Conclusions
With the nForce4 Ultra's impressive feature set, generally competitive performance, and extensive BIOS-level tweaking, monitoring, and overclocking options, the Fatal1ty AN8 proves to be an excellent Athlon 64 motherboard. But it's not a cheap one. With a street price hovering around $187, the board is $40-50 more expensive than enthusiast-oriented nForce4 Ultras like DFI's LANParty UT NF4 Ultra-D. That's quite a price premium to pay considering the Fatal1ty board's relatively thin assortment of extras. At that price, we'd expect a better bundle, a second networking option, another PCI-E x16 slot, or maybe even an nForce4 SLI rather than Ultra chipset.

It's not like Abit doesn't have anything it could bundle with the board, either. The company's uGuru Clock seems like a perfect companion for the Fatal1ty AN8, and we suspect that most users would gladly trade the Fatal1ty board's extra LEDs and RAMFlow cooler for it.

If the Fatal1ty AN8 has an ace in the hole, it's the board's fantastic BIOS and uGuru hardware monitoring. Those features aren't exclusive to the Fatal1ty board, though. The less-expensive AN8 has the same uGuru and BIOS options, but you lose out on RAMFlow, the Fatal1ty color scheme, and red LEDs. You also have have to settle for the nForce4 rather than nForce4 Ultra chipset. For those who have no need for the Ultra's SATA-II transfer rates or ActiveArmor acceleration, the plain-Jane AN8 may be a better option.

You get what you pay for, I guess. Those who splurge on the Fatal1ty AN8 will get a BIOS with more extensive fan control and hardware monitoring than any other enthusiast-oriented motherboard. For some, that alone is worth the board's price premium. Buyers can always hope that some of Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel's l33t gaming skills will rub off on them, too—not that it's worked for me. Air Jordans never helped me dunk, and the Fatal1ty AN8 hasn't stopped me from getting owned in Doom 3.