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| ABIT IC7 MAX3 A Bit Less Legacy | ||
| (Review by MS, September 28, 2003) |
Conclusion
The IC7 MAX3 follows in the footsteps of ABIT's line of Legacy-Free mainboards. In general, the move towards getting rid of the old ballast is commendable, especially since it puts some pressure on the manufacturers of proprietary software to come up with a different encryption scheme for their authorization of use (just when we have learned how to crack some of them). On the other hand, like with any pioneer, there will be fatalities. For myself, as much as I like the IC7 MAX3, I would not be able to use it as my main setup for exactly those reasons.
Speaking of encryption, I am not convinced of the value of the SecureIDE interface either since the only real value it has is protection against physical theft of the HDD but in that case, any thief would be foolish to leave the X-Wall in place. Or else, they would only need to buy another one. Encryption like this can be cracked offline, all it takes is some time. Encryption could be a valid issue when it comes down to some top secret environments, where Tom Cruise performs another Mission Impossible, anywhere else, the X-Wall chip appears to feed on paranoia generated by the increase in cybercrime rather than adding much value.
The same interface would certainly be of merit in a removable / portable drive situation where the risk is not so much theft but inadvertent loss and consequent "accidental" access to sensitive data by third parties. There is, however, another point for X-Wall which is the second hand market for computer equipment, that has developed into a meat market for personal information retrieved from used HDDs. Here is where a lockout could really be beneficial.
Back to the IC7 MAX3
One thing is for certain, with respect to performance, it can run with the best, with respect to layout, it is flawless, and with regards to eye candy, it beats the rest of the pack hands down, unless somebody has a fluorescent fetish.
The VRM OTES is something that needs to be evaluated in a long-term survey and see how it holds up or whether the wind-tunnel will turn into a first rate aircleaner by trapping any dust bunny that comes along. Fortunately, there are the green lights, once those start to dim, it could be a sign for some serious accumulation of dirt inside the duct.
There are still some sore thumbs on the IC7 MAX3. The first set of issues concerns the problems with higher system memory configurations, most likely, a better tuning of the drive strength compensation will be able to solve this issue, hopefully with one of the next BIOS issues. Within the same category is the issue of losing the memory ratio settings after more than 15 min of power down. It appears as if there is some kind of glitch in the BIOS that needs to be addressed.
The second issue is the cross talk between the ALC650 and the other system components. Mind me saying that with inferior and even midrange speakers this will hardly be noticed. On the other hand, for anybody trying to use the onboard sound for something better than listening to the "WindowsXP" chimes, the constant beeping and scratching in the background are extremely annoying, especially since every single mouse movement is translated into hissing and squeaking. We tried adding some shielding but it didn't really help much, on the other hand, our resources are limited. Anyway, it is not as bad as it sounds (no pun intended) but it needs some attention, especially at a price tag of ~ US$ 220.
Overall, the IC7 MAX3 is among my favorite boards, and I think that says it all but it needs a little more work on the BIOS and probably a better Audio CODEC.
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