Abit KV8-MAX3 (VIA K8T800) Motherboard Review

Abit KV8-MAX3
Chipset	VIA K8T800
Processor	AMD Athlon 64 (fsb 200MHz)
Memory	PC1600/PC2100/PC2700/PC3200
HDD	2x UltraDMA/100 4x SerialATA(RAID) 2x SerialATA(RAID)
Additional	3 IEEE-1394 Audio AC'92 v2.2 8 USB 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet
Price:	140$

So, we've got a new MAX motherboard from Abit in our test lab. This is Abit KV8-MAX3 built on the VIA K8T800 chipset and is meant for Socket 754 Athlon 64 processors. Remember that originally the MAX concept was about the maximum expansion of features and options due to very high integration. First boards had a limited number of PCI slots (down to 3), increased number of ports for the USB2.0 and Firewire (e.g. - Abit AT7 MAX). Another distinction of MAX boards was a complete lack of outdated interfaces: PS/2, COM and LPT.

However, such a radical change of the customary design was taken by the users in cool blood. Since Abit is not a "powerhouse of the IT industry" like Intel, then demands from users had to be met in part. Originally, the number of PCI slots was increased (to 4), PS/2 ports were returned to their former place (mind you, not every user is willing to buy a new mouse and keyboard upon replacing the motherboard with a MAX series board). We can observe the consequences of these replacements by the example of Abit IT7-MAX2 v2.0.

Finally, Abit is producing third-generation MAX motherboards. At their expansion options, they are among the best. In particular, the number of PCI slots has grown to 5, and due to the additional 4-channel SerialATA controller the MAX3 series motherboards support 6 channels of this interface (with 2 more channels supported by the chipset). Finally, the distinction of MAX3 board is the integrated cooling system for the power supply module, dubbed OTES. We have seen that on the Abit IC7-MAX3 built on the Intel 875P Canterwood chipset. Now let's see how the MAX3 concept is implemented for AMD Athlon 64 processors.

Abit KV8-MAX3 Specifications

Package

The board is packaged in a custom-made box.

All the components are thoroughly packaged into two cardboard boxes.

Package bundle:

• Motherboard
• 1x software & drivers CD
• One rounded ATA-133 cable and one rounded FDD cable.
• Four SerialATA cables + 2x power adapters (with 2 connectors)
• User's Guide + Quick Setup Manual in English
• Manual on mGuru
• A header for 2 additional Firewire ports and 2 additional USB 2.0 ports
• SecureIDE Kit
• A jumpers layout sticker
• 1x cap for the rear panel
• A drivers floppy for SerialATARAID controllers

Since Abit KV8-MAX3 is positioned as an exclusive product, this has positively affected the packaged bundle. In particular, in the box there are four SerialATA cables and two respective power supply adapters (4 connectors altogether). However, this number does not match the total number of supported SerialATA ports (as many as six). The same can be said about support for the USB: in the box, there is a header for two additional ports, with 4 more positioned on the rear panel. The board supports eight ports altogether - that is, the user would have to purchase a header for two ports elsewhere. But support for the Firewire has been implemented completely: 2 ports on the header and 1 on the rear panel.

Of note are the rounded cables made in a high-quality way (not the way it is on MSI K8T Neo :).

Among the standard components put in the bundle is the cap for the rear panel, a sticker describing the layout of jumpers, as well as a drivers floppy for the SerialATA/RAID controllers.

Of the nonstandard components is the data protection module SecureIDE.

This is sort of a ParallelATA=>encryption module=>ParallelATA adapter which provides for a complete data protection on a hard disk. This device is equipped with two identical keys inserted into the IEEE1394("Firewire") port, as well as respective interface cable.

The encryption module built on the ParallelATA interface for a board aimed at SerialATA looks somehow strange. As I already said in the review on IC7-MAX3, there is an impression that the module is included as an "extra item".

As regards the documentation, there is nothing to complain about: it gives a detailed description of all the jumpers and connectors; there is a description of BIOS settings and the procedure of driver installation. Much focus is given to the BIOS update and setting up RAID arrays.

Seasoned assembly operators will do with a brief guide, but the end user would find it interesting the read a leaflet describing the mGuru features.

Finally, the CD contents includes a complete set of drivers, a user's guide in several languages (English, German, French, Japanese and Chinese; all in the pdf-format) and a set of proprietary utilities.

Resume: for the relatively low price of the board (~$145) the package bundle deserved a firm "4.5/5" mark.

Abit KV8-MAX3 Board Layout

On general lines, the board's design is well-done, however some issues may unnerve the assembly operators. In particular, both power connectors are installed deep inside the power supply module, and from one side they are supported by the chipset cooler, on the other side by the rear panel, from the third the cooler in the processor is a hindrance. Finally, the OTES exhaust pipe also hinders plugging in power cables.

Besides, depending on the length of the video card one or more DIMM slots may prove blocked. Finally, the connectors for plugging in Firewire ports are positioned between AGP and PCI1 slots. As a result, when installing video cards offering massive cooling devices (e.g. Gigabyte GV-N595U-GT (NVIDIA FX 5950 Ultra)), access to the connectors may be a serious issue.

Another thing which I strongly disliked: lack of a plastic frame of the processor socket (as well as the enforcement plate).

Clearly, these components are part of the "box" of Athlon 64, however, there are OEM-processors, as well as coolers not having this type of fastening in the bundle (e.g. Gigabyte GH-PCU21-VG (3D Cooler)).

Near the processor socket there is a connector for plugging in a cooler - the CPUFAN1. Besides it, there are four connectors like this onboard: the SYSFAN1 near the chipset (reserved for the OTES), the NBFAN1 located also there and is meant for the cooler on the north bridge, the AUXFAN1 positioned near the PCI5, and the AUXFAN2 near the battery. The board keeps track of the speed of all the five fans and is able controlling the speed of the three of them (for more details, see the "system monitoring" section).

Above the processor socket there is the north bridge VIA K8T800 cooled by a proprietary cooler.

Since the memory controller is integrated in the processor, the north bridge does the only function - the AGP bus controller, so all the developers have a certain freedom in choosing a seat.

And the DIMM slots (three) are positioned over the other side of the socket:

The maximum memory capacity makes up 3 GB. Once power is applied to the board, a red LED positioned near the DIMM slots immediately lights up. When the board starts up, there lights up another one.

There is an AGP Pro slot with a latch installed onboard. Only 1.5V (or 0.8V) AGP 4x/8x video cards are allowed into the slot.

Besides, there are five PCI slots on the ABIT KV8-MAX3 motherboard.

In view of the presence of a SerialATARAID controller + integrated support for SerialATA, support for the serial bus Firewire (let alone the USB), integrated audio and LAN (Gigabit Ethernet), we can say the five PCI slots are enough for most configurations.

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 connectors

Then, 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.

BIOS

The BIOS of Abit KV8-MAX3 is based on the Award BIOS version.

The company engineers have always been considerate to the "fine" settings. At that, the board is no exception.

The user gets a number of parameters to tune the memory operation settings ("Bank Interleave", "CAS Latency", "Precharge to Active"(Trp), "Active to precharge" (Tras) è "Active to CMD"(Trcd)), as well as several additional. In this section, there is also a parameter in charge of selecting the memory operating frequency.

By now, the "Game Accelerator" technology (or the like) simplifying the tuning of latency timings.

On the other hand, the user gets a very handy feature for saving the BIOS settings as profiles. Up to 5 profiles stored in memory of the mGuru chip are available.

To store a profile, the F6 key is used, and F7 for loading it.

There is a separate section to deal with tuning the HyperTransport bus operation.

Now move on to the section to do with the system monitoring.

All the parameters are partitioned into four groups, the first containing the information on the temperature of the processor, system and power supply module.

Besides, it is possible to install an alarm on overheating and enable the forced system power-off upon attaining a certain temperature. By the way, the hardware protection against overheating is always on and activates once the processor temperature exceeds 100 C.

The next section deals with monitoring the voltage levels.

As we already noted, Abit KV8-MAX3 keeps track of the rotational speed of all the five coolers which may be plugged in.

Starting with version 18 of the BIOS, there have appeared the CPUFAN item responsible for disabling the alarm on low rotational speed (this will be of interest to owners of water-cooled systems or nonstandard coolers).

Finally, a very interesting section FanEQ where the user can set the dependence of fan speed on the temperatures of the processor, system and power supply module.

In fact, at the control over the fans our board is unmatched. As regards support for the Cool'n'Quiet technology, Abit KV8-MAX3 does offer it. To monitor the system condition from within Windows, there is the Abit EQ utility.

Now let's look at the utility for BIOS update running under Windows operating system.

FlashMenu includes a standard set of options: independent connection to Abit website, downloading and flashing the BIOS, saving the old version.

Overclocking and stability

At overclocking, Abit products have always been among the best. Moreover, satisfying the needs of the overclockers is among the priorities in developing hi-end boards. It's already a tradition to gather all the overclocking features in the "SoftMenu" section which is item No.1 in the BIOS menu.

Let's look into them one by one. First off, the Abit KV8-MAX3 allows adjusting the system bus speed within 200 to 300 MHz in 1 MHz increments.

To increase the stability of an overclocked processor, you can try raising the processor voltage. That has been done in a very tricky way: the increment is 0.001V, and the maximum possible increment is 0.35V (i.e. for the processor with the nominal Vcore=1.5V, the maximum voltage = 1.85V).

The next item deals with raising the memory voltage.

The adjustment range is within 2.5V to 3.2V in 0.05-0.1V increments.

Then, Abit KV8-MAX3 allows adjusting the voltage on the AGP speed and that on the HyperTransport bus.

The admissible Vagp values are: 1.5V, 1.55V, 1.6V and 1.65V. The voltage on the V-link can take on the values within 1.2V to 1.4V in 0.05V increments.

Lastly, in the "SoftMenu" section there is the item "Press F8 to OC on the Fly".

Selecting "Y", you invoke setting new processor and memory speeds without re-booting. This allows the user to assess the system stability during the overclocking.

Now, taking a look at the power converter. It uses a 4-phase power scheme, in which there are eight 2200 mkF and four 1200 mkF capacitors.

Now more details on the OTES technology. This is nothing else but a plastic tube with an installed fan which provides air circulation over the components of the power supply module. This allows increasing operational stability at both nominal and increased speeds.

Note that Abit engineers have reduced the cost of the OTES design as compared to that installed on IC7-MAX3. In particular, they gave up using aluminum radiators installed on MOSFETs.

OTES gives maximum effect in those computers in which the power supply area is either poorly ventilated or not ventilated at all. The latter option is possible with the installation a water-cooling system. Besides, when Prescott processors are used, the power supply module experiences increased load. In performing prolonged computations (e.g. encoding media files), OTES guarantees acceptable thermal mode in this area of the system BIOS.

During operation, the plastic airway is nicely highlighted with three red LEDs.

Now on to the practical overclocking.

We were able to overclock this processor to 2200 MHz, like all the other Socket754 boards (except Shuttle AN50R in which the processor was overclocked to merely 2150 MHz).

When it comes to stability, there is one vague point. By default, the board sets the voltage on the HyperTransport bus (hereinafter Vht) equal to 1.2V. At the same time, the system was running quite unstable in the synchronous mode (i.e. with the DDR400 memory). But once we set Vht=1.3V all the problems vanished, and the system was running exceptionally stably.

Performance

I chose the following platforms as the contenders: Soltek 75FRN2-L built on the nForce II chipset with a Barton processor (clock speed = 2GHz, 200õ10), as well as all the remaining boards for Socket754 with the Athlon64 3000+ processor. In a certain sense, this section can be regarded as a replacement to the roundup on motherboards of this type.

Note that by default the board sets the system bus speed (FSB) at 204 MHz, which results in quite substantial rise of the processor clock speed (10õ204=2040MHz). However, we notice this point in good time and forcedly set the FSB to 200 MHz.

In our test configuration, we used the following hardware:

Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks.

Now on to the gaming tests (i.e. real-world applications).

On the whole, Abit KV8-MAX3 showed a performance level typical of motherboards built on the VIA K8T800 chipset.

Final Words

Above all, note the relatively low price set at $145 on the date of publishing the review. For this money, the user gets a well-equipped high-end motherboard with a number of proprietary technologies and utilities. Also note the wide expansion options and a rich set of overclocking tools.

Of special note is the presence of the OTES system that provides for a forced cooling of the power supply module that improves the operational stability. Also draw your attention to the very powerful option of the board in the system monitoring and controlling the fan's rotational speeds.

Conclusion

• Good performance level;
• Support for SerialATA (2 channels; RAID);
• Additional 4-channel SerialATA/RAID controller;
• Integrated 6.1 audio and high-speed LAN (Gigabit Ethernet) controller;
• Support for USB2.0 (8 ports) and IEEE-1394 (Firewire, 3 ports);
• Relatively low price;
• Support for the Cool'n'Quiet;
• A rich set of Abit's proprietary utilities (FlashMenu, EQ etc.);
• Rich package bundle and excellent exterior.

• Flaws in the BIOS

• Powerful overclocking tools

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