The 'Snake' is abit's high-end IP35 Pro solution which the company describe as being geared towards extreme performance. It is designed for Intel LGA775 system processors, utilising a 1333MHz FSB and supports 05A/05B/06FMB. The solution also supports Intel Core 2 Exteme Edition, Core2 Quad and Core2 Duo system processors, together with Intel Pentium Extreme Edition, Pentium D, Pentium Dual Core and Pentium 4 solutions too.
Intel's P35 and ICH9R chipsets are married up with support for Dual Channel DDR2 800/667 memory, to a maximum capacity of 8GB, along with a host of abit engineered initiatives on the IP35 Pro.
Amongst the abit engineered features boasted are 100% Japanese made, solid state capacitors on the solution which, as abit explain, allow for the best electrical characteristics under the most stable currents. Silent OTES functionality steps up to perform cooling duties for the Northbridge and PWM areas onboard, whilst abit's renowned uGuru technology also graces the solution. Power on/off and reset buttons onboard, together with an external CMOS reset switch, thereby eliminating the need to open the chassis in the event of resetting the CMOS, are also touted as user friendly, time saving features.
Six SATA 3.0Gb/s ports, courtesy of the Intel ICH9R solution offer Intel Matrix Storage technology with RAID levels of 0/1/5/10, together with AHCI support and Command Based Port Multiplier, whilst the JMicron JMB363 solution also onboard, provides two 3.0GB/s e-SATA ports, this time offering RAID levels of 0/1 or JBOD. Delivering the further benefits of a high end solution, finds the IP35 Pro also offering two IEEE 1394a FireWire ports as well as Dual Gigabit LAN functionality.
'Dark Raider' being a mid-range solution, is termed as abit's IP35 model that also benefits from the marriage of Intel's P35 and ICH9R chipsets. Designed for Intel system processors running on a 1333/1066/800MHz FSB, the solution also supports Core2 Extreme, Core2 Quad, Core2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Pentium D and Pentium 4 CPUs.
The IP35, again courtesy of Intel's ICH9R, features six SATA 3.0Gb/s ports and delivers RAID support of levels 0/1/5/10 as part of Intel's Matrix Storage technology. It however, does not feature any e-SATA functionality, or the Command Based Port Multiplier according to abit's specification documents. Two IEEE 1394a FireWire ports remain part of the IP35's repertoire, however abit engineered features found on the high end 'Snake' such as onboard power on/off and reset buttons, external CMOS reset switch and uGuru technology support are removed from the feature set.
The CPU socket area of the IP35, according to abit specification documents, features 100% Japanese made, solid state capacitors, however the solid state nature of the capacitors does not extend away from the CPU socket area. One of the abit engineered features found on the higher end IP35 Pro which was saved from the axe on the way down to the IP35, is abit's Silent OTES functionality which is adorned upon the IP35 too.
Lastly, the lower end IP35-E which missed out during the naming convention, hence its lack of snazzy designator, received the RAID-free ICH9 chipset, together with Intel's P35, thereby having the same CPU support as the IP35 described above. The axe on the way down from the IP35 to the IP35-E clearly fell that little bit harder, hence a further cut-down in specifications from the mid-range IP35, which already took a hit from the specifications of the high end IP35 Pro solution. The IP35-E lacks IEEE 1394a FireWire port and as already mentioned, due to the use of the standard ICH9R chipset, does not feature RAID support, offers 4 SATA 3.0Gb/s ports rather than the higher number on the also higher end solutions, does not feature Silent OTES technology and interestingly, does not feature solid state capacitors either.
abit stress however that solid state in nature or not, only Japanese made capacitors are present onboard the solutions.
All solutions however, feature support for upcoming Intel 45nm system processors, boast 7.1 HD Audio functionality onboard, have an ATA 133/100/66 IDE port for connection of legacy parallel-ATA devices and are based on an ATX form factor. The same support for Dual Channel DDR2 800/667 memory, as present in the high end IP35 Pro, also filters down through the range, however not so lucky is Gigabit LAN functionality which is cut down from Dual Gigabit LAN functionality on the IP35 Pro, to standard Gigabit LAN on the two remaining solutions.
Read the press release in full here.
