Abit AW8-MAX v1.0

Conclusion:

Powered by the i955X + ICH-7R Chipset, the Abit AW8-MAX motherboard ships with all of the latest features at this time if you are building an Intel rig whether it be for gaming or related tasks. With support for 8GB of DDR2-667 RAM, Pentium D CPUs, PCI Express, SATA2, and Intel Matrix RAID, this motherboard comes packed with features to your heart's delight. In addition, the AW8-MAX comes frosted with a second Broadcom NetLink Gigabit controller, Silicon Image SATA controller to provide an additional two ports, and Texas Instruments Firewire controller to provide IEEE-1394b/a connectivity. When it comes to the performance of the AW8-MAX against the AW8 vanilla, there isn't much in the way of a performance gap between the two boards in our testing. While the MAX variant provides more in the way of expansion and connectivity possibilities, both motherboards provide excellent, and near equal, performance while the AW8-MAX comes packed with additional logic. When it comes to the price of both of these motherboards, the AW8 retails for approximately $170 USD while the AW8-MAX sells for approximately $220 USD at this time. This $50 USD price gap can be displeasing to some users, but if you are after doing any Firewire video editing or creating a large server setup with a multitude of SATA devices the AW8-MAX is very much worth its higher price point. However, the AW8 i955X series does possess a few dismal points and most notably, is the lack of a second PCI Express x16 port. Although NVIDIA has yet to officially recognize Intel's Chipsets for official SLI certification, we would have enjoyed seeing this additional PCI Express port to allow for further expansion possibilities. Another tenebrous point for enthusiasts or hobbyists in some respects is the BIOS. We had noticed while at stock speeds and overclocking that the Vcore would often be under-volted in addition there have been some DDR2 compatibility issues and other hiccups with the AW8 series. We have asked Abit for an ETA for the next BIOS release and if any of these problems will be resolved, but at the time of publication for this article, we have yet to hear back from them with any official word. However, when it comes down to it, the AW8-MAX is one of the best fully loaded i955X motherboards presently available in the United States markets. In fact, if we had to choose an Intel motherboard for personal use, it would easily be the Abit AW8-MAX due to its competitive performance, onboard ASICs, and excellent Linux compatibility. Of course, this will likely change next month and in early January as the Intel i975X-based motherboards begin to surface in retail channels and while Abit is feverishly working on its i975X line-up. So far, what is scheduled for an Abit i975X launch in December or early January of 2006 is what appears will be the AW8D-MAX and will feature all of the joys of the i955X series but will come equipped with dual PCI Express x16 slots for expected ATI CrossFire and NVIDIA SLI compatibility.