Great board this, using one myself :)
Ask'n for a lil advice across the pond!
Here is what I have been considering for an upgrade:
P4 2.4c w/ IC7-Max3
Corsair Twinx1024-4000
(2) Seagate ST380013AS 80g SATA drives w/ Zalman ZM-2HC1 Sinks
Zalman CNPS7000 Heatsink
I'm interesting in purchasing quality components with a lil bit of overclocking - nothing too extreme anymore cause stability is important. As well, you can see based on the heatsinks and hard drives that sound is an issue as well. I have been running a machine with an Ole Dragon Orb3 heat sink and my wife calls it the helicopter! As well, I have 2 UW Cheetahs screamin along with it.
Any suggestions on the setup? I want to stick pretty much with the same processor due to budget constraints. And, will the Zalman heatsink fit on the mobo?
If you feel I should consider a different mobo, keep in mind I'm switching from a current RAID-0 Ultra-Wide SCSI setup to something comparable. For cost and closest comparison to performance it looks like the stripping SATA drives is the best route and this board appears to ahve a good SATA controller, agree?
dam just when am set on a new mobo you come along with a review that makes me think again…….
Is it possible to run the board without the exta cooling ?
Its not going to be oc'd just I want the 6 sata and other bits it has? :)
The ‘OTES’ cooling is only attached by 2 screws in the mounting places, that's it. Easy enough to remove the nuts and take it off.
Board undervolts like a ***** and i'm not particularly impressed with it, but i'll stick with it for a while..
Yup, I have my board, running great. I removed the two bolts for the cooling system, just so that my board wouldnt short out, or atleast try to >.<… Plus, Lian Li is missing a hole for it, looks like i'm going to be drilling a new one !
I think Abit are taking the mickey a bit. The IC7-G is barely out and they call this the Max3 as if it was something really special but all it seems to have is a couple more SATA connectors and a cooling system that half the thread posters want to remove!
is it possible to place 6 SATA harddrives on the same raid volume?
The main advantage I see is in the bios, the IC7 and IC7-G only give you volt options up to 2.8, but the MAX3 gives you up to 3.1, now for PC4000 or PC4200 this stuff loves 2.9-2.95 and is still under warranty up to 2.95 :)
That would be a major plus for me……
IC7 is enough for me, I cant see why I would fork out an extra 60 for the IC7 - MAX3