Introduction

Intel 875P: The next BX?

Ever since Intel launched the Pentium 4 processor, they’ve been looking for a chipset to step up and win the hearts and minds of enthusiasts like their 440BX chipset for the Pentium II/III processors did when it was launched over five years ago. Intel’s BX chipset was loaded with features when it was released: it supported bus speeds up to 100MHz (although later motherboards had no problems hitting speeds well in excess of 133MHz) and AGP 4X, technologies which were state-of-the-art at the time. Follow-up chipsets such as 815 and the ill-fated 820 were never truly able to displace BX.

ABIT IC7-MAX3 board

AGP Pro slot onboard

PCI slots stand out on black PCB

Intel initially pinned its hopes on 850. With its 400MHz bus (and later 533MHz in 850E), and dual-channel PC800 RDRAM support, 850 was a bandwidth machine, making it a perfect match for the Pentium 4 processor. But over time Intel’s relationship with Rambus soured, eventually Intel shifted its focus to DDR SDRAM memory.

Intel’s initial DDR offerings were rather limited, since 850/850E was still the focus their 845, 845D, and 845E chipsets were all based on outdated memory technologies. With 845PE, Intel improved the situation somewhat by incorporating DDR333 support, but its single-channel architecture still wasn’t sufficient enough to keep the processor fed with data. After a quiet release in the form of E7205, Intel launched its 875P “Canterwood” and 865 “Springdale” chipsets to service the needs of the workstation and mainstream segments respectively. As you probably know by now, these chipsets brought a dual-channel memory architecture and 800MHz bus to the table, supplying the Pentium 4 with up to 6.4GB/sec of memory bandwidth, matching the specs of Intel’s latest 800MHz processors.

To coincide with the release of these two platforms, Intel also released the Pentium 4 2.4C, 2.6C, and 2.8C processors. This was incredibly important, as these chips brought Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology and 800MHz bus to price points that were previously unheard of. When you combine this with a DDR chipset like the 875P that offers excellent performance, you’ve got the basic ingredients for a successful product.

ABIT in particular realizes this, and is feeding off it by developing the IC7-MAX3, their second-generation 875P motherboard. This actually shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’re familiar with ABIT’s history. ABIT actually released three generations of BX motherboards, with the first generation encompassing the BX6/BH6, the second generation being the BE6-II/BF6, and the third generation consisting of the BE6-II V2.0 and BX6 V2.0.

The upper half of the motherboard

Color-coded DIMM sockets

FireWire headers red, USB blue, also AUX fan connector

This is important, as it allows ABIT to incorporate the latest technologies and innovations in motherboard design while sticking with a tried and true platform. In some cases, ABIT is able to implement these changes without having to make significant changes to existing board designs, allowing them to bring newer products to market more quickly. These changes can be as subtle as integrating newer or more robust storage technologies onto current designs, or as radical as the leaps in design that the original MAX boards were. The BE6-II and BF6 are another example of this category thanks to their 1MHz bus increments introduced with SoftMenu III.

For the IC7-MAX3, ABIT has incorporated a little bit of both strategies, as the board sports a new storage controller and a few design advances. Let’s take a look at ABIT’s first of the new generation of MAX boards!