Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., December 11, 2002 -
With unmatched feature set and strong performance to boot, the ABIT MAX Series
of motherboards continues to impress hardware enthusiasts the world over. Tech
Report took the newly released AT7-MAX2 for a spin, and discovered that like its
predecessor, the AT7-MAX2 offers an impressive AMD platform.
Tech Report talks about part of the MAX advantage: "Despite its PS/2 ports,
the AT7-MAX2 lacks legacy serial and parallel ports, which might not impress
those of you wanting to upgrade your router's firmware or use your six-year-old
printer. Tough. I'll gladly sacrifice serial and parallel ports for six full USB
2.0 ports, two Firewire ports, an Ethernet port, and a full suite of audio jacks
that includes a digital S/PDIF out, all on the rear port cluster. If this board
is going to give me five full PCI slots, I don't want any of them blocked by a
PCI back plate expansion header."
ABIT's SoftMenu is the stuff of legend: "As you might suspect, the AT7-MAX2
comes decked out with ABIT's wonderful SoftMenu III BIOS manipulation
interface...ABIT certainly hasn't skimped on available CPU and memory voltages.
CPU voltages vary from 1.10 all the way up to 2.325V in 0.025V increments, and
the board offers memory voltages between 2.55 and 3.25V in 0.05V increments.
Really, I don't think there's any more you could ask for in the voltage
department. The AT7-MAX2's SoftMenu III packs a truckload of memory tweaking
options. If your memory is up to it, you can even set the CAS Latency as low as
1.5. There's an option to crank up a couple of DDR400 sticks up to a memory bus
of 200MHz, if you're so equipped."
The Tech Report conclusion: "In the end, ABIT has done well to widen the
appeal of its MAX concept with the AT7-MAX2. With so many integrated
peripherals, ample overclocking options, PS/2 ports, and five full PCI slots,
there's little room for improvement...The competition has its own massively
integrated motherboards, but with the AT7-MAX2, ABIT has managed to stay a
couple of steps ahead."
For the full verdict and review, click here:
http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2002q4/abit-at7max2/index.x?pg=1
For more information on the
AT7-MAX2, click here:
For more information on ABIT and other ABIT Engineered products, click here:
http://www.abit.com.tw |