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Overview:The ABIT KN8 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard supports the AMD X2 as well as other AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 CPU's. It's inexpensive and richly equipped with PCI-Express, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA RAID, and a native NVIDIA Firewall. It has onboard 7.1 channel audio and supports four DDR400 DIMMs for a total of four gigabytes of memory.
The Abit KN8 is an NVIDIA nForce4 motherboard supporting all of the AMD 64 Socket 939 processors. It has 2GHz Hyper Transport and dual-channel memory support. It accepts 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB DDR400 Unbuffered DIMMs
The board supports both IDE Master/Slave RAID and SATA RAID. RAID levels supported are 0, 1, and 0+1.
The KN8's overclocking features include a wide range of voltage adjustments, and a dozen timings and delay settings for RAM. A minor downside; the memory voltage settings are in slightly coarse increments of .1 volts.
Voltage controls include: - CPU Core Voltage
- DDR RAM Voltage
- DDR Reference Voltage (for DRAM slot calibration)
- nForce4 Chipset Voltage
- HyperTransport Voltage
The voltages and temperatures are very accurate.
The fan control in the BIOS lets you set a percentage of maximum speed for several fans based on a temperature threshold. When that temperature is exceeded, the fans all run at 100% speed.
This board has a parallel port. While that is something that is becoming less common, it is still important to me. All of my printer equipment is parallel -- even though I network my printers. I probably won't use it, but, in an emergency, I can hook my laser printer directly to this board.
The BIOS unlocks reserved IRQ's when their corresponding devices are disabled.
The box includes four SATA cables and a USB 2 cable in addition to one each (flat) IDE and floppy cables. I don't use floppies anymore, but, if you do, you'll find the placement of the floppy header to be less than optimal; it's tucked into the tiny space between the PCI slots and the edge of the board. Considering the relative importance of the floppy drive, however, this is only a minor complaint.
The box also includes a real manual and a jumper location sticker for inside the case.
The board is easy to set up and has proven to be stable after several days of intensive CPU saturation abuse.
In summary, the KN8 is one of the most capable mainboards available in its price range. It's stable, overclockable, and has an unexpected number of nice features. It's easy to set up and comes with what you need to install it. It supports some of the best modern processors including the outstanding Athlon 64 X2 (dual core) CPU's. The biggest problem I have with this board is that it's BIOS update utility seems to only be available for Windows. Some of us would much prefer a Linux version. Its other drawbacks seem quite minor considering the modest amount of money involved.
An inexpensive processor that works well in the KN8 is the Athlon 64 3000+ CPU. It's fast, cool, and also very overclockable.
[ If you're willing to spend a little extra money on a processor, you might want to look at the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ dual core chip. With two separate processor cores, in total consuming a max of about 89 watts, you'll like the cool-running performance! ]
Technical Specifications:
Manufacturer page: ABIT KN8 Ultra ATX AMD Dual Core Motherboard
Processor:
AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64, 64FX as well as Athlon 64 X2 dualcore CPU
AMD CPU "Cool 'n' Quiet Technology"
2GHz Hyper Transport(TM) Technology
Memory:
Four 184-pin DDR400 DIMM sockets
Supports dual channel DDR400 non-ECC unbuffered memory
Maximum memory capacity: 4GB
Chipset:
NVIDIA NF4 Ultra single chip
Networking:
NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet
NVIDIA Firewall
Audio:
7.1 channel onboard audio
Optical S/P DIF out only
Supports auto jack sensing
Misc:
Supports SATA RAID Levels 0, 1, and 0+1
Abit CPU ThermalGuard(TM) Technology
Abit SoftMenu(TM) Technology
Internal I/O Headers:
PCI Express X16, (3) PCI Express X1, (3) PCI slots
(4) SATA 3G connectors
(2) Ultra DMA 133/100/66/33 IDE headers
(3) USB headers
Floppy support for up to 2.88MB
Back Panel I/O Ports:
(4) USB, RJ-45 LAN Connector
PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 mouse
LPT port, COM port, S/P DIF Out
Audio Jack (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in)
Audio Jack (Front, Rear, Cen/Sub)
Accessories
Back Panel I/O Shield
SATA cable x 4
USB2.0 Cable
ATA 133 IDE Cable, FDD cable
CD, SATA Utility Disk
Quick Install Guide
User Manual
Jumper Setting Label |
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