A Closer Look:

The Fatality FP-IN9 SLI Motherboard incorporates the most popular features of any given flagship motherboard today minus a couple extras. The motherboard supports all SATA capabilities, offers Realtek's 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec, two PCI Express X16 slots, efficient PWM solid state capacitors, and two ATA channels which is one more than on today's typical systems. There are still quite a few IDE drives out there and they still require support.

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The goal of this motherboard is for maximum stability for the hardcore gamers who expect a reliable system no matter the chaos on the screen. ABIT's factory overclocked Supercharged System Bus is there for that very reason. Of course, it doesn't have to be used for games. It would seem a shame to not put a few hours of 'frag' or 'cast' time in on such a platform. You will see how this feature helps later on during the game tests. 

Inside The Box

Bundle

A few of the best features that the Fatality FP-IN9 SLI incorporates are SLI capabilities, Core 2 Quad and Duo support, and the Factory Overclocked System Bus. The SLI performance differences between the 570 and 590 Chipsets is down right negligible. If you're one of the few people that have been lead to believe there is a big difference between the two, then you aren't alone. Many other people, including myself, thought that it would really matter mainly based on hype. Extra features like external audio, added software, more cable bundling, a third PCIE slot, more aggressive cooling, and overclocking are the main differences between the 570 and 590 SLI Chipsets.

NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra Segment Enthusiast SLI Performance SLI Performance Socket Intel Socket 775 Intel Socket 775 Intel Socket 775 CPU Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core) Core 2 Quad Core 2 Duo Celeron D Pentium 4 Pentium D 9XX Pentium D 8XX Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core) Core 2 Quad Core 2 Duo Celeron D Pentium 4 Pentium D 9XX Pentium D 8XX Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core) Core 2 Quad Core 2 Duo Celeron D Pentium 4 Pentium D 9XX Pentium D 8XX FSB (MHz) 1333* MHz 1066 MHz 1066 MHz Extreme FSB Overclocking Best Good Good NVIDIA SLI™ Technology Yes 2 x16 Yes 2 x8 No Third PCIe Graphics Expansion Slot Yes No No SLI-Ready Memory (MHz) with EPP 1200 MHz - - JEDEC DDR2 Memory (MHz) 800 MHz 800 MHz 800 MHz **NVIDIA LinkBoost™ technology No No No PCI Express # Lanes 46 lanes 18 lanes 18 lanes # Links 9 links 4 links 3 links Configuration 16, 16, 8, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 8, 8, 1, 1 or 16, 1, 1 16, 1, 1 SATA/PATA drives 6/2 4/4 4/4 SATA speed 3Gb/s 3Gb/s 3Gb/s RAID 0,1,0+1,5 0,1,0+1,5 0,1,0+1,5 NVIDIA MediaShield™ Storage Technology Yes Yes Yes Native Gigabit Ethernet Connections 2 1 1 NVIDIA FirstPacket™ technology Yes Yes Yes NVIDIA DualNet® technology Yes No No Teaming Yes No No TCP/IP Acceleration Yes No No NVIDIA nTune™ Utility Yes Yes Yes USB ports 10 8 8 PCI Slots 5 5 5 Audio HDA (Azalia) HDA (Azalia) HDA (Azalia) * Available on CPUs supporting 1333MHz FSB **Note: NVIDIA LinkBoost™ technology has been removed as a feature from NVIDIA nForce® 680i SLI

The Factory Overclocked System Bus is suppose to do exactly what it says. When your system is transferring data back and forth between the components, memory, and peripherals, the system Bus is hard at work. The chipset in turn helps keep all that moving to its proper destination. If the Bus becomes too unstable, then your system will experience serious issues. You will see where this helps later on in the testing results.

This isn't your basic motherboard thanks to its ABIT-Fatality theme. The colors are blood red PCB with black heat sinks and peripheral sockets. The heat sinks are specifically much nicer than the common passive, heat sinks seen on countless other motherboards. Heat sinks do matter when you have a great looking product that typically denotes stability. And it's nice to see that the heat sinks follow the theme of the motherboard rather than something else just to save a few pennies. Do you think any gamer wants to play on anything less than a good looking, stable system?

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As you look over the board you can't miss the 100% Japanese Solid State Capacitors. What does this mean, you might ask? Cleaner, more stable power output for your PWM and processor which can help if your power supply isn't the most stable. If you can afford to, you should pick up a decent power supply to replace your aging generic model for this platform. The motherboard will reward you greatly with better performance from your peripherals.

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Passive Cooling

More Cooling

And when you need to power on your system for testing, or you just plain don't want to connect the Front Panel components, you have a Reset and Power button integrated on the bottom corner of the FP-IN9 SLI.

SATA Devices

Realtek 7.1 HD Audio

SP2, Opti, Audio, USB

Alas, there is only a couple of things that could be issues for some users. The use of the SLI Card seems a bit out of date these days as motherboards can automatically detect the second card once the feature is enabled in the BIOS. It's been really nice not having to change any jumpers or flip any switches these days just to enable SLI performance. However, switching over the card to SLI mode when you need it isn't hard at all to do. And then there is the placement of the 12pin Auxiliary power connector that is just south of the CPU socket next to the main chipset heat sink. If you're using the stock CPU cooler, you should be fine getting your cable connected. If your aftermarket CPU cooler is larger like the excellent performers out there, then you will find that it may or may not encroach on your connection. Essentially, these two things are more just notes rather than complaints, since a little finger dexterity will work just fine.

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