14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like the latest Intel offering on the chipsets aimed at desktop computer systems and high performance levels is doing pretty good as just a few days after its official launch date there are many motherboards based on it. While most first tier mainboard producers like Asus, Gigabyte and MSI already announced and presented products based on the Intel X38 chipset, Abit is a little late to the party as the company only now announced its X38 centered mainboard, the IX38 QuadGT Speedster.
The IX38 QuadGT Speedster mainboard from Abit comes equipped with the LGA 775 socket so it is able to accommodate Intel made central processing units that are produced using the 65 and the 45 nanometer fabrication processes. Just like the Asus made mainboards that are centered around the Intel X38 high performance chipset, the Abit product is able to handle a superior frontside bus speed of 1600MHz that is higher than the officially supported 1333Mhz rating.
As this mainboard is aimed at the gaming and enthusiast market segments it comes with solid state capacitors that should increase its reliability as well as DDR2 compatible random access memory slots that are rated for 1066Mhz memories while also integrating two full speed x16 PCI Express slots that offer support for AMD CrossFire setups. This new Abit mainboard also comes with digital PWMs that are based on the Smart-Slave technology, allowing for a much better efficiency of conventional PWMs while keeping the noise level down.
On the cooling side, just like MSI and Asus, Abit went for a copper heat pipe based passive cooling solution that is able to cool off the hottest spots of the mainboard, including the PWM area, northbridge and southbridge, while at the same time looking more slim and lightweight than other similar products.
The latest Intel compatible mainboard from Abit comes with all the normal features that users expect to see in a nowadays product including Gigabit Ethernet, six Serial ATA II ports that are offering integrated RAID capabilities as well as JBOD, eight high definition surround sound processor, 12 high speed USB 2.0 ports and a legacy Parallel ATA connector.
The Abit IX38 QuadGT Speedster mainboard is now readily available for purchase and it comes with a price tag that looks pretty good as it offers a well balanced price and performance ratio at around $200.