ABIT AA8 DuraMAX
| ABIT AA8 DuraMAX | |
| CPU Support | All LGA775 processors |
| Northbridge | Intel i925X 'Alderwood' |
| Memory Support | 4 slots, DDR-II 533, 4GB max, dual-channel |
| AGP | None |
| PEG16X | One slot |
| Southbridge | Intel ICH6/R |
| Audio | Realtek ALC880 from ICH6/R feed |
| Audio Connectivity | 6 port backplane speaker, 2 S/PDIF optical input and output |
| PCI | 2 x 32-bit 33MHz PCI 2.1 slots |
| PCI Express | 3 x 1X slots |
| IDE | 1 ATA133 compliant port from ICH6/R |
| IDE RAID | None |
| SATA | 4 ports from ICH6/R |
| SATA RAID | All 4 ports using Intel Matrix Storage |
| Networking | Realtek 8110S-32 Gigabit Ethernet Controller, 10/100/1000Mbit |
| USB | ICH6/R, 2 x backplane USB2.0, 4 x I/O USB2.0 |
| FireWire | FireWire400, 1 backplane port, 2 x I/O (one powered, one unpowered) from Ti TSB43AB23 OCHI controller |
| Other I/O | PS/2, Parallel, 1 x Serial |
ABIT implement all the basic Alderwood features, including Intel's Matrix Storage controller on the ICH6/R and HD Audio, using the same Realtek ALC880 as Intel use on their own Alderwood board. They choose Realtek for the Ethernet MAC+PHY too, going with their tried and tested 8110S chip. FireWire400 gets a nod too, with all three possible ports supplied, two on an I/O shield, one on the mainboard's backplane.
Apart from the Ethernet and FireWire400 controller though, there's nothing, on the surface anyway, to differentiate the ABIT AA8 DuraMAX from Intel's own D925XCV.
Given ABIT's desire to push their flagship board as the best Alderwood board money can buy, it would have been nice to see some more SATA ports and possibly dual Ethernet, bringing it line with boards that are about to arrive from other manufacturers. Saying that, the base feature set is decent, as far as LGA775-supporting, PEG16X-toting, DDR-II 533-implementing mainboards go.
