Abit IC7-MAX 3

The IC7-MAX 3 keeps up Abit's tradition of innovation, offering an interesting mix of features.

Designed for Pentium 4 and based around Intel's 875P Canterwood chipset, the IC7-MAX 3 uses the ICH5-R version of Intel's southbridge, which allows users to set up a Serial Raid 0 array and supports hot-swapping of hard drives. Not content, Abit has added two more Serial ATA interfaces to the board (bringing the total to four) and a Silicon Image Sil3114 controller chip, enabling hard disks to be arranged in either Raid 0 or Raid 0+1 configurations.

The inclusion of an Outside Thermal Exhaust System (OTES) raised an eyebrow. This cooling system, normally found on Abit graphics cards, is housed over the capacitors, drawing hot air away from them and venting it through a fan. It does keep temperature down, but the unit adds another noise generator to a board that is already equipped with a large northbridge fan.

Another byproduct of having a fan introduced to the I/O panel is the lack of room for serial or parallel ports, though there are still two PS/2 ports along with S/PDIF in and out sockets, six-channel audio, four USB2 ports, Firewire and a Lan port for Gigabit Ethernet.

The IC7-MAX 3 is a feature-rich, fast motherboard, and with its multi-Raid setup would form the basis of a fast workstation or high-end PC.

Contact: Abit 01438 228 888
www.abit.com.tw

Specifications:

• Pentium 4 (800/533MHz FSB)
• Intel 875P/ICH5-R Canterwood chipset
• Four DDR-Ram Dimm slots (up to 4GB)
• AGP 4x/8x - Six-channel audio
• Five PCI slots
• Two ATA100 parallel slots
• Four Serial ATA (Raid-supported) slots
• Six USB2 ports -
• Two PS/2, two S/PDIF, Firewire, Gigabit Lan