ABIT Fatal1ty board is no exception. The Fatal1ty AA8XE comes in a black box with the Fatal1ty logo emblazoned in the center. Opening the fliptop box cover, you will find the “BUILT TO KILL” trademark and windowed cutouts showcasing some of the unique features of the board like DUAL LAN, ABIT OTES AEROFLOW and ABIT DUAL OTES. The motherboard itself is encased in a shockproof, antistatic, clear plastic container for further protection from accidental damage on the box during transit. Everything is neatly laid inside the box.
As with most ABIT boards, the PCB is always color coded for aesthetics reasons. With the Fatal1ty AA8XE, ABIT chose to use black and red as their motif. This color combination makes the board look dangerous and bad. Some might find the combination not to their liking but then again it all goes down to personal preference. As for us, we definitely like what ABIT has done on this board color-wise.
The cpu socket is your usual LGA775. It is surrounded by mosfet heatsinks hiding under the OTES housing. It is designed so that the airflow coming from the cpu fan would also be directed straight into the mosfet heatsinks with the heat being exhausted at the back via the 2 OTES fans. There is the presence of 4 holes around the socket for bigger aftermarket heatsinks and waterblocks. In our case, we used a good sized waterblock and encountered no problems whatsoever. However, those planning on using bigger aircoolers or waterblocks might have some issues when it comes to clearance. This is due to the restriction created by the OTES housing surrounding the area around the socket.
The ATX power supply header is located on the bottom center of the PCB and is directly below the DIMM slots. This is a very good position as there is less clutter caused by power cables resulting in better airflow inside the case. Note that it uses the new ATX 2.0 standard, thus, the 24 pin configuration. Don’t despair though as this board is also backward compatible to the old 20-pin PSUs. So no need to upgrade those old power supplies yet. There is also the presence of a +12v connector typical of all Pentium 4 boards. It is situated on the right side of the board just beside the DIMM slots.
The ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE uses the latest 925XE chipset which supports four DDR2 DIMMs up to 4Gb maximum. The DIMM slots are also color coded for easy Dual Channel DDR2 configuration. The memory DIMMs also employ an ABIT first integrated memory cooling system called OTES RAMFlow. This unit has an overhead fan that actively cools the modules and their heatspreaders from the above. The only problem with this is that the only free fan header for this unit is located on the left topmost part of the board away from the DIMMs. You have to run the fan wire across the other side before you can power it. Luckily for us, because we are using watercooling, the cpu fan header is free and it is just beside the DIMMs. So no more running the wire across the PCI Express card. Also, they could have gone all out by placing some red LEDs on this cooler as well. But that's just me.
Clearance between the PCI-Express card and the DIMM slots is okay. There is enough room for you to add and remove RAM without having to remove the graphics card. It also comes equipped with a lock which is quite handy when moving your rig from place to place as in the case of LANs.
There are 2 PCI slots, 2 PCI-E x1 slots and one PCI-E x16 slot. The PCI-E graphics slot delivers up to 8GB/s per direction for 3.5 times more bandwidth than AGP8X. There is also the presence of an Audio Riser port for the included audio riser card.
The board supports only 1 UDMA 100/66/33 connector and 4 x SATA 150 connectors. SATA Matrix RAID is also supported.
Dual LAN capability is included in this board. It uses Intel’s Gigabit LAN (i82541PP) and 10/100Mbps LAN (i82562EZ). This is a great feature with a lot of use in the gaming and office environment by providing blistering speeds for file transfers and low latencies for internet gaming.
Firewire is provided by Texas Instrument's TSB43AB23 chip. This IEEE1394 chip provides up to 400Mbps transfer rate. A total of 3 firewire ports is supported with this board. Included in the package is a USB/Firewire bracket.
This board of course features ABIT’s uGURU technology. µGuru integrates a hardware microchip which interacts with Windows-based software applications to maximize PC performance and stability, while allowing for zero CPU usage. µGuru features ABIT AutoDrive™ overclocking, advanced audio features, auto FAN speed control, self-diagnostic H/W monitoring, one click BIOS updating, and 24 hours e-service. µGuru combines ABIT EQ, OC Guru, FlashMenu and BlackBox applications with a user-friendly interface, providing users perfect environment for performance and stability. For a full understanding of the uGURU technology, go here.
Onboard Audio is integrated in the ICH6R southbridge chipset. It utilizes Intel’s High Definition Audio CODEC via the Realtek ALC880D chip. It supports new entertainment formats such as 7.1 surround sound, Dolby* Digital, and DTS*. Audio codec support for 192 kHz quality, multiple streams, and better voice input for speech recognition and voice-over-IP. It also supports auto jack sensing and optical S/PDIF In/Out. This is also the first motherboard with Dolby Digital Live support bringing games to life. An included Audio Riser card that houses all digital and analog inputs and outputs is provided in the package. AudioMAX technology reduces noise interference from high frequency signals with this independent audio riser card for outstanding 7.1-channel quality.
There is a total of 4 fan headers on the motherboard which you would think is adequate for an enthusiast board. But note that 2 headers are being exclusively used by the OTES fans and the northbridge fan leaving just 2 available fan headers. Place the cpu fan and the OTES RAMFlow fan and you are without a free fan header.
This board also features on-board ultra-bright red LEDs integrated underneath the PCB that lights up the board’s surroundings. LEDs are also located around the inners of the OTES cooling system. This gives a great light effect for those with windowed cases. Case modders delight.
Another feature that will surely be welcomed by the hardcore enthusiast is the placement of a power-on and reset button on the board itself. No more shorting of the pins with the screwdriver or attaching seperate power-on and reset buttons. This makes it easy for hardware testers to power up the Fatal1ty board.
You will also find a 2 digit LED display attached to the board. It is a diagnostic tool aimed at providing vital information on what’s happening to your board. It is located just below the uGURU chip. Enthusiasts will find this tool very helpful when subjecting the board to extreme overclocking. The LED displays a corresponding number, hex code, for every task and error that will occur on the board. There is a list of the meanings of each number on the user's manual as reference.
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