Abit AB9 Pro: Quick On The Draw

Often considered to be the grandfather of BIOS overclocking, Abit's back in a big way thanks to a partnership with Universal Scientific Industrial Co. The resulting Universal Abit keeps its original branding, albeit with a new logo.

Feature Overview

Abit continues countering design trends with its unique P965 entry, and it's obvious that the company has little regard for Ultra ATA or Floppy drives. The floppy header is located at the bottom, farthest away from customary drive bay placement, and the 40-pin ATA connector is between slots, reminiscent of several best-forgotten Socket 7 motherboard designs. Most other connectors are conveniently placed, highlighted by 24-pin ATX and 4-pin ATX12v connections far away from the CPU socket, and USB/SATA ports lined up as if to avoid contact with a 3-slot thickness GPU cooler!

A short heat pipe connects the Northbridge to a rather large sink that also cools three of the board's 5-phase voltage regulators. The Southbridge and remaining two voltage regulator phases are cooled independently.

Remaining conveniences include a built-in Port 80 diagnostic LED module, a generous five system fan connectors, a front panel audio connector located midway at the board's rear edge, and DIMM placement that allows adequate clearance between DIMM latches and the back of a graphics card.

An extensive list of features and connections marks the AB9-Pro as a high-end product, despite moderate pricing that suggests otherwise. The lack of outdated parallel and serial ports should have little consequence in the targeted enthusiast market. Also missing from the rear panel are any FireWire connectors; they are accessible only via the included slot plate or a case's front panel connection. In place of the missing legacy ports is a vent for the Northbridge/VRM sink, digital audio input and output (optical), and an eSATA port. The presence of dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, now standard fare on more expensive boards, is a nice touch.