I have been out of the AMD game for quite some time now and I have to say I am quite surprised at how capable a system the Abit AX78 makes when coupled with an AMD 9750. Considering the price of the AX78, approx £50, it is a very good motherboard that could put other similarly priced motherboards to shame. OK it may not have all the bells and whistles but for the most part 99% of users wont find, for example, the lack of firewire a problem, or the fact it “only” has 4 sata ports an issue. It has all the things your typical user could want.

The only negative point I can find is it seems a bit particular over the hardware needed to set up an OS Raid array, it seemed to get confused because I was using a sata optical drive when installing windows and I couldn’t find a way around it in the time I had, had I got an ide optical drive readily to hand I would have proved this point by using that. Other than that I am very impressed by this relatively cheap yet seemingly very capable motherboard. Stick a mid to top end graphics card in it and even the most hardened gamers would be happy.

I think the AX78 would appeal most to users upgrading on a tight budget from an older system that uses normal DDR, it is cheap yet has potential to build a powerful machine so those users on a budget would do well to start a system based on the AX78 coupled with a cheaper cpu and memory to build a working system then upgrade later to something more powerful.

Pros

• Reasonable spec, most people will find it more than adequate.
• Has potential to over clock well.
• Well laid out so large graphics card coolers wont render expansion slots unusable.
• Clearly labelled so simple to connect up.
• Looks good.
• Very reasonable price at approx £50.

Cons

• I couldn’t work out how to set up a raid array with my Sata optical drive being used to install the OS.

Reality Check: If you are that user upgrading on a budget and need to start from scratch, or even if you have a bit more to spend, then you should seriously consider the AX78 definitely RECOMMENDED.

Reviewed by Mac

Thanks to abit for supplying the mobo for review.