Verdict: A good budget overclocker

The AG8-V does little to spark the imagination, with very standard specifications and fairly plain looks. RAID isn't supported, there aren't any FireWire or S/PDIF outputs, and the bundle is basic too. Even the audio is just piped through an aging 6-channel Realtek ALC658 chip. On the plus side, it has Gigabit LAN, but then so does almost every motherboard these days.

There is one good feature on the board though: a two-digit diagnostic LED, which comes in handy if your system refuses to POST. The BIOS is also pretty good and the OC Guru system can be programmed to work with a 3rd Eye external display, although this must be purchased separately. The OC Guru menu not only gives you full control over overclocking, but also provides an intelligent fan-speed control system too. We were also pleased to see that the board recovered well after we overclocked it too far, and didn't reset all the BIOS options to defaults.

The voltage options in the BIOS are by far the best in this Labs test, with a massive 1.74V ready to pass through an unsuspecting CPU, and 2.05V to the Northbridge.

We mistakenly first ran the AG8-V in single-channel memory mode, and the maximum stable FSB was 250MHz. Interestingly, in dual-channel memory mode it remained stable to just 240MHz. This is still a reasonable overclock, bringing a 3.2GHz chip up to an admirable 3.84GHz. At this speed, the CPU thermally throttled, so you'll need some excellent cooling to make the overclock deliver decent performance.

The AG8-V is generally well laid out. The single EIDE port is at a 90-degree angle to the edge of the PCB, which aids neat cabling. The 20-pin ATX power connector is also positioned at the edge of the board.

At £72.25 on the street, the Abit is one of the cheaper boards on test and would make a good starting point for a budget overclocked PC. However, the similarly specified and cheaper Asus is the better overall package.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
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• PSUs - 14th July 2008

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