Abit KV8 Pro Motherboard - The K8T800 Pro Has Arrived

Content Creation and Business Winstone 2004 Multimedia and Workstation Performance Testing

For our last round of tests we ran both Content Creation Winstone 2004 and Business Winstone 2004.  Each of these benchmarks gauges a system's overall performance with workstation and multimedia applications.  Content Creation 2004 tests multimedia intensive applications, while Business Winstone 2004 compares performance with common workstation applications like Word and PowerPoint.  Below is a complete list of the programs each test uses to calculate its final score.

With Content Creation 2004, the KV8 Pro did a nice job, beating both NFORCE3 powered motherboards and coming very close to tying with the SiS755 board.  Conversely, the Business Winstone results were completely the opposite, with the KV8 Pro falling below the veteran K8T800 for the last place position on the list.

Taking into consideration it's relatively low price and complete feature set, we think the ABIT KV8 Pro is a fairly good choice for the cost conscious consumer who wants to get a taste of the Athlon 64.  While the socket 754 platform will eventually be relegated to the low-end, it is still a good, cost effective alternative to the pricey socket 939s.  With a plethora of performance tweaks and overclocking features tied into ABIT's proprietary GURU processor, the KV8 Pro is a rather unique Athlon 64 motherboard.  Some may be deterred by the limited number of DIMM slots and a lack of RAID capability, but overall, it is still a robust solution and we found it to be quite stable.  With a potent BIOS/GURU combination, ABIT gives complete control over the board's internal workings, letting users fine tune the system in a myriad of ways.  Once configured to your liking, ABIT provides a complete selection of monitoring tools that can be accessed in the BIOS or through Windows with their SoftMenu software.  Our only real concern is that some of the features we spotlighted today, like the multiplier adjustments, haven't reached the retail audience just yet, and we did note issues with the recent BIOS updates available on Abit's site.  Assuming the BIOS issues are resolved quickly and the features we saw are made available to the public, the KV8 Pro should prove to be well worth the investment.

We Give the ABIT KV8 Pro K8T800 Pro Motherboard a Hot Hardware Heat Meter Rating of a 7.5

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Priced at Around $100 Good Performance GURU Processor Gigabit Ethernet Layout Killer BIOS Features	No FireWire Only 2 DIMM slots Uncertain whether some BIOS features will be available to the public.

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