Is the Abit AB9 layout really that bad?

B

Bursk

n00b
Joined
Aug 11, 2006
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16
Does it present people with problems of any consequence, or does it just look untidy?

I've had great experiences with Abit in the past, and having to phone Taiwan to speak to Asus tech support means that I'll never buy another product from them again.

Does anyone have pictures of the the IDE cable running from the AB9 to the optical drive at the top of their case? I'm personally thinking of buying an Antec P150, and I'll be continuing to use my IDE Plexwriter.

I can't possibly imagine Abit designing a board where using an IDE device is that much of a problem, so are the layout problems really nothing to worry about?
 
If you are that worried about the ugly IDE cables, just get the Plextor SATA DVD-RW.. thats the route I went. No messy IDE cables to run all over the place. Even the rounded IDE cables are a mess imo.
 
At least in Europe Samsung do a cheap (£20 so I would expect in the US $30-35 ) SATA DVD-R/RW. A lot cheaper than the Plextor.
 
BUFF said:
At least in Europe Samsung do a cheap (£20 so I would expect in the US $30-35 ) SATA DVD-R/RW. A lot cheaper than the Plextor.
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That would be great... But Plextor is the only SATA drive I've found in the US.
 
I'm in the UK.

Peeps, I appreciate all the replies, really I do, but buying a new piece of hardware seems a bit, well, insane to me since my existing drive works really well. I paid quite a lot for it and don't want to buy a new one until this breaks.

Is using an IDE device on the AB9 really so problematic that it's best to buy new hardware?
 
In US SATA opticals really hasn't caught on. I myself have been looking like crazy to dump IDE for about 6 months now. I refuse to pay 100 for a dvd drive.

The layout for US customers is kinda bad becasue of that.

I loved ABIT. However they have dropped from #1, for me, to # 3 behind DFI and haven't found a steady #2 yet... Asus maybe but they so pricey.
 
Bursk said:
I'm in the UK.

Peeps, I appreciate all the replies, really I do, but buying a new piece of hardware seems a bit, well, insane to me since my existing drive works really well. I paid quite a lot for it and don't want to buy a new one until this breaks.

Is using an IDE device on the AB9 really so problematic that it's best to buy new hardware?
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I think using your current drive will fine. Worst comes to worst youll need to get a longer IDE cable. So what if its "ugly" as long as it works right? I agree with you, getting a new drive for this "issue" IS insane.
 
Bursk said:
I'm in the UK.

Peeps, I appreciate all the replies, really I do, but buying a new piece of hardware seems a bit, well, insane to me since my existing drive works really well. I paid quite a lot for it and don't want to buy a new one until this breaks.

Is using an IDE device on the AB9 really so problematic that it's best to buy new hardware?
Click to expand...

The only problem I've had with AB9 and IDE is that I think you have to install the RAID drivers via floppy when installing WinXP for the 3rd party IDE stuff or else WinXP will blue screen.
 
kirbyrj said:
The only problem I've had with AB9 and IDE is that I think you have to install the RAID drivers via floppy when installing WinXP for the 3rd party IDE stuff or else WinXP will blue screen.
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Do I have to install RAID drivers if I'm not using IDE HDDs in a RAID config (I know little about RAID)?

Also, do you have a picture of the inside of your case?
 
Yes, you need to install the "RAID" drivers. It isn't the RAID per se that you're using, it is the driver for the 3rd party IDE controller you need to install since WinXP doesn't have that particular driver in it's regular setup files (unless you slipstream it in yourself).

I don't have a picture right now because it's not actually in my case at the moment. But I put on a TT Big Typhoon and it worked nice. I think I'm getting rid of it though in favor of a 975X board.
 
I've always disliked Abit's board layouts for the most part. The floppy drive -- something in which I still use these days (though rarely), requires it's ribbon cable to be snaked all the way to the bottom, then all the way across the motherboard to the connector. Not good for wire management.

Now they've got the IDE connectors in between the PCI slots? Not surprising at all, enough to keep me away from the AB9 specifically. If it were closer to the edge at all, and if I had access to an extra-long IDE cable (with no slave connector), I could probably route the cable under the motherboard, but that's for another day.
 
Just bought an AB9 Pro and yes the layout is a little bizzare but I dont run ide devices and more anyway I run a plextor and a lite-on sata dvd still waiting for my 6600 to arrive when it does I will update you all on performance and ease of build maybe even take a few pics lol I will say they have done a great job on making room for a large cpu heatsink the I will be running a XP120 ..

arent some of the other 965 boards layed out like this anyway ?
 
kirbyrj said:
The only problem I've had with AB9 and IDE is that I think you have to install the RAID drivers via floppy when installing WinXP for the 3rd party IDE stuff or else WinXP will blue screen.
Click to expand...


WOW no clue if this is correct but if it is that right there is a piss poor design. Needing a floppy drive to install any drivers is enough for me to stay away from that board.
 
RHollister said:
WOW no clue if this is correct but if it is that right there is a piss poor design. Needing a floppy drive to install any drivers is enough for me to stay away from that board.
Click to expand...

Honestly though, I don't know what anyone else would do with a 965 board. They all have 3rd party IDE drives and I'm sure WinXP doesn't support all of them natively without floppy.
 
Well, you have a couple of options without a floppy:

1) slipstream the drivers onto your XP CD alongside SP2, etc
2) if your BIOS supports it, enable the "USB storage emulates floppy" and use a cheapo usb memory key
3) get a USB floppy drive
 
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