ABIT AW9D-MAX
Abit has a new 975X Express-based motherboard in its arsenal, the AW9D-MAX, to compliment Intel’s recently released Core 2 family of processors. A custom heatsink and heatpipe apparatus passively cools all of the AW9D-MAX’s major components, keeping the VRM, northbridge, and southbridge temperatures under control without generating any noise.
It fully supports CrossFire, and its dark-colored PCB with black and blue connectors and LEDs on the underside give the AW9D-MAX a menacing look.Best of all, the board is also an excellentperformer. During my testing, the AW9D-MAX, coupled with a Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor, completed the Cinebench multithreaded rendering benchmark in just 28.2 seconds, and it put up 279fps in a low-res F.E.A.R. benchmark run. It’s not all good, though. The AW9DMAX’s slot configuration is a major shortcoming. Built a pair of dual wide graphics cards, though, and you’ll lose the PCI slot and one of the x1 slots, which leaves minimal expansion possibilities. The I/O backplane is also legacy-free with no serial or parallel ports (which is fine in my book),but instead of using the extra real estate for more USB or FireWire ports, Abit simply left the available areas blank.
CaptNemo 2:05 AM
ABIT AW9D-MAX