Date: May 27th, 2004
Article by: Roger (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner, Head Editor & Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: Abit
<---SHOP FOR THE ABIT KV8-MAX3 K8T800 ATHLON64 MOTHERBOARD HERE

ABIT CORPORATE PROFILE

The brand name 'ABIT" has been a symbol of quality, performance, and stability for a long time. No matter where you are, you can find ABIT's products and the spirit our products have. It is a great honor for us to be one of the premier motherboard manufacturers in the world. Without every employee's hard work and outstanding teamwork, it is impossible for ABIT to achieve all this. ABIT has also had the help and support of great partners along the way.

Looking towards the future. ABIT will never be content only being a world-class motherboard manufacturer. We want to create new lifestyles and explore new IT innovations. That is why we created The MAX Series. True to its name, MAX has the functionality to allow you to maximize what the future has to offer. In addition to the motherboard market, we keep inventing new products and expanding our markets; our multimedia, server, and barebones systems are excellent examples of our goal for expansion. By making different types of products to fit all kinds of consumer tastes, we are able to make more consumers benefit from ABIT's spirit of quality and innovation.

PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

ABIT has long been a name synonymous with excellence. Speed. Stability. Power. These words are used by ABIT to describe itself. Most would agree. ABIT has always been a favourite of serious users, overclockers and enthusiasts.

Today, I've the pleasure of reviewing ABIT's Athlon 64 MAX3 board, the KV8-MAX3. The MAX3 line has developed a very strong following among overclockers due to the insane potential it offers. From high voltages to fantastic BIOS control, it just calls out to people who demand the best from their motherboards.

From ABIT:

"The KV8-MAX3 is equipped with features never even conceived for a desktop motherboard. For users who require MAXimum security and storage, the ABIT MAX3 features 6 channel serial ATA RAID with the Silicon Image 4-port serial ATA RAID controller plus native 2 channel support, as well as ABIT's latest ABIT Engineered™ feature: Secure IDE™. But what is most exciting about MAX3 is that it features the most advanced cooling technology ever seen before on a motherboard - OTES."

This board offers so many options and will appeal to a wide range of users. Let's take a closer look.

Benefits of VIA K8T800

VIA Hyper8™ Technology

VIA's ground breaking Hyper8™ technology provides a full 16-bit/800MHz on upstream and downstream buses of HyperTransport link between the K8T800 North Bridge and next generation 64-bit compatible platforms based around AMD Athlon™ 64 and Opteron processors, achieving data transfers speeds of up to 6.4GB/s. Read more about Hyper8 technology. Read more about Hyper8 technology here.

VIA Modular Architecture Platform

To best exploit the rapid pace of innovation in the PC industry, particularly with reference to I/O technology, VIA have opted for a classic North/South Bridge configuration allowing for the most scalable mainboard design, enabling new functionality to be integrated in an expedient and practical manner, thus providing the fastest time to market with new features and system performance enhancements.

Native Serial ATA/RAID Support

The VIA DriveStation™ Controller Suite with native dual channel Serial ATA/RAID controller, provides direct support for two 150MB/s Serial ATA devices and its unique SATAlite™ interface expands support for two additional SATA devices. The V-RAID controller features native RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1* and JBOD, ensuring optimum data integrity and system performance. The user friendly V-RAID software interface enables easy disk array configuration and management.

VIA Vinyl Multichannel Audio Suite

Delivering rich, warm surround sound at resolutions as high as 24/96 through up to six- or eight-channel outputs, the VIA Vinyl Audio 5.1 surround sound and VIA Vinyl Gold Audio 7.1 surround sound enables crisp, clear performance, representing the highest levels of audio quality in a mainstream integrated or onboard solution.

Unified VIA Hyperion 4in1 Drivers

VIA's unified approach to drivers has been established for eight generations of chipsets, allowing end users to benefit from seamless hardware and software compatibility.