 October 12, 2006 – When we think of a Viper Lair, we think of a venomous snake ready to strike at the unworthy, or a place where we park one of the fastest American muscle cars in the world. In a way, the Viper Lair really is just that; a place where the unworthy gets pushed out and the best performing hardware get to "park" and stay! While abit hasn't visited the Viper Lair in a while, we are "now back, and back with a vengeance" , to quote the Viper Lair editors.
Before Viper Lair went into the juicy benchmarks and overclockability of the AW9D-MAX, they commended on abit's packaging by stating: "I've found the quality of packaging as well as the presentation a bit lacking with some boards. Not so with abit's latest as some key components are displayed through a box window and every accessory is neatly packed into their own box or compartment. This serves to keep items grouped together as well as decreasing the possibility that a stray part will damage a key item in the shipping process."
 As we know, presentation is a key element but can the abit AW9D-MAX perform just as well? Here is what Viper Lair has to say: "The algorithms and methods have changed since the last version of Sandra... In each test, the abit AW9D-MAX holds a significant lead over the [competitor's] board". In another test: "The abit AW9D-MAX holds an obvious lead in the gaming portion of 3DMark, and a smaller one in the CPU tests."
After all the tests were finished, Viper Lair concluded that "abit is certainly a welcome sight on our lab bench after all this time. The AW9D-MAX was very impressive throughout testing. It was the fastest overall Intel motherboard we've tested in the past 18 months at stock speeds and one of the best overclocking platforms for our 840XE."
For the full review, go to:
http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cpu_mobo/abit/9xx/aw9dm/index.shtml
For more information on the AB9 Pro, go here: Universal abit AW9D-MAX | 
