Top dollar...but is it a top board?

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World Exclusive!!! - Digg It

Great review Kemp, nice bunch of packaging akin to the rocketboy type of stuffz. I do wish the µguru thing was more of a 5.25 bay thingy tbh. Last time I checked, retailers were ramming these devices down peoples throats for like £11 or so - which amazes me why u never had one in the box ?!?

I would hope these good results will boost a tad more after some bios revisions, board to board I`d expect this one to be a bit better than shown - but meh..

Kewl, I recognize some of those photos too

Excellent review as usual mate. The 680i's are toasty little sods for sure, and it's a pity that abit didn't even provide some form of active cooling to try and address the problem. Well done

Their answer, and a few other manufs answer, seems to be to add this ugly looking heatpipe structure to stuff.

Heatpipes are great, but I don`t personally like the idea of 2 or 3 of the hs being connected together.

2 or 3 connected together is fine, but that needs active cooling to work ok

Great review, Kemp, thanks for doing it as I was thinking of grabbing one. Now for my thoughts...

DAMN DAMN DAMN! I think the 680i chipset is good but not the king, would really like to see the 975X (or updated chipset) that can support nVidia's 8800 series gpu's in SLI... and done by ABIT. ABIT boards look great, and with the exception of the EZ PLUG for added graphics power, I like their layouts; not to mention my AW9D was rock-solid, even using an E6600 @ 3.7GHz... my 680i mobo can't touch it, only solid at 3.4GHz or lower.

Like the EZ CMOS as well, no more dip-switch installations! (newer mobos don't have problems like the old mobos after a bad OC, but it's the thought that counts!)

I personally don't see all the fuss over the passive cooling for the NB/SB. My case uses 4 120mm fans on the side of the case, so I get a lot of extra cooling... not to mention the little fan that came with my mobo for the NB, so I don't have a heating problem. I think it works fine, even without the little fan made for the NB; on the other hand, an enthusiast board should give the user the option to remove the passive to add active (fan) cooling solutions. The only thing I wonder about is the need for pipes from SB--NB--PWM... do the pipes really do anything for the cooling?

TJS

Thorough review as always.

You might have mentioned that they definitely are actively working on an updated BIOS though?

you mean like http://www.abit-usa.com/news/2005/20050511.php ?

That's the µguru panel - felt it should have been included with this board - would have certainly been a welcome addition

And yes I was going to put that in, but must have missed it out (twast 2.30am). I'll add it now

btw , I do believe that this is the world's first full published review of the IN9 32X MAX

edit: at least in English. Possibly done on a Japanese/Chinese site etc. where I would only be able to look at pretty pictures.

Oooh wasn't aware of that Come on Google, update that Index

Edit: And in that case - Digg It

Very thorough review like always. Seems like a rock solid board, at stock

Dugg.

Gotta love how 680i gets its butt kicked by 965/975

Great review Kempez. Awesome pictures, using your new camera I'm guessing?

It does in a way...although it seems that in gaming 680i pwns hard...and I'm not quite sure why (linkboost shouldn't work with an x1600Pro)

Thanks and yep with maaa new camera

only going to 440mhz max seems a bit low...

Agreed. I'm talking to abit about that now but the review got published 'cause they'd had over the 24hours to reply

I've seen a screenie at 525 on 1 of the betas plus it seems to be overclocking Kentsfields better than the Striker/eVGA.

P.S. I put a link to your review in [H]ardOCP's forum IN9 32X thread.

Just waiting to hear back from abit atm but I may give it another go on one of the beta's if they ask me too. May need a dedicated fan on the NB though as it's toasty: which I didn't do for the other boards (I hasten to add)

EDIT: abit said they've had 550FSB in the labs

I'm inclined to believe that if the NB was cooled on the ABIT board like it is on the EVGA board it should do much better than 440FSB. I can't see ABIT putting out the smashing AW9D-MAX and then fall on their faces with the IN9 32X-MAX.

TJS

The AW9D-MAX does far from smash, I hated that board, and so did 90% of the other poor ripped off owners of it.

Hey, Frag, mine worked like a charm... didn't know so many had problems (other than Herr Schmidt). I thought a lot of people were getting some pretty good clocks compared to the 680i (don't know too much about the RD600 yet).

TJS

The fact is though that the cooler gets very very hot

Passive chipset heatsink + extremely hot running chipset = ?

I find all this passive heatpipe nonsense very annoying personally. It wouldn't surprise me if it's cheaper than adding a fan, and that's the reason so many manufacturers are taking it onboard.

They build a board for enthusiasts, but the first thing enthusiasts do is rip off the nb cooling and replace it with something else (something that isn't aluminium sprayed in a copper colour).

If only they would implement a decent 3rd party solution or even get a decent solution in-house

Yep, something made out of copper with a fan on top. Not too much to ask really when you're paying over £200 for a motherboard.