Computer Gaming Hardware

With ABIT being abit late on making the newer X48 Intel chipset, but it is not too late for its introduction the ABIT version of the X48. Introduce yourself to the new GT3, the ABIT IX48 GT3. The ABIT company is one of the unheard of board makers, really from the ASUS and Gigabyte counterparts ABIT is on the of the guys who go low profile for a while, they go the same with ASUS , but never on the peripherals like the LCD’s and the DVD’s, more on the silicon products.

ABIT with the release of IP35 pro, is a great score from a low profile company, and with the IX48 to replace the IX38 GT3, well it is the usual step forward to all guys in the warehouse, find the better one and make it as your own, there is nothing wrong about it, everybody does it. ABIT signed of the ABIT as their high-end X series motherboards brought to you by Intel. The X48 chipset has the usual connections and specs, with the support of the Intel Extreme series, and the FSB of 1333MHz, with the standard frequency used on the GT3 is a down turn without the support of the Yolkfield CPU like the QX9770 of about 1600MHz, definitely too high for the board to support, but for the QX9650 works fine with it.

While it supports DDR3 memory, it is to that guaranteed to be over clocked to any higher than 2000MHz, yes, you can overclock it to 1600MHz, but need to tweak the voltage and the cooling problem, you can do it but for the mean time I haven’t. With the use of the QX9650, for this high-end board is a good combination, but when opting with a QX9770 chipset should be a shift in their list. With the layout of the board as the same as the IX38, one of which makes it easier to place all of the connectors, the six SATA’s in the bottom with 90 degrees angle, the memory DDR3 with the limit of 8Gbs, clear CMOS in the back and six USB ports with eSATA.

With the heat pipes, just to highlight is a fan combo in the north bridge cooling, while you think, whoa! The thing will be big, but for a fact it only just as high as the 7-in-1 audio ports, while I see other boards, which they go hay wire with their cooling phases in the board, ABIT choose a more practical but efficient way to cool the chipset. Also the use of the digital PWM, the newer version of power regulation it guarantees a stable and precise voltage count in the CPU, great for precise overclocking. Just to add, ABIT used most of their boards with digital PWM’s in the IX38 and the IP35 and the upcoming IP45, you can’t see in the IP35, they half the PWN to the analogue PWM and the digital ones. This gives a more stable overclock. With the test above specs, the memory and CPU raw performance is just above average to the OEM by about 30%, just beating the X48 series of some ASUS and Gigabyte.

With the overall performance is great all on the board, the potential flaw is the late of the release of the board and also the lack of support of most recent CPU’s like this one the earlier version of the IP35 has some problems with the support of the new 45nm CPU’s, yes it does support 1333MHz, it has some problems working together with it. Overall a great board with a good feature on digital PWM’s.