ABIT IT7 MAX2 Motherboard

Company: ABIT
Product: IT7 MAX2  Rev. 1
Street Price: ~$169 USD
Date Reviewed: November 13, 2002
Reviewed By: Joey C. aka Chong345
Rating: (9/10)

Board Layout and Features:

The black PCB is a nice color and a little different from the IT7 MAX boards goldish orange color. Everything is in its proper place and well constructed. The power connections are at the top of the motherboard so that the cables do not interfere with other parts such as the heatsink mounted on the CPU. The IDE slots on the motherboard sit towards the top of the case, which is good for those that have full towers and short cables. There are five fan headers, which allows for many fans for cooling. Three DIMM slots are on the motherboard. This should be enough for just about any user.

The IT7 MAX2 also now has two PS2 ports. There is one for the mouse and one for the keyboard. The original IT7 did not have PS2 ports, which probably upset a few consumers, but now this issue has been resolved. The only thing that could be better is if ABIT put an active cooling solution on the motherboard's Northbridge as opposed to the passive one that is currently on the Northbridge. The Northbridge does run very hot especially at high Front Side Bus speeds and I feel that the extra bit of cooling could help in overclocking higher.

One thing on this board that is a little different from other boards is that it has two buttons by the LED display. The buttons are for powering on and resetting as well. This does not really make any difference since most people will use the power switches on their case but it is a nice feature to have for those who have testing machines and do not have power switches readily available. In addition, a speaker is on the motherboard so it will also benefit people who do not have or use the speaker on their case. All the ports on the back of the motherboard are in the usual spots. ABIT has also provided a back plate for your case since there are so many different ports.

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