Abit AB9-Pro: Mainstream P965 Performance and Pricing
by Gary Key on July 24, 2006 4:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Basic Performance
The performance of the board was at times in the upper segment of our roundup but mainly stayed near its performance twin, the Biostar TForce 965 Deluxe. We found the board to be a very consistent performer and extremely stable up to its current limit. We cannot say that we have reached the true limit of this board, and we await further BIOS optimizations. As with recent Abit boards we expect to see significant BIOS tuning for the performance oriented crowd after stability and/or incompatibility issues have been resolved.
This board supports up to 2.3V on the memory, which allows a fair amount of overclocking headroom with most DDR2 memory. However, we would like to see 2.4V or higher in a board of this caliber. The BIOS we tested only allows changes to four memory timing settings (the typical CAS, tRCD, tRP, tRAS values). We expect to see additional options as the BIOS matures. We believe overall that this board is a great value currently and offers what appears to be a great blend of performance and options when compared to our roundup boards. We expect great things out of Abit if they are able to release a stable yet performance oriented BIOS for this board quickly.
Overclocking
We were pleasantly surprised by our overclocking results on this board, but just like some of our other P965 boards we had to gradually increase the FSB speeds in order to reach this level. Abit has informed us they are near a 400 FSB in their internal testing and expect to exceed this level shortly with targets set to reaching 450+ FSB speeds. When we installed our X6800 and started testing for maximum FSB overclocking we were treated with a 9x369 result that indicates our board is at is limits currently. Hopefully the next BIOS will reward us with higher overclocks, though we might simply discover that the FSB ceiling on our particular board is about 370.
Test Setup
Test conditions were maintained the same, as much as possible, over the platforms tested. For better comparison standard test results (1280x1024) were run with a single NVIDIA 7900GTX on all platforms. Our high resolution game tests were run at settings of 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF with our 7900GTX card. All results are reported in our charts and color-coded for easier identification of results. All Core 2 Duo benchmarking used Corsair PC-8500 (DDR2-1066) 2GB kit at 3-3-3 timings at 2.2V. In recent months the memory market has moved from a 1GB kit to a 2BG kit being the common memory configuration. Our new DDR2 test standard is 2GB.
The performance of the board was at times in the upper segment of our roundup but mainly stayed near its performance twin, the Biostar TForce 965 Deluxe. We found the board to be a very consistent performer and extremely stable up to its current limit. We cannot say that we have reached the true limit of this board, and we await further BIOS optimizations. As with recent Abit boards we expect to see significant BIOS tuning for the performance oriented crowd after stability and/or incompatibility issues have been resolved.
This board supports up to 2.3V on the memory, which allows a fair amount of overclocking headroom with most DDR2 memory. However, we would like to see 2.4V or higher in a board of this caliber. The BIOS we tested only allows changes to four memory timing settings (the typical CAS, tRCD, tRP, tRAS values). We expect to see additional options as the BIOS matures. We believe overall that this board is a great value currently and offers what appears to be a great blend of performance and options when compared to our roundup boards. We expect great things out of Abit if they are able to release a stable yet performance oriented BIOS for this board quickly.
Overclocking
| Abit AB9-Pro | |
| Overclocking Testbed | |
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Dual Core, 2.67GHz, 4MB Unified Cache 1066FSB, 10x Multiplier |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.525V (default 1.2V) |
| Cooling: | Tuniq Tower 120 Air Cooling |
| Power Supply: | OCZ GameXStream 700W |
| Memory: | Corsair Twin2X2048-PC2-8500C5 (2x1GB) (Micron Memory Chips) |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM SATA2 16MB Cache |
| Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio) |
366x10 (3-3-3-9, 1:1) 3660MHz (+37%) |
We were pleasantly surprised by our overclocking results on this board, but just like some of our other P965 boards we had to gradually increase the FSB speeds in order to reach this level. Abit has informed us they are near a 400 FSB in their internal testing and expect to exceed this level shortly with targets set to reaching 450+ FSB speeds. When we installed our X6800 and started testing for maximum FSB overclocking we were treated with a 9x369 result that indicates our board is at is limits currently. Hopefully the next BIOS will reward us with higher overclocks, though we might simply discover that the FSB ceiling on our particular board is about 370.
Test Setup
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (X2, 2.67GHz, 4MB Unified Cache) |
| RAM: | 2 x 1GB Corsair Twin2X2048-8500C5 Tested at DDR2-800 3-3-3-9 2.2V |
| Hard Drive: | Hitachi 250GB SATA2 enabled (16MB Buffer) |
| System Platform Drivers | Intel - 8.0.1.1002 NVIDIA - 6.86 |
| Video Cards: | 1 x EVGA 7900GTX - All Standard Tests |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA 91.31 |
| CPU Cooling: | Tuniq Tower 120 |
| Power Supply: | OCZ GameXstream 700W |
| Motherboards: | ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe (Intel 975X) Intel 975XBX (Intel 975X) Abit AB9-Pro (Intel P965) ASUS P5B Deluxe (Intel P965) ASUS P5N32-SLI (nF4 SLIX16 Intel) Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe (Intel P965) Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 (Intel P965) DFI Infinity 975X/G (Intel 975X) ASRock 775Dual-VSTA (VIA PT880 PRO) |
| Operating System: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
Test conditions were maintained the same, as much as possible, over the platforms tested. For better comparison standard test results (1280x1024) were run with a single NVIDIA 7900GTX on all platforms. Our high resolution game tests were run at settings of 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF with our 7900GTX card. All results are reported in our charts and color-coded for easier identification of results. All Core 2 Duo benchmarking used Corsair PC-8500 (DDR2-1066) 2GB kit at 3-3-3 timings at 2.2V. In recent months the memory market has moved from a 1GB kit to a 2BG kit being the common memory configuration. Our new DDR2 test standard is 2GB.
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Zebo - Monday, July 31, 2006 - link
I do not understand not finding the MAX FSB of these Conroe Boards by lowering multiplier to say 6-7. Many of us want to buy a Yugo(E6300) and make a Mercedes (3000Mhz +) and with these crappy sub 400Mhz bus speeds shown here: http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/abitab9proupdat...">http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/abitab9proupdat...We will be unable to do so. The very best board there can crank a E6300 up to 2800Mhz? Yes or No? No probably but we will never know based on your limited info.
Tujan - Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - link
What is the least wattage power supply that would be used with these boards. For examples sake,the Abit board just reviewed ?700 watts is fairly large wattage. I would like to use a 450 watt high efficiency unit. Or 500 watt at the most.
Whats the 'least' wattage power supply that you might use.? Considering you wouldn't be doing any of the tweaks,that is running the board at factory stats. [1]?
This board is going to cost how much ? [2] Is this board in the same range as the 975s from Intel ? Or within the same range as the 945 MBs wich run the Pentium,Pentium Ds (Prescotts)?
Gary Key - Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - link
What CPU? Conroe/Pentium D and a X1900XT would still justify 500w range if you expect to upgrade to the next generation video card and also overclock. Conroe and a 7800GT as an example would be fine with a high quality 400~450w power supply and still allow decent headroom for overclocking.
A high quality 400w power supply would be fine, depending on the 12V rails a 350w might suffice with zero overclocking and a 7600 / X1600 level video card, all of this depends on the number of drives, cooling, and cards you add-on.
At this point, $140, probably come down $125 as more boards are introduced in this price range.
Tujan - Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - link
Thanks for reply. Yes probably an Antech power supply. True Power,or Smart Power HE unit. Most of my regards in builds doesn't dismiss the overclocker market. Still it is good to know what the normal configuration will require.7600GT,or 1600XT, Maybe a single large Sata,or two high-end Sata 3s in Raid 0. USBs in use,keyboard etc. 2 gigs of Ram. Core Duo 6300 . Creative latest sound card. DVD /DVD writer.
144$,.. not bad for sure.
xsilver - Monday, July 24, 2006 - link
does this uguru bios allow on the fly overclocking without reboot? (in windows)actually do all motherboards pretty much allow that these days?
Gary Key - Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - link
It normally does, testing a new version now that works with the latest bios and P965. Hopefully, I can report on it before the 965 roundup.DigitalFreak - Monday, July 24, 2006 - link
7 slot motherboards? First it dropped to 6 slots, and now it's down to 5! With dual slot GPU coolers becoming commonplace, we need all the slots we can get.monsoon - Monday, July 24, 2006 - link
I know you CONROE overclocking dedicated article is still on the way; I just wanted to mention I'm one among those who would rather see the E6600 results rather than the E6700 or other, if we have to choose one CPU only....Also, do you think an overclocking comparison between MEROM and CONROE ( and YONAH ) is coming in the future ?
Thanks for another great article; I'll be drooling until one of those chips is in my hands...
;)
JarredWalton - Monday, July 24, 2006 - link
Right now, E6600 chips would top out at the same spot on most motherboards. The boards are holding back the E6700, not the CPU - except for the ASUS P5WDH, of course. So until the companies can get better OC'ing BIOS versions out, you're limited to 9x367 (roughly) with this Abit board.As far as comparing Merom and Conroe overclocking, that will be a bit difficult since Merom is going to fit in a different socket and won't be available for a few months more. The most we got out of Yonah on the AOpen motherboard was about 2.8 GHz, Conroe is clearly the better choice for overall performance since high end cooling is allowing people to reach 4.0 GHz and beyond. Merom could be interesting in that it will have higher multipliers so you won't need the high FSB speed support, but the inability to run Merom chips in socket 775 boards means you'll have to go for something like the AOpen board we reviewed, which is very expensive, though granted it's about the same price as most of the 975X Conroe motherboards.
dugbug - Monday, July 24, 2006 - link
Do you really think it will be two+ months before we see a merom laptop? What about sneek-preview laptops for review sites? Info on merom can't get here fast enough :)