Motherboard manufactures are switching away from beep codes to report errors and replying on other methods. The
KV8-MAX3 has a two number LED display that will display a number of the error. Users with windows in the side of their cases can easily red the numbers and look up the problem. Those without the window will, of course, have to open the case to see. I would’ve liked to have to have external front plate, perhaps the size of a floppy drive, with the LED display and maybe some USB ports for those of us without windowed cases. In any case, I do like the number display to help diagnose errors.
The floppy and IDE cable are rounded allowing for better airflow through your system. The connectors have tabs that ease the task of pulling them free from storage devices. For good air flow through the case, rounded cables help immensely and ABIT’s decision to include them with the motherboard should please enthusiasts as well as regular computer users. The board also comes with four SATA cables.
The back connector area, as stated earlier, lacks serial or parallel ports but has plenty of connection options. Four USB ports and one firewire port allows for peripheral connections. The back still does have PS/2 ports for mouse and keyboard. Five audio connectors lets you connect 2.1 to 5.1 style audio systems and lets you attach a mic and/or a line in option. And finally for audio, an optical in and out connectors give you digital connections to receivers or other audio equipment. If you’re on a budget and don’t want to spend more for a sound card, the Realtek solution should be more than adequate.
Like most ABIT boards, the BIOS allows for many tweaks and adjustments. You can adjust your system as you pleas with a plethora of options. It’s a Phoenix AwardBIOS and while it offers probably anything you’ll ever need in tweaking a system, the uGuru system lets you access the many of the BIOS’s functions in Windows.
Now that you’ve read about the design, let’s get to some benching. Here are the specs of what was used to test:
AMD64 3200+
2 Crucial PC3200 256MB sticks
Maxtor 120 GIG 7200RPM HD
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 XT
Windows XP Service Pack 1
What you will see is the
KV8-MAX3 board running up against the FIC
K8-800T, both using the same VIA chipset. First up is some synthetic benchmarking. Let’s start with
PC Mark 2004.
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