Part Two: A Look At The Board...

We have started with the package for a very good reason; look how much you will receive! Abit are not well known for over generous mainboard bundles but this pack contains a wealth of tech riches. One wouldn't think you'd need more expansion potential but Abit have included their usual USB bracket for a further two ports. With the potential for so many IDE devices it's nice to see the inclusion of four ATA 133 cables , particularly the stylish black types branded by Abit. Maybe in the future Abit will include rounded cables, in our opinion, that would be nice! We also have a new back plate for our box, the unconventional yet innovative layout of this board requires us to remove the holes for those 'old' PS2 based interfaces. Along side the usual driver/demo CDROM we even have blue cable tidies for those who keep a neat interior.

The board is really a quite beautiful sight, innovation such as this is a pleasure to see, breaking from the norm' requires confidence and courage and Abit seem to have an abundance of both. Let's look closer...

Remember I will's KK266+? The nicely styled plastic casing was a great idea and Abit have adopted a similar protection method for their MAX series. Damage during transit is almost inevitable but this method ensures only the outer container receives the brunt of Mr. UPS's carelessness.

Here is that strange rear shot of the AT7 MAX. Just look at that beautiful lack of legacy devices! I've no need to report on Abit's excellent build quality by now, we've seen in our previous reviews that the overall production quality is always stunning.

The actively cooled VIA chipset is the KT333 CE variant, the only choice for stability and overclockability in AMD based boards. The three phase power support should only increase our chances of the typical huge Abit FSB's.

The HighPoint RAID controller allows for an amazing eight channel RAID. Quite how you'd justify the need for such a large array is a mystery to me but I'm sure many people are in the position to see just what such a powerful solution can do. (No, I'm afraid I don't have eight Hard Drives to test it fully!) We can also see the one bow to legacy support, the floppy connection. I'm sure most people use this drive for BIOS flashing only these days but it's certainly still a vital inclusion.

Perhaps the only initial negative feature of the MAX series are the boards few PCI slots. While many would suggest with such a feature rich board there is little need for five PCI slots I would disagree. With standards in audio and communication changing so frequently, it will be sooner rather than later when upgrading becomes a primary concern once more.

Overall then this is another excellent board from Abit. The innovation is clear for all to see, let's just hope the performance can match the stunning features.

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