ABIT SA6R Socket-370 i815E + RAID ATX

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

Performance

Most i815/i815E boards performance about the same, but the SA6R stands above the rest a bit.

Price

With an on-board IDE RAID controller, expect the price of the SA6R to be a little bit higher than your average i815E board. But if you take away the price of the controller, ABIT's boards are still priced slightly above average.

Stability

The SA6R is a very stable board. Under the CAS 2 settings, the board crashed a total of 4 times in 24 hours, where the average crash rate is around 6 or 7. If we change the memory to run at CAS 3, the board is rock solid, and the crash rate dropping down to just 2.

Quality

The quality of the SA6R is similar to that of the SE6, which is slightly above average.

Features

The "comeback" of the SoftMenu III is probably the best feature of the board. Just as important as the SoftMenu III for most users will be the Highpoint RAID controller. These two features together are enough to help the SA6R stand out from the crowd.

Layout

The layout is fair. The only little complains is the placement of the power supply connector, and the DIMM slots are too close to the AGP slot.

Availability

It is never hard to find ABIT motherboards. Most online stores and many local computer stores always have them in stock. Even some large retail stores like Microcenter, Fry's Electronics, and CompUSA have begun to carry them.

Documentation & Software Bundle

The manual bundled with the SA6R is very well written. It contains most information users would need for their motherboard, including RAID setup and actual motherboard installation instructions. The CD that comes with the motherboard contains all the drivers and utilities users would need to get up and running as well.