Date: October 25th, 2004
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner, Head Editor & Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: Abit USA
<--SHOP FOR A ABIT AA8 DURAMAX 925X EXPRESS MOTHERBOARD HERE

PRODUCT PICTORIAL & WALKTHROUGH (cont'd)

The ICH6R southbridge is cooled via this small yet effective passive heatsink. With more and more data being pumped through newer chipsets, heat is a natural by product. Any Alderwood alternative without a heatsink on the southbridge should be avoided or you should buy a small heatsink to install to keep things completely stable. If you look closer at the heatsink side profile you will also see the heatsink fins actually make the ABIT name. Stare at it a bit and you will see.

To the right of the southbridge is the lone ATA-133 channel capable of running two storage devices. Above the PATA connection is the new 25pin connection used by the new Alderwood motherboards so make sure you have the adapter or have a capable power supply before you install the system.

The two independent dual channel DDR2 channels are capable of 8.5Gb/sec a piece. As with standard dual channel DDR setups, only use two exact dimms in each of the color coordinated slots. For example, for 1 Gig of memory you will have two 512meg dimms which in this case you will place one in each of the orange slots for simplification. If you upgrade to more memory, do the same for the two green slots.

The AA8 comes complete with one PCI Express x16 for your new PCI Express videocard along with three PCI Express x1 for the new PCI Express peripherals coming onto the market that are said to be replacing the older standard PCI specification. If per chance you want to use your older PCI devices, this model does have two standard PCI slots at the bottom of the motherboard.