Abit Fatality F-I90HD

Abit’s Fatality F-I90HD (which is far too long-winded a name) comes packaged in a box which bears the familiar Abit Fatality branding. There are a few logos on the front which explain the main CPU support and identify the board as having HDMI capability however it is not until the box is turned round that there is any decent information on the product. On the back we have a clear picture of the motherboard as well as some information on the key features which again includes CPU support. Interestingly despite the fact the board claims to support Core2 Extreme CPU’s if we install a QX6700 the full range of multipliers are not available. Whilst this doesn’t stop the processor from working at stock speeds its quite disappointing to not have the option available.

The bundle provided by Abit with this particular product covers the essentials however there is nothing particularly outstanding about it. There is the usual quick reference guide, manual, software and drive cables which along with the back panel cover are only added to by the HDMI>DVI dongle.

Considering the size of the box finding an M-ATX motherboard inside may well surprise some people, indeed it seems to have surprised Abit’s packaging designers as the motherboard slides about loosely inside with no form of protection to stop this. We dread to think what damage could be done during shipping if the packaging is not rectified. This aside the product did arrive with us in working condition and it does look rather impressive. The red PCB with black accessories (including fanless heatsinks) does look cool, to really top off the design the internal part of the VGA out could have also been finished in black however blue will do for now. PCI/PCIe slots are in short supply (1 PCIe16x, 1pci, 2x pcie1x) given the size of the board however there should be more than enough here to keep those with midrange requirements happy, especially if all on-board devices are used. There are four on-board Sata connectors which are able to run RAID 0/1/0+1. Power requirements are very reasonable with a 24pin/4pin design used, no need for a 24/8 or 24/8/4 design here.

The back panel is one of the more unique aspects of the F-I90HD’s design and features a slightly different layout of PS/2 ports to the average motherboard. In addition to these we have a VGA out, Realtek audio out( including optical, unfortunately the space for optical in is not populated), 4x USB 2.0 and a single GB Lan. A firewire port would have been a good addition to round off the set however is not an essential. The final connector is of course the boards HDMI socket which allows output up to 1080p, ideal for those who own HD/HDMI enabled displays, for those who do not there is of course the bundled HDMI>DVI connector.