Testbed and Methods

During the performance tests we compared the speed of ABIT IC7-MAX3 with that of ASUS P4P800 on i865PE and ASUS P4C800 on i875P, which proved to be the today’s fastest platforms for Pentium 4 processors (see corresponding reviews in the Mainboards section). This comparison will help us to evaluate the true efficiency of ABIT IC7-MAX3 solution and to see whether this product will be able to catch up with the today’s fastest solutions from ASUS.

Our test system was configured as follows:

• Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz CPU;
• Mainboards: ASUS P4P800 (BIOS version 1.08), ASUS P4Ñ800 Deluxe (BIOS version 1.07); ABIT IC7-MAX3 (BIOS version 1.2);
• 512MB (2x256MB) DDR400 SDRAM from OCZ (2-2-2-5 timings);
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 graphics card, Detonator 45.23 driver;
• Seagate Barracuda ATA IV, 80GB.

All tests were run in MS Windows XP SP1. The BIOS’s of all mainboards were set for maximum performance.

Performance

The table below sums up the performance of our testing participants in different applications:

As we see, ABIT IC7-MAX3 proves as fast as ASUS P4C800 on i875P, and sometimes it even outperforms the rival from ASUS!. The same is true for ASUS P4P800. This way,  I can conclude that ABIT IC7-MAX3 boasts very high performance, especially since the products we compared it with have always been among the fastest.

Conclusion

The new ABIT product, ABIT IC7-MAX3, has every right to be called a really remarkable product. It demonstrated very higher performance, excellent stability and wonderful overclocking potential. If we also take into account all the unique features this mainboard supports, such as SerialATA RAID for 4 HDDs, or Secure IDE, then ABIT IC7-MAX3 will truly deserve being called “one of the best”.

However, we shouldn’t disregard the drawbacks as well. It is up to you to decided, whether they are important or not. As for me, I would be happy to have ABIT IC7-MAX3 in my Socket478 testbed for further reviews and test sessions. So, let’s sum up all cons and pros:

Highs:

• Impressively high performance;
• High stability, even with four memory modules;
• Rich set of overclocking friendly features;
• Support of the upcoming Prescott based CPUs;
• Two integrated SerialATA RAID controllers supporting up to 6 SATA HDDs;
• Gigabit Ethernet connected via the CSA bus and IEEE1394 support;
• Smart PCB design and stylish looks;
• Hardware data encoding system – Secure IDE.

Lows:

• High price: over $200;
• Possible problems with large processor coolers;
• Useless OTES technology increasing the noise level.