September 11, 2006 – Universal abit gave Bit-tech a pre-release sample of the AW9D-MAX to tantalize all taste buds with what's in store for our intrepid abit fans. Based on the 975X chipset, this board is abit's latest flagship. Bit-tech began with an historical amble of beautiful days gone by: "The first iterations of the MAX series came legacy free ( well, almost ) and then the bomb was dropped when abit launched its legendary IC7-MAX3. Ever since then, every new addition to the MAX series has been compared to the IC7-MAX3, and rightly so. There were many more additions to the MAX series on both Intel and AMD platforms, but the IC7-MAX3 was the one that stood out - it is possibly one of the best motherboards I've ever had the pleasure of using.
The AW9D-MAX is based on the same chipset (x75 +1 generation) and this time comes with support for Core 2 chips - there are refinements made to the previous implementation of the chipset and we're sure that abit has used its knowledge of working with the chipset to come up with a stonker."
 Bit-tech felt that abit had created a superior motherboard: "The layout is typical of abit - it's incredibly well thought out and there is a decent amount of space around the CPU socket. The array of heatpipes cover the north and south bridges, along with some of the PWMs next to the CPU socket. There are another two smaller heatsinks covering the remaining portions of the power circuitry surrounding the CPU socket.
There are three power connectors on the mobo, including the standard 24-pin ATX connector, an 8-pin ATX 12v connector and a 4-pin molex for supplying additional power to the two PCI-Express x16 slots when two video cards are installed. These are all in optimal positions near to the edge of the board.
On the whole, the AW9D-MAX looks like it means business but that is only half of the story.. . "
Bit-tech summarized some of the highlights:
- "CPU Clock adjustable from 133-600MHz in 1MHz increments;
- PCI-Express Frequency adjustable from 100-200MHz in 1MHz increments;
- Processor Voltage - CPU vCore from 1.3625V to 1.7125V in 0.0150V increments;
- DDR2 Voltage - adjustable from 1.80V to 2.10V in 0.05V increments, 2.20V, 2.25V, 2.30V, 2.35V, 2.45V, 2.55V, 2.65V;
- Memory dividers - SPD, 533MHz, 667MHz, 800MHz;
- MCH & PCIe 1.5V Voltage - 1.50V to 2.00V in 0.01V increments;
- Memory Timings - CAS, tRCD, tRP and tRAS;
- An impressive selection of fan and voltage monitoring tools under abit EQ."
In conclusion: "The AW9D-MAX was faster in all of the gaming tests run, albeit by a couple of frames per second tops.
I'm excited at the prospect of abit re-uniting itself with the overclocking crowd. It's been a long time since abit was a household name among overclockers, and the AW9D-MAX is a board that could go a long way to help re-establish the abit brand at the top. The AW9D-MAX has all of the bases to establish itself as one of the best 975X motherboards out there…I can see this board setting some records..."
For more information on the abit AW9D-MAX motherboard go here: Universal abit AW9D-MAX
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