Abit shutters permanently on Dec. 31

Robert Hallock 22 Dec, 2008 at 1:11pm ET Article published in Tech

Once esteemed motherboard manufacturer ABIT is set to permanently close on December 31 when its backer, Universal Scientific Industrial, pulls funding.

The closure is the unceremonious end to a hideous backslide that began in 2005 with the dismissal of executives for questionable finance practices. The ensuing years spelled a lost of top engineers which left ABIT struggling to compete not only with newcomers, but their past selves. No longer the paragon of enthusiast potential with boards like the KX7-333R or the NF7-S 2.0, the company also lost significant mind and market share.

Based on the current financial climate and ABIT’s struggles, USI has elected to pull the plug on the company at the end of the year.

Oh, what might have been if their top execs had never engaged in fuzzy money.

Comments

22 Dec 2008 ~ 1:29pm fatcat

I'll miss them. Some of my best headaches came from Abit motherboards.
22 Dec 2008 ~ 1:40pm jared man, I loved the NF7-S

good times
22 Dec 2008 ~ 1:54pm Leonardo I've used Abit boards for AMD and Intel processors starting with the KT7-R back in 2000. Let's see: KT7-R, KT7 133MHz FSB version, KX-333R, KR7-R, NF-7, IC7, IC7-R, IP35-E - multiples of some of them. Of all of those motherboards, I'd have to say the IC-7s I had were the best, followed by the KX-333. I know that the NF-7 was/is highly popular, but I wasn't very impressed. It was very stable and very easy to set up, but at least in my case, it was lousy overclocker. I had it paired with an AMD XP 2800+. I typically get very good air-cooled overclocks, but I just couldn't get much of anything out of the NF-7/2800+ combo.

It was a nice ride Abit. Unfortunate that bungles and mismanagement brought you down.

Since Abit started going downhill four years ago I've continued to use them, but have also branched out to Gigabyte, Asus, and MSI. As it stands now, for solid performance, moderate prices, and user tweaking options (overclocking), I much prefer Gigabyte. Maybe DFI will be in my future builds as well.

Goodbye, Abit
22 Dec 2008 ~ 2:45pm primesuspect NF7-S still chugging along all these years later, it's been on basically 24/7/365 for .. I dunno, 5? 6 years?

Sigh.
22 Dec 2008 ~ 10:21pm Tim I've been running an NF-7 Version 2.0 for over 5-1/2 years now, and it's been a great motherboard. I've had a Barton core 2500+ overclocked to 2.2 Ghz all that time.

I also messed around with an Abit BP6 dual cpu MB for a while, and it did good for what it was.
23 Dec 2008 ~ 2:41am Khaos Wicked sad day. I am going to hold a candle vigil with my KX7-333R and NF7-S Rev2. =*(

(Yes, I still have both of them somewhere.)
23 Dec 2008 ~ 2:42am Khaos Come to think of it, I am posting from my sister's computer which is a Barton 2800+ running on... You guessed it, yet another NF7-S 2.0.

It has been in service for almost six years.
23 Dec 2008 ~ 2:45am Khaos KT7-A was my very first ovahclockah. Sigh.

Okay, that concludes the three post salute. Farewell, Abit. Your poorly translated BIOS manuals will forever burn bright in the annals of overclocking history.

Edit:

After perusing the gigantic tubs of motherboards dead and gone, I have to rescind my comment on the KT7A.

I have a Tyan Trinity KTA and an Iwill KK266-R that both preceded the KT7A.

So on that note, peace Abit. SUCKERS!!!!
23 Dec 2008 ~ 12:24pm RWB I think my first build was with the KG7-R? My uncle still has his running too
24 Dec 2008 ~ 6:04am GnomeWizardd sad sad day, My abit NF7-S and 1700+ was a solid OCer and will be sorely missed having that threat of the one time king of ocing in the market place
24 Dec 2008 ~ 10:37am pigflipper Hell, you could say this site was started on the back of an Abit motherboard and you wouldn't be very far off.

Personally I had a KT7, KT7-133, KX333, and several NF7-S. All but the original KT7 are still running.
24 Dec 2008 ~ 11:08am pigflipper http://web.archive.org/web/20011122073312/www.icrontic.com/index.php?page=public/hardware&hardwareId=22

http://web.archive.org/web/20011122070747/www.icrontic.com/index.php?page=public/hardware&hardwareId=41 (KT7A: this one has pics that work)

http://web.archive.org/web/20011122122829/www.icrontic.com/index.php?page=public/hardware&hardwareId=50 (KT7A r2)
24 Dec 2008 ~ 2:20pm Leonardo

Hell, you could say this site was started on the back of an Abit motherboard and you wouldn't be very far off.

The predecessor to the original Icrontic in 1999 was Apushardware. That site got its legs - and my membership - with solid information on do-it-yourself computer building and especially their motherboard tweaking guide for the Abit KT7/-R.
24 Dec 2008 ~ 6:12pm TBonZ I first came to this site in 2000 looking for help tweaking my KT7-RAID board and I never left, and, now that I think about it, I haven't bought or used an Abit board in years. I think the last boards I bothered with were the KG7 and the KR7A. There were hardly ever any stocked in my City and the one or two places I could find them were way over-priced and could never bring myself to fork over that much cash.

This is definitely a sad announcement for nostalgic reasons.
24 Dec 2008 ~ 8:19pm pigflipper

Leonardo wrote:

The predecessor to the original Icrontic in 1999 was Apushardware. That site got its legs - and my membership - with solid information on do-it-yourself computer building and especially their motherboard tweaking guide for the Abit KT7/-R.

I know, I was there in the room with mortin and celcho on launch day :-p
24 Dec 2008 ~ 8:35pm Leonardo

pigflipper wrote:

I know, I was there in the room with mortin and celcho on launch day :-p

Wow, I knew you were definitely one of the old timers, but that's just awesome.
25 Dec 2008 ~ 11:05pm danball1976 My Mom's computer is still running on my old KX7-333R that I bought around 2002. It runs well, but if you demand too much from it, the computer acts up (particularly the USB bus)
25 Dec 2008 ~ 11:32pm primesuspect oh hai danball
29 Dec 2008 ~ 6:29pm danball1976 Oh, hello there Prime.