The AGP 8x slot implemented on ABIT IC7-MAX3 is equipped with an additional power lines and allows installing AGP Pro graphics cards. In fact, I think this is a pretty arguable solution. The graphics cards for AGP Pro slot haven’t become that popular at all. At the same time, the use of the AGP Pro slot, which is longer than the regular AGP 8x, deprives non-AGP Pro graphics cards of more reliable fastening with the clip at the end of the slot. And taking into account that many contemporary graphics cards are quite big and heavy, this is a serious drawback.

I was also very pleased to find out that ABIT IC7-MAX3 was equipped with Gigabit network controller. Moreover, it is implemented in the Intel PRO/1000CT Gigabit LAN (Intel 82547) chip, which means that the network controller is connected not to the chipset South Bridge via the PCI bus, but directly to the chipset North Bridge via a special dedicated CSA bus with 2Mbit/sec bandwidth. It means that the integrated LAN of ABIT IC7-MAX3 will work faster than similar solutions connected via the PCI bus. Besides, the PCI bus of ABIT IC7-MAX3 will be less loaded and will have more resources free for other devices, this way.

It was a bit of a surprise for me that ABIT used 6-channel AC’97 codec – Realtek ALC650. Of course, I don’t deny that during its relatively long lifetime this solution proved to be pretty good. It supports S/PDIF, is equipped with high-quality drivers and provides good sound quality. However, there are much more advanced ALC codecs from Realtek in the market today, as well as a lot of top-end solutions from Analog Devices and VIA. I believe that ABIT could have selected a more up-to-date product for their IC7-MAX3 mainboard.

Since ABIT IC7-MAX3 is in a way connected with the ABIT MAX-products family, it also features a lot of external ports, just like its predecessors. Due to the ICH5R South Bridge, the board is equipped with eight USB 2.0 ports. Four USB 2.0 ports are laid out on the mainboard rear panel, while the remaining four can be obtained by connecting a few external brackets. Unfortunately, there is only one bracket with two additional ports on it included into the mainboard package. The same bracket also carries two IEEE1394 ports (one 6-pin and one 4-pin port). Besides, one more 6-pin IEEE1394 connector is situated on the mainboard rear panel. The integrated Texas Instruments TSB41AB3 controller is responsible for the work of these three FireWire ports.

In fact, there is one more feature which indicates that ABIT IC7-MAX3 belongs to the MAX-product series: this mainboard has no standard COM or LPT ports. It’s true that these low-speed interfaces fade out little by little, however, the absence of the LPT port may upset many people who use NewTek Lightwave 3D and other similar programs protecting against illegal data copy, because many of them require a parallel port. Well, I still didn’t manage to find out what ABIT actually suggests for those users who still have older devices supporting these interfaces.