This is the 3rd NF590 SLI board we reviewed at OCW. From the benchmark results, we can see that the abit FATAL1TY AN9 32x's performance is on par with the other two 590 SLI board we tested before. There is no doubt that the performance is better than the other boards based on the other chipsets except the ATi RD580 which is pretty fast. We didn't test its auto o/c feature as it is not a fair way to compare benchmarks.

In terms of features, this board supports the new AM2 socket 940 processors. With 1GHz HT and Cool'n'quiet. It comes with 4xDDRII-800 slots which can accomodate up to 8GB of DDRII memory in total. On top of that, it comes with a 7.1HD audiomax riser card which supports S/PDIF optical in/out. It also has dual GbE forr utmost network performance. Dual FireWire ports connect consumer electronic devices, such as DV-cameras and provide transfer rates of up to 400MB/s. There are also 10 x USB ports and 6 x SATA 3G connectors present next to endless upgradeability while SATA RAID maintains the highest data security for mission critical tasks. The OTES SLipStream also helps to cool down the GPUs. The uGuru BIOS also takes the board to another level with ease of control. You can also store o/c profiles into the BIOS so that it would save you a lot of time by remember the profiles best suited for your usage in game play, overclocking etc.

If you are going for design, the board's red/back design captures the attention of case modders. The blinking red leds will defnitely make a it a good gaming rig that stands out from the rest.

For those who are lazy to find mods, the board already has vast range of voltages for dimm and cpu, cpu freq range of up to 400MHz and cpu multiplier option. In our overclocking test, with our 4000+ (2GHz) we set the HT multiplier to 4x (800MHz) and set the CPU multiplier to 10x, CPU Vcore to 1.4v and push the CPU CLK to 290MHz. The system is stable and runs at 290x10MHz (2.9GHz). See Gallery for more BIOS options.

Overall, this board is packed with good feature e.g. heatpipe design, o/c options, SLI, GbE just to name a few. The only regret is the missing eSATA features.

Pricing (US)

Pricing (UK)

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Pros

• Dual GbE
• Dual 1394
• Heatpipe design
• O/C options
• OTES SlipStream

Cons

• No eSATA
• RAM slots a bit too close to CPU

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10.