Abit KV8-MAX3 (VIA K8T800) Motherboard Review
Expansion options
On the Abit KV8-MAX3, there is a SerialATA/RAID controller Sil3114 made by Silicon Image with support for four SerialATA channels.
Therefore, we can plug in 4 hard disks and merge them into RAID array(s) of levels 0,1 and 0+1. If the functionalities of the south bridge VT8237 are enabled, then you can plug in two SerialATA and four ParallelATA disks. In the end, 10 hard disks altogether can be plugged in to the board: six over the SerialATA interface and four over the ParallelATA, and merge them into two RAID arrays.
USB headers are plugged in to blue connectorsThen, the board offers support for eight USB 2.0 ports, four of which are mounted on the rear panel, with 4 more ports connected with headers. Besides, Abit KV8-MAX3 supports the other type of serial bus, the IEEE1394 ("Firewire"). For that, there is an additional Texas Instruments' TSB43AB23 controller onboard.
Therefore, the board offers support for 3 IEEE1394 ports: one positioned on the rear panel, with the remaining plugged in via a header.
Then, Abit KV8-MAX3 offers integrated audio on the base of the ALC658 codec (compliance with the AC'97 2.3 specifications and support for the Jack Sensing and Universal Audio Jack technologies).
Before the PCI1 slot, there is a high-speed 3COM 940 LAN controller (Gigabit Ethernet).
As regards the rear panel, its configuration is nonstandard.
What catches the eye is the complete lack of parallel and serial ports (LPT/COM). The freed up space is used for installing the OTES meant for cooling the power supply module. Finally, on the rear panel there are PS/2 ports for the keyboard and mouse, audio outputs, SP-DIF InOut, an integrated Firewire, and four USB 2.0 ports.
Traditionally, a jumpers layout diagram:
There is only one jumper onboard: the CCMOS1 is used to clear the BIOS settings (placed near the south bridge).
Now let's list the Abit's proprietary technologies gathered in the mGuru chip. These are Abit EQ, FanEQ, OC Guru, FlashMenu, AudioEQ and BlackBox.
In fact, as we found out in the review on Abit AI7 (Intel 865PE), most of them are of the marketing character. Exceptions are FanEQ and the system for controlling the BIOS setting profiles. And of course of real value is the diagnostic POST controller with 7-stage indicators. However, it doesn't have anything to do with the mGuru, and it appeared on Abit boards still in the times of the i845 chipset (yes, that good old chipset with support for the SDR memory :). Unfortunately, there aren't Power and Reset buttons onboard with which it would be possible to start up the system without plugging in the board to the case (in the review on Shuttle AN50R (nVidia nForce3 150) we noted the inconvenience of the feature).
Now on to the BIOS settings.
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CPU & Memory:
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