ABIT AT8 or ABIT AT8 32X

Nightowl225 · Aug 7, 2006, 12:11 AM

I'm thinking of getting the ABIT AT8 Motherboard. I'm having issues now with my A8R-MVP motherboard, which include random reboots, and weird video issues that I can't blame on my powersupply, memory, cpu, videocards or not having enough airflow in my case.

I'm curious if the ABIT AT8 is a decent motherboard or not. I'm also considering the ABIT AT8 32X Motherboard, I don't exactly trust ASUS anymore.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Aug 7, 2006, 01:32 AM

ASUS A8R32-MVP IS FINE, actully I might be selling mine in the next couple months...
Abit is a lesser maker, used to be awsome, but "burnt out", now looking at makeig
a come back...

A8R-MVP can be ok I got one that seems to work as it should, but the Radeon 3200
version rocks....

so get someing 3200 based, and why not wait for the AM2 boards? and do a full upgrade

Bar81 · Aug 7, 2006, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Neon_Cowboy

ASUS A8R32-MVP IS FINE

Gee, I guess you can speak for everyone

Denial isn't a pretty thing...

The AT8 32X looks to be the cream of the crop currently with regard to AMD ATI Chipset mobos as the latest BIOS appears to have fixed the major issues. Avoid the AT8 non-32X as it's a disaster from what I can gather.

Oh, and the reason you don't upgrade to AM2 is because it's a downgrade. It costs a ridiculous amount of money to buy decent DDRII and the performance "improvement" is pathetic. If he really wanted to upgrade he'd be going C2D.

Nightowl225 · Aug 7, 2006, 08:29 AM

I'm gonna get me a price on the AT8 32X, and will most likely order it today.

Nightowl225 · Aug 7, 2006, 03:10 PM

I ordered me an AT8 32X today. I'm done with ASUS. This A8R-MVP worked fine for over 6 months, and then it went to heck when it comes to Crossfire. It's stable and runs the way it should if one runs a single videocard, but when it comes to Crossfire that's another animal all together.

Until I get my AT8 32X in place, I'm going to have to limit my gaming to 2 to 3 hour sessions, and then give it a break.

The store I'm getting the my AT8 32X is allowing me to trade in my A8R-MVP, and they will give me $40.00 store credit for it.

aiya · Aug 11, 2006, 01:53 PM

did they fix the issues with the 270FSB wall and the problem with overclocking cpus with odd multiplers?

hilfiger · Aug 14, 2006, 12:24 PM

Abit is a hell of mobo.. i have the an9 and it rocks.. good choice

Nightowl225 · Aug 14, 2006, 04:26 PM

I'm not worried about overclocking on it, as I don't overclock and know enough about the bios where I can do tweaks to increase performance and stability without overclocking. I just got my AT8 32X today, and will be putting it in. A plus is that I won't have to even reinstall WindowsXP, as it uses the ULI 1575 chip for USB2 and SATA2 as the A8R-MVP.

All I will need to do yet, if doesn't have BIOS 12 on it, is flash the bios.

Bar81 · Aug 15, 2006, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aiya

did they fix the issues with the 270FSB wall and the problem with overclocking cpus with odd multiplers?

You're probably thinking of the 280 BIOS wall which could be overcome in Windows using uGuru. Anyway, it's long since been solved to my knowledge and I've never heard of anyone complaining about an odd multiplier issue.

Bar81 · Aug 15, 2006, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightowl225

I'm not worried about overclocking on it, as I don't overclock and know enough about the bios where I can do tweaks to increase performance and stability without overclocking. I just got my AT8 32X today, and will be putting it in. A plus is that I won't have to even reinstall WindowsXP, as it uses the ULI 1575 chip for USB2 and SATA2 as the A8R-MVP.

All I will need to do yet, if doesn't have BIOS 12 on it, is flash the bios.

Waiting impatiently for impressions

Judas · Aug 15, 2006, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bar81

Gee, I guess you can speak for everyone

Denial isn't a pretty thing...

?

I've both the Asus A8R32-MVP and the Abit AT8 32x

frankly i like the asus on a hell of alot better.

the Asus A8R-MVP was crap mind you.

But the Newer board with the latest bios revisoin 502 absalutely is amazing.

I'm waiting for the new bios though that resolves the ULi Raid configurations from being lost or not detecting some hardrives from a cold boot with 3gb of ram (4 sticks) installed at the same time.

Bar81 · Aug 15, 2006, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

?

I've both the Asus A8R32-MVP and the Abit AT8 32x

frankly i like the asus on a hell of alot better.

the Asus A8R-MVP was crap mind you.

But the Newer board with the latest bios revisoin 502 absalutely is amazing.

I'm waiting for the new bios though that resolves the ULi Raid configurations from being lost or not detecting some hardrives from a cold boot with 3gb of ram (4 sticks) installed at the same time.

Well, a couple of things:

(1) It would be useful if you could list in your view the pros and cons of the two boards and why you think the Asus is superior.

and

(2) as to waiting for a new BIOS from Asus, good luck. From what I've seen Asus is sticking to their claim that the board works perfectly despite substantial evidence to the contrary. The reason I dumped the board was because I got sick of waiting for updates that never came to fix its significant issues.

Judas · Aug 15, 2006, 02:43 PM

Significant issues have been fixed... i've 2 asus A8R32-MVP boards that works wonderfully with the 502 bios.

Heres the pros/cons:

Cons: Running with more then 2gb of ram (3x or more 1gb sticks or 4x of mixed sizes) generally can cause some performance tuning problems usually result of the memory. I've ran into a problem with more then 2 sticks of memory causing similare symptons.. but they aren't to much of a concern reguardless.

RAID Arrays using the ULi onboard with the above mentioned con appears to happen on cold boots. Resolved the moment you do a 4 second forced shutdown and automatic repowerup.

Bios Settings are a we bit difficult to navigate due to the sheer number of them and some duplicate entries.

IRQ Sharing is horrid (But is privailent in ALL xpress 3200 chipset motherboards right from asus to dfi to abit, all are effected).

Pros:

Excellent performer, Very fast and stable beyond reason.

Excellent overclocker, allows extensive settings on voltages and frequencies not to mention to the detail specific settings on ram and cpu settings.

Excellent automatic overvolting, does an excellent job of figureing out the best voltages if you adjust one thing and allow the motherboard to figure out if the northbridge/southbridge needs more juice.

Excellent in failure to post and incorrect settings. Never have i once had to go into the case and reset the cmos manually. If you set a setting in the bios, or whatever you can think of even to insane settings (mind you being aware that you could blow up your machine at to insane of a settings), letting the system run with no post for 20 seconds roughly then doing a forced 4 second shutdown with an automatic reboot, has ALWAYS reset to defaults with the choice to keep the older settings but modify them by hitting F1 or reverting to defaults full out by hitting F2. Excellent design, works every time.

Crossfire works great on this board with no hassles, even if you have the mastercard in the bottom slot, a simple change to the PCI-EX Boot priority will resolve it. Default is PCI-EX1~>PCI-EX2 (top slot ~> bottom slot).

Full Featured, couldn't have more options on this board within reason.

Probably the best next to the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe 939 board you could buy and use.

Best Onboard Audio, Realtek's ALC882 HD Audio. Nothing beats this atm.

Nightowl225 · Aug 15, 2006, 09:05 PM

I'm lovin the ABIT AT8 32X, been gaming for over 7 and a half hours, not one hiccup or reboot with the board. It has Realtek ALC882D for sound. I updated to bios 1.2 for the AT8 32X, and all for of my 1GB PC3200 DIMMS were detected as DDR400. Piece of junk A8R-MVP due to design and bios detected them as DDR333.

My Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music card, got put on IRQ22 which is not being shared with anything, yes it is not sharing an IRQ. With the A8R-MVP it was constantly sharing and IRQ with something.

I'm not overclocking as I don't want to royally screw something up, and then once I'm sure that everything is hunky dory, within the next week or so, I'm going to see about messing with memory timings to increase performance.

Another bonus, is that game performance in Crossfire on my AT8 32X is a heck of a lot smoother than on the A8R-MVP.

The A8R-MVP is quite frankly as Judas said, a piece of crap, and no end of trouble with the A8R-MVP. The ABIT AT8 32X is one heck of a board as long as it has the 1.2 bios and so far is really stable.

One last thing about the A8R-MVP contrary to what ASUS and ATI claimed about the board, it in reality was not a truly stable board when it comes to Crossfire. It does however work darn good if all one does is use one videocard.

Judas · Aug 15, 2006, 09:48 PM

Don't mix up the Asus A8R-MVP with the Asus A8R32-MVP. They are completely different boards, COMPLETELY.

I can stick 4gb of ram in this Asus A8R32-MVP with absalutely no issues if it's configured properly... i just using mixed sets.

always detects 400mhz though.. actually i'm running faster then that.