What is the problem with Abit Motherboards?

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 10:12 am

I have an Abit motherbord right now for socket 754 that I like very much, but I am planning to change to either AM2 or C2D and need a new one. I have gathered from the forums that Abit might not be the mobo of choice for most and I wonder why? My experience with myGuru is that CrystlCPUID work, that fans may not be controllable via speedfan, but that speed can be somewhat controlled via Myguru (although not as detailed as speedfan) and that their mobo's work good. Any recent developments that I need to know about?

Arvo · Post by **Arvo** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:43 pm

Just from our little company experience:

We have used Abit mobos in our company for many years now. There's one single mobo failure - it was old KD7 or smtg, motherboards capacitors give up. No more problems with current Abit mobos in use (from NF7/socketA to KN9-Ultra/AM2).

There are some rumours that their flagship C2D motherboard - AB9 Pro had serious BIOS issues initially. We've not used that mobo yet (thereby I've no reasoned opinion), but I think when we will upgrade some PC, then we'll try C2D+Abit AB9 combo.

Some Abit motherboards had problems detecting RAM modules, esp. better ones (Corsair). Usually BIOS upgrade helped, sometimes manual parameters setting was required.

Unfortunately I don't have any overclocking data - corporate desktops are running at safe values anyway

My personal NF7 is good overclocker - but it's old and doesn't represent current Abit offerings.

nightmorph · Post by **nightmorph** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:53 pm

As far as quality goes, a few years ago Abit had some real issues; lots of their boards were pure crap. Just check the reviews and RMA horror stories on e-tailers like NewEgg.com. However, in the last year or so Abit has definitely taken steps to clean up their image and ship competitive products.

Now, speaking purely from a Linux user's point of view, Abit boards are crap because their hardware doesn't play nice at all; support for running Linux is terrible. You probably don't need to worry about that, however.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 1:51 am

Ok, so Linux users don't get to enjoy them:( Well, this will probably not be an issue^^. Except for malfunctioning hardware, is there anything else that is so negatice about them to be shunned from a silence perspective?

Arvo · Post by **Arvo** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:48 am

Abit chipset coolers are crap (just like on most other motherboards), sometimes they last month or two. Often they can replaced with passive ones - depend on chipset and on PC usage pattern (gaming vs coding or smtg).

If you'll get mobo with "Silent OTES" (passive chipset cooling with heatpipe), then no problems with that. Of course you have to think about creating enough good airflow over this cooler - some nForce4 SLI based board owners were not very happy about Abit solution, northbridge did overheat. Latest versions of nForce chipset run somewhat cooler, I've not heard big problems with these.

dfrost · Post by **dfrost** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:02 am

I'm quite pleased my Abit AI7 (socket 478 motherboard), and particularly like the FanEQ function that supplies variable DC voltages (not PWM-variable) to two fan headers independently, depending on user-defined temperatures. Just wish that the voltage range went below 8V. I believe that the newer Abit boards typically control more headers, and some headers allow voltages down to 6V. Not sure if this function is only available on boards with "uGuru."

My complaint with this board is that the voltage regulators (PWM in Abit-speak) run pretty warm under load, but at least the temperature is reported. Epoxy-bonded heatsinksand directed air helped lots with that. And it is much better with a Northwoods P4 then a Prescott - What isn't?

I wish that more parameter-reading software like Speedfan worked with Abit sensors, but Motherboard Monitor works fine on this one, and is a considerable improvement over the cartoon-like installed version of uGuru.

Abit chipset coolers are crap (just like on most other motherboards), sometimes they last month or two.

I replaced my crappy Abit chipset fan+ heatsink from the start with a passive Zalman - it was fun (really!) fabricating a hold-down clamp from a bicycle spoke. One of my four best quieting improvements.

If I were building a new system right now, I'd start with an Abit board, and like their heatpipe chipset coolers. I've heard that Abit tends to make better Intel-CPU boards, but will be interested in any comments to that.

albatros_la · Post by **albatros_la** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:26 am

nightmorph wrote:As far as quality goes, a few years ago Abit had some real issues; lots of their boards were pure crap. Just check the reviews and RMA horror stories on e-tailers like NewEgg.com. However, in the last year or so Abit has definitely taken steps to clean up their image and ship competitive products.

Now, speaking purely from a Linux user's point of view, Abit boards are crap because their hardware doesn't play nice at all; support for running Linux is terrible. You probably don't need to worry about that, however.

I'm running Slackware linux on an Abit KV7 (VIA KT600 chipset). I don't know if nowadays Abit motherboards are better or worse than mine, but the KV7 runs good 24H a day and its embedded hardware (I mean: sound card, thermal monitoring system, ...) is full working and well configurable.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 5:43 am

dfrost wrote:I'm quite pleased my Abit AI7 (socket 478 motherboard), and particularly like the FanEQ function that supplies variable DC voltages (not PWM-variable) to two fan headers independently, depending on user-defined temperatures.

I didn't know that it existed, I thought all fan headers were PWM regulated. Is it only Abit who does this?

Schroinx · Post by **Schroinx** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 2:16 pm

No issues with my IC7-Max3, gentlemen. Removed the OTES and replaced the NB fan with a zalman HS. Runs fine with speedfan.

Rgds.
/Schroinx

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 3:32 am

Well. From experience I can now say nothing. Abit KN9SLI for AM2.

The Ugly:
ABITEQ. On my Previous board (socket754 with 3rd eye, can't remember it's name, but I bought it 2.5 years ago) it was usefull and had an ok design. Today it may well monitor fanspeeds, voltages and temperature, but it looks like crap and it can only semi-controll the 4-pin cpu-fan

The Bad:
The 4-pin cpu-fan. As allready mentioned, the only fanheader controllable with the bundled software. Who has one of these anyways?

The Good:
CrystalCPUID works like a charm. BIOS only permitts default voltage as the lowest but CPUID can go below. As low as 0.800V
Speedfan: The CPU-fan header isn't controllable via speedfan (the 4-pin one) but atleast one of the other fan-headers are. There are 3 3-pin headers and speedfan can atleast controll the one I am running my cpufan from.

Yet again, I am a very happy owner of an Abit-board:)