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ABIT KV8-MAX3

As ABIT’s flagship AMD board, the KV8-MAX3 combines the VIA K8T800 chipset with ABIT’s own OTES and uGuru technologies. This MAX series board serves up support for AMD's Athlon64 754-pin CPU.

Introduction

ABIT has been renowned in the enthusiast crowd since even before the good old days of the Celeron 300a. ABIT’s commitment for taking the overclocking experience to the next level is legendary, as witnessed by their past achievements like the SoftMenu interface, and their current breakthrough technologies including OTES and uGuru.

The KV8-MAX3 is ABIT’s latest MAX family addition, bringing both the OTES cooling and uGuru technologies to the table. ABIT chose to design this board around the VIA K8T800 chipset. The chipset boasts support for the AMD Athlon64 754-pin line of processors as well as DDR RAM specified to speeds of PC3200 in Single Channel mode. The KV8-MAX3 is a feature complete solution, as is the rest of the MAX line, including the following built in features: 2 ATA-133 ports; 2 SATA-150 ports with built-in RAID0 and RAID1 support through the VIA VT8237 Southbridge chipset; 4 SATA-150 ports with built-in RAID0, RAID1, and RAID0+1 support through the Silicon Image RAID controller; 8 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 3 IEEE 1394a capable ports (1 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 1 full sized and 1 mini port); 3Com Gigabit Ethernet; Realtek 6 channel audio featuring S/PDIF optical input and output ports; and PS/2 port support.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Packaging

The KV8-MAX3 packaging sports the standard MAX line cover art, simply featuring a stylized picture of the board itself. The Athlon64 logo is prominently displayed in the lower left corner, along with the OTES and uGuru logos. Inside the box, you find the following items: ATA 133 and floppy rounded cables, 4 SATA 150 cables, 2 dual ended SATA power plugs, the rear panel shield, the USB2.0/IEEE 1394a bracket, and the normal complement of driver CDs and manuals. In addition, ABIT includes a "Secure IDE" device, enabling the lock down of a selected IDE device with a physical key mechanism. The Secure IDE device itself supports 40 bit DES style hardware encryption.

Board Layout

ABIT designed with the KV8-MAX3 masterfully, with very few areas to be wary of. As first glance, the AGP slot seems to be a bit close in proximity to the DIMM slots which could lead to contention between the two. However, I found no problem inserting or removing DIMMs from any slots with an ATI 9700Pro seated in the AGP slot. The locations of the ATX and ATX12V connectors are a bit inconvenient, as well as the location of the CMOS reset jumper. Note that the board under review is a revision 1.0 board. ABIT chose to use the highest quality capacitors for this board, manufactured by the noted Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Rubycon.

The CPU socket area is relatively clear of obstructions as long as a HSF unit is used that fits within the spec AMD mounting cage. As you can see from the picture, the Alpha HSF, which mounts directly to the bottom plate without the top mounting bracket, comes in direct contact with the Northbridge HSF unit, the capacitor directly above the socket, and a portion of the OTES housing itself. The Alpha HSF is a very tight fit, but it does fit on the CPU. You may have a bit of a challenge removing and replacing the Northbridge HSF though.

The Northbridge itself is actively cooled, with its BIOS monitored NBFAN1 header between it and the OTES housing. The HSF unit is held to the chipset with 2 push pins that mount through the motherboard, requiring motherboard removal for removal/attachment of the Northbridge HSF unit. The ATX and ATX12V power connectors are directly above and to the right of the Northbridge. This location, while not ideal, is ok due to the fact that the cables can be routed behind and to the right of the OTES housing. That way, the power cables from the two connectors do not impede airflow or get in the way too much. The BIOS monitored SYSFAN1 header, which the OTES fan uses, sits directly above the ATX power connector. Note that the ATX12V connector can be a bit of a challenge to get to since it is sandwiched between the ATX power connector and the OTES housing. As far as OTES goes, I’m a bit disappointed with ABIT’s implementation this time around. Unlike the OTES implementation on the IC7-MAX3, the KV8-MAX3’s OTES does not have heatsinks on any of the MOSFETS. There still is a good amount of air blowing over the MOSFETs and capacitors located under the OTES housing, but the moving air would better disperse the MOSFETs’ heat with heatsinks fixed to them. Keep in mind we do not have any thermal data to support our disappointment, but certainly the heatsinks on the MOSFETs would be a welcomed addition. The BIOS monitored CPUFAN1 header is located along the right side of the board between the OTES housing and the uppermost DIMM slot.

Editor's Note: We have seen three implementations of OTES on an ABIT mainboard so far, and every time it has been somewhat different than the last. It would be my opinion that ABIT is learning more about OTES as they go and are making the needed changes to improve their unique cooling system.

The KV8-MAX3 has 3 DIMM slots total, with full support for PC3200 memory populating all slots as the same time. From first look, it seems that the upper DIMM slots may be hard to use with an AGP card seated in the board. In practice, I found that this was not the case. ABIT spaced the two far enough apart such that only an overly long AGP card will get in the way of the DIMM slots. Just below the DIMM slots are the boards 2 ATA-133 IDE ports.

The VIA VT8237 Southbridge chipset is situated just below PCI slot 2, with its 2 RAID capable SATA 150 ports just below it. To the left of the SATA 150 ports is the CMOS jumper. I found that with cables connected to the VIA SATA ports, the CMOS jumper was a bit tricky to get to. Just above the VT8237 chipset are the 2 onboard USB 2.0 headers. Just below and to the right of the VIA SATA 150 ports are the CMOS battery, the onboard speaker, and the BIOS monitored AUXFAN2 header. To the left of the CMOS battery and the VIA SATA 150 ports are the onboard 2-digit Diagnostic LED display and the floppy port. I was pleasantly surprised to see an onboard Diagnostic LED display on this board, since normally EPOX is one of the few manufacturers to include them onboard. In the lower left corner of the board is the front panel connector header. ABIT’s uGuru chipset is located just above the floppy connector. The uGuru chipset allows for hardware control and monitoring of the board via the Windows based uGuru application suite. The Silicon Image RAID controller is located just below PCI slots 4 and 5, with its 4 SATA 150 ports arrays along the lower left side of the board. The System Management Bus header, SMBUS1, is located just to the right of the lower two Silicon Image SATA 150 ports.

The board comes standard with a total of 1 AGP slot, and 5 PCI slots. Notice the extra space between the AGP slot and PCI slot 1. ABIT chose to include this to allow better airflow between the system and the AGP card, especially when using a 2 slot AGP card. The BIOS monitored AUXFAN1 header is located just to the left of PCI slot 5, with the CD_IN, AUX_IN, and front panel audio headers situated just above PCI slot 4. Note that the rear panel audio ports will not function unless pins 5/6 and 9/10 on the front panel audio header are jumpered. The two onboard IEEE 1394a headers are sandwiched between the AGP slot and PCI slot1. Also, the board’s two LEDs are located just above PCI slots 4 and 5. LED1 illuminates when an active power source is connected to the board, while LED2 illuminates when the system is physically powered on.

The KV8-MAX3 has the following items integrated in to its rear panel: the OTES output fan; PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; 1 IEEE 1394a port; 4 USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit LAN Ethernet port; 5 audio ports; and S/PDIF optical input and output ports. The OTES fan is nearly silent, but surprisingly expels a good amount of air.

uGuru

ABIT’s uGuru chipset technology allows for real time monitoring and tweaking of various motherboard parameters from within the Windows environment. The suite of applications work in tandem with the onboard uGuru chipset to receive data concerning hardware health, as well as to implement changes in current hardware settings such as FSB and voltage. The suite is broken in to a series of six applets: ABIT EQ, OCGuru, ABIT Audio EQ, FanEQ, FlashMenu, and ABIT BlackBox.

The OCGuru applet allows for real time modification to the board FSB and voltage settings. In Turbo mode, the user has access to modify the CPU FSB only via the Ext. Clock slider. Note that changing the CPU FSB also modifies the AGP, PCI, and HyperTransport FSBs. The CPU Info box within the Turbo section lists processor specific information. Within the F1 Mode section, The user is given control over the board FSB, as well as the CPU, AGP, and DDR voltages. For specifics concerning the allowed voltage and FSB settings, please see the BIOS section of the review. Note that settings are not applied until the Apply button is selected. One other feature offered is the ability to save selected settings under customized naming schemes.

The ABIT EQ applet allows for real time monitoring of all BIOS monitored fans, system voltages, and temperatures. The interface allows for full customization through the Monitor Settings and the Display Settings windows. In the Monitor Settings window, you can select upper and lower thresholds for all monitored items as well as the system response, such as system shutdown. The Display Settings window allows you to customize what monitors display in the main interface and how and where they display within the interface.

The FanEQ applet controls the behavior of the 3 BIOS monitored fan headers: SYSFAN1, CPUFAN1, and NBFAN1. For each fan header, you are able to set a reference temperature based on the BIOS monitored temperatures available and the fan operation mode. In addition, a graph shows how the fan’s performance will be affected by the selected temperature as it rises and falls. The AudioEQ applet is ABIT’s replacement for the Realtek audio configuration application, offering the same options in a different interface. The FlashMenu applet allows for archiving of the currently loaded system BIOS as well as updating the system with a new BIOS from within Windows.

The BlackBox applet is an error reporting tool, with which you can record system specifications and submit the generated report directly to ABIT’s Support department. The information that is sent to their support team, should you have a problem, can tremendously speed up the amount of time it takes for them to properly service you.