A mid-range model ready for OC enthusiasts

Feb 8, 2007 11:34 GMT  ·  By

Abit has recently showcased a new motherboard based on the mid-range NVIDIA 650i chipset. Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI uses the older NF430 Southbridge and only comes with four SATA ports. In addition, the motherboard supports two IDE ports for the unfortunate users that still own IDE-based hard disk drives.

FP-IN9 SLI remains true to the series' red PCB, featuring black components and a newly adopted quiet approach that that does not include any cooling fans. Thus, previous 40mm fans have been replaced with extra-wide and highly efficient heat sinks, which separately cool the North- and Southbridge, creating a totally silent motherboard solution that can still take a bit of overclocking. In the same manner, Abit decided to void the new motherboard of any heatpipes, and this may lead to the formation of local hotspots. The board is also equipped with a rather old school mini-PCB lane switcher, which is supposed to make the board cheaper. Quality components, such as solid state capacitors and Japanese caps were included in order to reduce heat and offer the most stable voltage regulation, thereby increasing performance while extending product life even under the most stressful conditions.

Abit made sure that the new board runs faster than its peers, integrating a supercharged, factory overclocked system bus in order to unleash the hidden powers of a dual-core or quad-core Intel CPU. As far as Gigabit Ethernet is concerned, the new motherboard features the innovative FirstPacket Technology from NVIDIA, which lets users connect directly to high speed Internet and Local Area Networks, while actively reducing latencies in online play. This innovative technology selectively prioritizes network packets used by online games, giving users the lowest ping times and the best online game experience available.

The board is RoHS compliant and is supposed to compete with the exceptionally inexpensive P5N-E SLI model from Asus.