Abit AX8 and AX8-V?

[Mrvile]

These things have been out for almost a month already, but I haven't seen them at any vendors yet. Does anyone know when these will become available retail?

 

[Creigory]

Hey Mrville,

I found something interesting when searching for availablity of this board on the net. While browsing through the "where to buy" section I found the board on zipzoomfly.com. Here is the link:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produ...ductCode=240148

I was curious as to how I could get one of these babies so I emailed zipzoomfly.com. Here is what they had to say:



quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Customer,

According to our purchasing department, we aren't expecting a shipment until sometime later this month. We can only suggest registering for the "Back In Stock" alert so that you are notified once a shipment is received. Feel free to contact us again if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,
ZipZoomFly
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




This is good news for me and all who want to buy an Abit PCI-E board. I put my email in the "Back In Stock" alert so I can know when these get in. I suggest that if you want one you do it too

 

[DCrew1X]

ya zipzoomfly has them, just not in stock. Gameve also lists it, but again none in stock.. eastluna has it listed, again not in stock; I've been looking for a pci-express socket 939 mobo and 6800 ultra pci-express graphics card for some time now...we're just gonna have to wait; mite as well get nforce4 when it comes out (hopefully not too many bugs for the 1st batch of mobos).

 

[gobucks]

what's the AX8-V? is it a better version of the AX8, like with the new VT8251 southbridge? I sure hope so, that southbridge on the AX8 sucks. Why bother with getting a PCIe mobo if you can't get any of the goodies that the other new chipsets have? nForce4 Ultras will probably hit retail first, anyways, and it's got way more stuff. (Some site in germany is listing the MSI ones now, and they have replied that they expect to have them in stock by early next week.)

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

The AX8-V is a cheaper version, probably without stuff like Gigabit and Firewire, black FDD/ATA cables and other small stuff.

The VT8237 is still a very good southbridge; the only thing I'm looking forward in the VT8251 is NCQ (Sata-II) support, as I don't really need the high-def audio (that no other A64 chipset supports, btw).

 

[The Assassin]

then what is the AX8 3rd eye?

 

[arswihart]

I don't know but it looks so hot right now

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

Originally posted by: The Assassin
then what is the AX8 3rd eye?

It's the AX8 with the "Guru Clock" packaged.

 

[arswihart]

these will be nice, i just they refresh this with a AX8 v.2 or something with the new VIA southbridge for HD Audio, SATA-II NCQ, anything else?

 

[gobucks]

FYI, the new VT8251 southbridge doesn't support SATA-II, only NCQ. I think the PRO version will be the first mobo to support that one. Until then, I just don't think this mobo is gonna cut it for me. As for the Pro, I don't expect it soon, either. Originally it was supposed to launch soon after the low end version, but now VIA won't say anything at all, presumably because of delays and problems with the new tech like PCIe and SLI.

BTW, I think the Gigabyte Nforce4 Ultra was announced a few days ago, and it's apparently supposed to actually be available soon, unlike the AX8.

 

[arswihart]

gobucks, where did you see that it doesn't support sata-II? I thought I saw somewhere that it did, but I can't find anything so far, just NCQ like you said. Not that SATA-II will really bring any benefits; as far as I understand, its kind of like going from ata-133 to ata-266, what for when the harddrives are so far below the maximum transfer rate? BTW, the Pro, from what I understand, is "pro" because of the new southbridge and sli, thats the only difference I know of. What I'm saying is, if the "pro" version has sata-II support, I think its because it has the new vt8251 southbridge

I refuse to buy a mobo for >$140, and preferably <$125, it will be nice if nvidia is aggresive with their pricing when the VIA and ATI boards are available, so that the VIA and AMD boards are even cheaper, thats where my money will be going once the reviews are in to confirum that they don't suck

 

[arswihart]

Click here to check out Intel's HD Audio standard replacing AC'97. It will be interesting to see how much better VIA's implementation of HD Audio is compared to what you see in the review I linked.

If the quality of sound playback and CPU usage during games is noticebly worse than Santa Cruz/Audigy playback, the vt8251 southbridge will not really be worth waiting for, and makes the nforce4 boards more attractive

This is because I don't have a soundcard now, and having to buy a decent one will set me back at least $40