ABIT KV8-MAX3 supports three IEEE1394 ports due to the TSB43AB23 controller from Texas Instruments. One of them is situated on the mainboard back panel, and two more (4-pin and 6-pin ones) are found on the bracket for the back panel of the system case (the one that has USB 2.0 ports, too). In our ABIT IC7-MAX3 Review I complained that that mainboard had no diagnostic tools. ABIT made amendments in its KV8-MAX3: the mainboard comes with a diagnostic controller that displays POST codes on the two-position digital indicator located on the left lower corner of the PCB. This tool will help localize and (hopefully) eliminate any hardware problems occurring on the startup.

Winding up this section of the review, I would like to dwell upon the Secure IDE controller you receive with the mainboard. We discussed it in detail in our ABIT IC7-MAX3 Review, so I will just briefly remind you that Secure IDE is a daughter card to be attached between the HDD and the mainboard. The Secure IDE controller encrypts data that pass through it in real time; it is compatible with the Parallel ATA interface. The eNOVA X-Wall LX-40 chip used in the Secure IDE system performs encryption using the open DES algorithm with a 40-bit key.

You connect the controller card to the HDD and the mainboard, then connect the power cable and use your hardware key. The hardware key (you get 2 identical keys) is connected via a special cord that goes outside of the system case. If the key is in the lock on startup, Secure IDE starts decrypting the data on the HDD until the next system reboot. If there is no key on startup, the HDD will be inaccessible.

The Secure IDE system is more reliable than software solutions, since the entire disk is encrypted in this case, including the boot sector and housekeeping information. Besides that, Secure IDE doesn’t require any software or drivers – all encryption tasks are solved on the hardware level, with a slight performance tradeoff. The central processor doesn’t have to bear another load, while Secure IDE is fully compatible with any operation system.