ABIT KV8-MAX 3 K8T800 Athlon 64 Socket 754 Mainboard Review (1)
Bluetooth 26 Oct 2003

Introduction

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We have seen a number of Athlon 64 board reviews on OCW.  ALi M1687 Reference board, Gigabyte K8NNXP (nForce3), Gigabyte K8VNXP (K8T800), BIOSTAR K8VHA Pro (K8T800), BIOSTAR iDEQ 200P and SIS 755 Ref Board. This time round, it is ABIT KV8-MAX 3.

Nowadays, a mainboard is no longer just a mainboard with overclocking features. ABIT, being one of the most innovative manufacturers has again deliver something that is extraordinary. Do you still remember OTES (Outside Thermal Exhaust System) ? It first appeared on the ABIT Ti4200 graphics card and DiGiDice. Now it is on the KV8-MAX3. With the O.T.E.S, the MOSFETs and capacitors are cooled down during extreme overclocking as that portion of the board is one of the hottest spots.

Something that might interest you too is that ABIT KV8-MAX3 is the first Socket 754 board to include 6, you heard it right, 6 SATA ports supporting RAID, 4 is by SiliconImage Sil3114 chipset and another 2 is supported by VIA 8237 south bridge.

ABIT also brings its latest features Secure IDE. Secure IDE consists of a IDE connector to secure the data that is stored on the disk. SecureIDE connects to your IDE hard disk and has a special decoder; without a special key, your hard disk cannot be opened by anyone. Thus hackers and would be information thieves cannot access your hard disk, even if they remove it from your PC. On top of that, ABIT has integrated their new feature μGuru which basically supports an interactive way of managing your hardware monitoring, overclocking features. Other standard features on this board include USB 2.0, 1394, Gigabit Ethernet, 6 channel audio. Softmenu III includes an adjustable multiplier control.

ABIT KV8-MAX3 really has an impressive set of goodies. Lets take a look at the gallery for more details.

Features
	In the interests of cooling and performance, OTES has been redesigned to cool the hottest part of a motherboard: the PWM power regulation mosfets and capacitors.
	MAX3 comes with ABIT's latest ABIT Engineered feature, μGuru is a second processor for interactive management of hardware monitoring, overclocking and e-service features.
	With the Silicon Image 4-port serial ATA RAID controller plus native 2 channel support.
	The 800MHz FSB increases bandwidth and improves overall system performance.
	Supports up to 4GB of Single/Dual channel DIMM modules, delivering bandwidth of 6.4GB/sec.
	Lets you easily connect to the world wide web at high speeds without having to buy a separate 10/100 Ethernet card.
	Serial ATA is an evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA storage interface. This new high-speed interface boosts data transfer rates to up to 150 MB/sec. More flexible power tolerances allow for smaller and more efficient cables.
	Lets you enjoy 6-channel audio without having to buy advanced sound cards.
	Supports speeds up to 480 Mb/sec, approximately forty times faster than conventional USB 1.1.
	Supports 400/200/100Mb/sec data transfer rate.
	The overclocking functions include CPU frequency, Vcore, multiplier and memory voltage adjustment to maximize your system performance.

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