ABIT IC7-MAX3

Best consumer Intel motherboard on the planet? ABIT would like you to think so, so who better than Tarinder to validate their claims.

What's clearly evident is that the ABIT IC7-MAX3 is an extremely fast board that packs a hard performance and benchmarking punch. Whether it's for you depends upon your needs. If you're looking for a board that will almost definitely do 250FSB with ease, has a robust feature set and BIOS, and includes some nice extras, the MAX3 would be a good choice. Our reservations in awarding the MAX3 top marks stem from its price and a few niggles. However, it's a solid board that'll sell well. Kudos to ABIT for trying something a little different than most. We'd have liked some form of IDE RAID, on-board power and reset switches, a guarantee that it'll reach 250FSB and a cheaper price. That would have made it untouchable. It's damn good as it is.

Check it out, here.

Rys

Great board this, using one myself :)

ummm.......me wants

Ask'n for a lil advice across the pond!

Here is what I have been considering for an upgrade:

P4 2.4c w/ IC7-Max3
Corsair Twinx1024-4000
(2) Seagate ST380013AS 80g SATA drives w/ Zalman ZM-2HC1 Sinks
Zalman CNPS7000 Heatsink

I'm interesting in purchasing quality components with a lil bit of overclocking - nothing too extreme anymore cause stability is important. As well, you can see based on the heatsinks and hard drives that sound is an issue as well. I have been running a machine with an Ole Dragon Orb3 heat sink and my wife calls it the helicopter! As well, I have 2 UW Cheetahs screamin along with it.

Any suggestions on the setup? I want to stick pretty much with the same processor due to budget constraints. And, will the Zalman heatsink fit on the mobo?

If you feel I should consider a different mobo, keep in mind I'm switching from a current RAID-0 Ultra-Wide SCSI setup to something comparable. For cost and closest comparison to performance it looks like the stripping SATA drives is the best route and this board appears to ahve a good SATA controller, agree?

dam just when am set on a new mobo you come along with a review that makes me think again.......

Is it possible to run the board without the exta cooling ?

Its not going to be oc'd just I want the 6 sata and other bits it has? :)

The 'OTES' cooling is only attached by 2 screws in the mounting places, that's it. Easy enough to remove the nuts and take it off.
Board undervolts like a ***** and i'm not particularly impressed with it, but i'll stick with it for a while..

Thanks :)

Yup, I have my board, running great. I removed the two bolts for the cooling system, just so that my board wouldnt short out, or atleast try to >.<... Plus, Lian Li is missing a hole for it, looks like i'm going to be drilling a new one !

I think Abit are taking the mickey a bit. The IC7-G is barely out and they call this the Max3 as if it was something really special but all it seems to have is a couple more SATA connectors and a cooling system that half the thread posters want to remove!

is it possible to place 6 SATA harddrives on the same raid volume?

The main advantage I see is in the bios, the IC7 and IC7-G only give you volt options up to 2.8, but the MAX3 gives you up to 3.1, now for PC4000 or PC4200 this stuff loves 2.9-2.95 and is still under warranty up to 2.95 :)
That would be a major plus for me......

Hi, anyone still interested in this board can now get it at http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=78879 for £118.99 + VAT

IC7 is enough for me, I cant see why I would fork out an extra 60 for the IC7 - MAX3