ABIT's New IC7-MAX3 Gets the Extreme
Overclocking Recommended Award

Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., September 30^th, 2003 - With Incredible Features and Legendary ABIT Performance, ABIT's new IC7 MAX 3 is the next generation of high-performance motherboards for Intel CPUs. The website with one thing on its mind: overclocking, Extreme Overclocking.com put the board through its paces and decided to give it the Recommended Award. Here are the highlights of the review:

“ABIT is definitely not a stranger when it comes to enthusiast motherboards. Over the years, they have provided some of the best mainboards in terms of features and overclocking options. When Intel released the 875P (canterwood) chipset, ABIT designed the IC7-G motherboard. The item was a success attracting most of the overclockers and at one time 9 out of the top 10 3DMarks scores were all obtained using the IC7. If there is one thing about ABIT that makes them different, it has to be that they know how to push the envelope even further.

You may remember ABIT's OTES (Outside Thermal Exhaust System) first being introduced on their GeForce 4 TI4200 video cards. The cooling device was very unique in that it cooled the card as well as expelling the warm air out the back of the case. The "new" IC7 MAX3 also uses this cooling system. OTES for the MAX3 is designed to keep the power regulation mosfets and capacitors cool, which are some of the hottest components on a motherboard. Some people have performed tests showing that the cooler you can keep these parts, the better the power and overclocking experience. So is this board going to be the new overclocking king?

Built for Overclockers, By Overclockers

Overclockers will more than likely want to give this board a shot. It is our opinion that the MAX3 can go beyond 320MHz FSB stable but we are going to need some hardcore cooling to prove it. We cannot say how well OTES cools the mosfets and capacitors because we do not have a thermal imaging camera, but you can bet that it has to cool them off considerably versus no heatsinks or fans. There are currently kits available to help keep mosfets cool and they do not come cheap. It was a good idea on ABIT's part to go ahead and incorporate this with the MAX3 because the enthusiast market is growing at a rapid rate.

Overall: 9.5/10

For the full review go here:
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/motherboards/ABIT_IC7_MAX3_1.html

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