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| ABIT IC7 MAX3 A Bit Less Legacy | ||
| (Review by MS, September 28, 2003) |
Onboard LAN
Intel's Communication Streaming Architecture (CSA)-based Gigabit Ethernet controller is currently the probably most advanced Ethernet controller found on any mainboard. From a manufacturer's perspective, the main problem is that the Intel 82547 controller chip is not pin-compatible with other Gigabit solutions like e.g., the one from 3Com / Marvell and, moreover, the trace routing on the mainboard has to be entirely different since the CSA plugs directly into the memory controller instead of utilizing the PCI bus. From a review perspective, the problem is that the bandwidth offered by this solution is too high for any standard setup to be utilized and, therefore, to be benchmarked with the expectation of generating reasonable results. SiSoft Sandra and Hagel's DUMeter are adequate benchmarks, however, the entire approach falls short with a lack of LAN infrastructure. We still tested the functionality but in absence of a Gigabit fabric, we feel that showing benchmarks that are inadequate since they are based on a systematic error would allow for misinterpretation and, therefore, we will skip them.
The RealTek ALC650 does not really hold up to indepth scrutiny, background noise including random beeps and static are picked up from other system components inside the case. Admittedly, though, these artfacts only showed when using high-end output devices, that is the Zalman ZM-RS6F Theatre 6 surround sound headphones.
Onboard Audio
The IC7 MAX3 uses the integrated soft audio processor embedded in the ICH5 with the Realtek ALC650 as physical interface / DAC to the analog I/O ports. The ALC650 audio CODEC is not a bad part but is somewhat limited with respect to the sampling rate and while the overall audio quality is rather decent, it would appear nice to see something more advanced on a board of this class. On the other hand, there is still the possibility to bypass the AC'97 CODEC and using the pure digital data stream through the SPDIF interface.
We used the Zalman Zalman ZM-RS6F Theatre 6 surround sound headphones for checking the audio quality. One thing we noticed about these headphones is that they are merciless with respect to uncovering any inadequacies of the audio equipment. Noises we never noticed over standard speakers became really annoying, especially static generated by the system's own EMI inside the case. When we started using the Zalman headphones, we thought that the artifacts were caused by the gear itself, as it turned out, however, several of the boards we tested over the last few weeks did not exhibit any of the noise symptoms.
Particularly bad in this respect turned out to be the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe where some random beep codes become audible in the background, the SK8N, on the other hand is completely devoid of these artifacts. The ABIT IC7 MAX3 is somewhere in between. There is a lot of annoying background signal, which, unfortunately, is independent of the speaker volume, meaning that, if the sound is cranked up, one will notice less than at low volume where the noise is becoming very annoying. Likewise, most audio applications, once they are actually outputting signal, will somewhat suppress the noise. If the audio drivers are not installed, there is no background noise either, which again pinpoints the onboard audio device as the source of evil.
Admittedly, with standard speaker setup and any background level of noise in the environment, this will be much harder to notice, we still feel, however, that the current solution is in need of substantial improvement. The microphone and line-in worked as advertized. Instead of routing the analog signals to the back panel, a front panel device can be used, in that case, the jumpers on the front panel audio header will need to be changed.
Other Onboard Integrated Peripherals
In the absence of any firewire device, we did not test the communication speed of the IEEE1394 interface, powered by the TI TSB43AB23 firewire controller. USB2.0 was working flawlessly, though.
Jumpers and Connectors
Aside from the Clear CMOS and some jumpers to define power-on devices, there is not much to report. A total of five fan headers, one of which is for the MCH only, supply enough possibilities for hook-up of extra fans. Otherwise, there are the standard audio input headers and last not least the single-file SMBus pin array and that is pretty much it.
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