
Abit launched their latest entry-level value-platform motherboard,
the I45D. The I45D is
based on a 945GC chipset and an ICH7 south bridge, but it has support for
front-side bus speeds up to 1333MHz, and Abit says it will happily accommodate
Intel's 45nm processors. However, memory support is limited to DDR2-667, and
there are only two DIMM slots. The board is otherwise fairly spartan, presumably
in order to keep costs down; it features one PCI Express x16 slot, one PCIe x1
slot, three PCI slots, 100Mbps Ethernet, four 300MB/s Serial ATA ports, and
5.1-channel integrated audio.