Well I'm ditching Abit. I've been running them for over 4 years, and they just ain't what they used to be.
Problems most accompanying Abit products:
Had several BIOS issues; I've personally had BIOS issues with the BL and BD series mobos, and the IT7 Max mobos is now having cold boot issues as well as issues running WinXP SP1.(I don't have the MAX mobo.)
Abit's tech support has become very spotty. You'll see complaints here about on a fairly regular basis.
Abit products are lacking in keeping up with latest trends or new innovations. The main and only thing Abit mobos has in their favor is their oc'ing options and Asus has broader options than Abit, for example.
Abit mobos has had a constant problem with their caps leaking and blowing, killing the mobo. Abit will not respond to this problem in any meaningful manner. They use cheap under powered caps and the most they've said about it was they got a bad batch.
Their voltages are reported incorrectly, inparticular their cpu and ram voltages. Same applies to their temp readings.
And to me the worst problem with Abit mobos is their High Point Raid controllers. There has been more problems associated with this than most anything else. Systems hang more, they were more subject to cold boot, or boot issues, the HP raid is finicky and even slow compared to Promise raid. If I were even considering an Abit mobo, it would be without the HP raid, and I would add my own Promise controller card, which in fact is what I done. (Though I disabled the HP raid controller on my mobo.)
I think from what I've read the Gigabyte mobo you mentioned is much more stable and has the Promise raid controller already installed. (I was considering the Gigabyte mobos for awhile before settling on Asus.) Gigabyte in the past has shown to be fairly responsive to customer complaints and rma's, as well as timely updates. I like their dual BIOS also, but it something you'd hopefully never need.
The ONLY problem I see with the Gigabyte mobos is they don't oc as well as Abits. Plus you they do not directly give you the main oc'ing screen in BIOS. (You have to hit a key combo to enter it.)
Many people do have good luck with Abit mobos and some people do have bad luck with Gigabyte mobos. It just depends on what the person sees for himself in what he is looking for or has.
Personally I'm gonna get a Asus P4PE and order it today or tomorrow, as soon as I can figure out which grade of it I want.
But I would also consider the Gigabyte over the Abit as long as I wasn't intending on pushing my oc'ing to the limits.
Just my .02 cents worth.
Cheers,
Mike