Ballistics Report

Pros

875P chipset: Intel’s 875P “Canterwood” chipset is the top-of-the-line of Pentium 4 platforms for right now. With its dual-channel DDR400 memory interface, PAT, and 800MHz bus speed, this chipset is built for maximum performance. And with ABIT’s decision to include Intel’s CSA architecture, you’ve got built-in Gigabit networking, ensuring excellent connectivity performance.

Powerful BIOS: ABIT’s SoftMenu interface is well known for its plethora of overclocking options, that continues with the IC7-MAX3 and ABIT’s Game Accelerator technology. We saw gains of nearly 5% in some cases, allowing the IC7-MAX3 to outperform ASUS’ P4C800 Deluxe, our previous performance champion for the Pentium 4. You’ve got more bus speeds than you’ll ever need, a wide range of voltages to experiment with, and pages upon pages of BIOS settings to adjust. We could literally write a strategy guide for all the BIOS settings available.

This can be a little intimidating if you’re new to the system BIOS, but if you’ve got the time and patience to learn, you’ll definitely appreciate all the options the IC7-MAX3’s BIOS gives you. This BIOS is built for the guy who loves to tweak things until his system is just right. And with the inclusion of such features as FanEQ (which dynamically adjusts the speed of your chipset and CPU fans depending on temperature) and FlashMenu (BIOS updating within Windows) ABIT has a pretty complete BIOS implementation for the IC7-MAX3.

Cooling: ABIT has completely replaced the IC7-G’s North Bridge cooler with a new Orb-style unit that is much more robust. The heatsink’s fins are longer for increased surface area, enhanching the heatsink’s ability to draw heat off the chipset’s North Bridge. The new fan also seems to be more reliable.

ABIT has also added active cooling to the MOSFETs and capacitors supplying the CPU with juice. Behind the CPU and North Bridge, this is the next hotspot on the system motherboard. ABIT addresses this need today, before any other motherboard manufacturer. And while it isn’t a pressing concern just yet, you will see increased benefits if you’re overclocking. The OTES design exhausts hot air outside the system case, although we’re not exactly sold on the green LEDs that are integrated into the plastic enclosure. Fortunately, the added cooling is very quiet.

Prescott-ready: Intel’s upcoming Pentium 4 “Prescott” processors will incorporate a new manufacturing process and features such as a larger L2 cache, but will also generate an increased amount of heat. One added benefit of ABIT’s OTES technology is that it’s been built with Prescott in mind, meaning that with the IC7-MAX3’s 4-phase power solution and actively cooled MOSFETs, the IC7-MAX3 will not only be capable of supplying the CPU with plenty of juice, it will also be able to do so without turning your PC into an overpriced heater.

Because of this, many existing Pentium 4 boards won’t be able to support the latter Prescott processors Intel will be releasing next year. In contrast, the IC7-MAX3 is built for the future.

Feature-packed: With 6-channel Serial ATA RAID, Secure IDE, 6-channel audio, FireWire, Gigabit networking, and USB 2.0, ABIT hits all the big checkbox items with the IC7-MAX3. ABIT even includes added extras such as round IDE and floppy cables and extra Serial ATA data and power cables. Bravo ABIT!!

Cons

Price: With online prices starting just below $200 at some retailers, ABIT’s IC7-MAX3 is by no means cheap, even among 875P boards. If you want ABIT’s latest and greatest, you’ll have to pony up the extra cash for it unfortunately.

Heatsink installation: While the OTES cooling is great, it can make heatsink installation and removal a real pain. Fortunately you’ll only have to do this twice, once when you install the heatsink, and finally, when you’re ready to take out your current P4 and drop in a new Prescott CPU.

Motherboard installation: Since the OTES cooling system has to be secured to the motherboard itself, the motherboard mounting hole in the upper left corner of the board is unavailable (as it’s used for OTES). We’re pretty surprised ABIT didn’t catch this gaffe early on in the motherboard’s design.