Introduction

ABIT revolutionalized the world of overclocking with their SoftMenu™ BIOS configuration utility and become extremely popular when they released their famous Intel BX motherboards. Unfortunately, ABIT's innovativeness has waned since.

ABIT has not been releasing anything quite as revolutionary over the last few years, which allowed other motherboard manufacturers to catch up in features and innovation. Then in 2003, ABIT released their µGuru™, a powerful utility to monitor and control motherboard temperatures, including fan speed controls and temperature alarms.

And now, ABIT is back again! This time, they have released what appears to be a refined motherboard based on the latest Intel 955X chipset - the ABIT AW8-MAX! Let's see if the AW8-MAX will regain ABIT its former glory as the manufacturer of the ultimate enthusiast's motherboard!

ABIT AW8 Motherboards

Unlike the recent ABIT Fatal1ty series, this motherboard caters more to the high performance enthusiast, rather than pure gamers. This motherboard is designed to challenge top-of-the-end motherboards like the ASUS P5AD2 Premium, which we have reviewed in the past.

While the ASUS P5AD2 Premium motherboard was extravagantly-loaded with features and onboard devices, ABIT has clearly gone for a leaner approach. The ABIT AW8-MAX comes with fewer onboard devices, SATA and PATA ports.

Just like how ASUS has two versions of the P5AD2 motherboard - the Deluxe and Premium editions, ABIT has similarly released two versions of the AW8 motherboard - the plain jane AW8, and AW8-MAX.

Both AW8 and AW8-MAX share the same PCB design, and come with very similar features. The key differences are the lack of two SATA ports, and three IEEE 1394 Firewire ports in the AW8. But clearly, there are other features that separate the two motherboards.

Now, the AW8 motherboarods are based on the new Intel 955X chipset, which is the updated version of the 925X launched last year. It features support for dual core Intel processors, which is not supported by any other chipsets other than i945 or i955.

Before we start looking at AW8-MAX, let's see what the Intel i955X chipset has to offer!

Intel 955X Chipset

The Intel 955X chipset comes with some improvements over the 925X chipset. For example, higher system bus speed support, the new ICH7 south bridge with SATA 3 Gbps support, higher maximum memory limit, and the removal of the GbE Dedicated Network Bus.

The chart did not mention the proper support for dual core processors in both 955X and 945 chipsets. The new ICH7 was introduced to support the latest SATA 3 Gbps standard.

The i955X is the third high-end chipset to be released within a year by Intel, in their desperation to find an edge to overcome AMD's domination over the past few years. Let's see if ABIT can get it right with this chipset!