Live from Taiwan: ATI RD580 Motherboards
by Wesley Fink on March 1, 2006 8:55 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Abit AT8-32X
Abit was showing their new RD580 chipset motherboard, called AT8-32X, at their Taiwan headquarters. Abit hopes this product, and future AM2 and Broadwater designs they were demonstrating, will fuel the revitalization of Abit. With USI as their new financial partner and many new designs on the way, Abit plans to return to their roots as an enthusiast motherboard maker.
Click to enlarge.
The Abit AT8-32X will also fully support the latest uGuru overclocking and system management features. Abit did not have a final price for the AT8-32X and the board will soon be released to production. The Abit AT8-32X will not be available for the March 1 launch, but should appear in the market in "several weeks".
Sapphire
While we did not have the opportunity to meet with Sapphire during our Taiwan visit, we did see their RD580 motherboard at CES. The Sapphire version is a virtual copy of the ATI Manta Reference design and is expected to mirror the performance and overclocking capabilities of the Reference board.Sapphire officially launched the Sapphire RD580 on March 1. According to Sapphire marketing the Sapphire RD580 will start shipping March 20th. Their RD480 motherboard is widely available in Europe but took months to reach the US market and is still a limited availability item in the US. We hope their new RD580 board will be more widely available.
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Beenthere - Saturday, March 4, 2006 - link
For those silly enough to run out and buy an untested mobo, the ATI RD580 mobos don't seem to be readily available in the U.S. on March 1st as advertised. Today 3-4-06 I see only two e-tailers with a few of the Asus A8R32 and of course they are price gouging like usual. I don't see any of the Asus or other brands of RD580 mobos at Monarch, Mwave, or other larger e-tailers so it looks to me like some gray market mobos were shipped to the two e-tailers to be the first kids on the block to have them. ther's also no listing for the A8R32 on pricegrabber or Dealtime.I also see from the reviews that the A8R32 offers little performance advantage over the A8R-MVP and few of the voltage/BIOS issues have been resolved. With the foolish PCI slot locations and number on the RD580 chipset based Asus, Sapphire mobos it looks like these mobos are of little value to anyone. More not ready for prime time rushed to market crap for the sheep to buy.
SOS, DD.
Ecmaster76 - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
Seriously though, when is the performance review coming (back) ?DigitalFreak - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
I can't believe Asus would only put 1 PCI-E 1x slot on this board, and then place it so it's useless when a dual slot cooler video card is installed! Whomever designed this board should be smacked.Palek - Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - link
Wes, you say, "The Sapphire version is a virtual copy of the ATI Manta Reference design..."I seem to recall (I could be wrong though) that Sapphire designs most or all reference boards for ATi, and if that is the case here then the above sentence might require some rewriting.
breethon - Monday, February 27, 2006 - link
Why all the hoopla when AMD is moving away from Socket 939? Is this "NEW" thing going to support the new 940s too? Otherwise, how can you support the idea for the cost?Aelius - Monday, February 27, 2006 - link
Did you even bother reader it?R580 is not just socket 939. It is also for socket AM2, in fact many mobo manufacturers are only bringing this chipset out for socket AM2 and are skipping 939.
Personally I'm skipping AM2 altogeather and getting the best 939 system later this year when prices are much lower and laughing all the way to the next AMD socket generation after AM2. Should be in 2008.
Orbs - Monday, February 27, 2006 - link
Since the RD580 is going to support AM2, it's definately a longer-term chipset. With all the recent hoopla regarding HDCP support, does the chipset itself need to be certified to enjoy HD output on Vista? If so, does the RD580 support it?DanaGoyette - Monday, February 27, 2006 - link
I want the Abit, but it's a shame the board is brown (brown is ugly). I want it in black like the Asus, with red or black slots. I can make the SATA external just by passing it through a PCI slot or a hole in the backplane.Missing Ghost - Monday, February 27, 2006 - link
That DFI board looks like the most perfect board ever!ariafrost - Monday, February 27, 2006 - link
Or can you not access the ABIT page (should be page 4) of this article? It just takes me to the "bottom line".