Bundle and extras
The large box that the ABIT KV8-MAX3 arrives in is testament to the fact that there's more to it than meets the eye.
Kind of understated for ABIT. No big dragons, demons or devils on the cover makes a refreshing change. The package weighs in at over the 2kg mark. ABIT's packaging with its MAX3 line is one of the reasons for its inflated price.
That's exactly what you get. A bit of everything.
ABIT's manuals are usually amongst the best in the industry. The main instruction manual is easy to read and will help both the novice and learned users to get the most out of the motherboard. The main manual is entirely in English, which is a change from a number of other manufacturers. We consider ABIT's manuals to be above average. There's a brief but intuitive guide on the uGuru feature. Rather than rehash what's been said before, head over to the AI7 review for further information on exactly what it is and how it works. Also provided are the necessary drivers for the 4-port SATA controller and a utility CD with all the drivers one needs to complete installation.
ABIT has decided to distinguish this board from all others with a couple of hither-to unseen touches. The SecureIDE feature is exactly that. The little PCB connects to a standard IDE drive and the other side allows the user to attach a normal IDE cable to the PC's ports. The idea is that the SecureIDE chip affords extra security. The grey lead, to the left of the above picture, plugs into the device and is then fed through a PCI plate and out of the back. Either one of the two duplicate keys must then be entered into the FireWire-like socket for the PC to boot. Once booted, the key can be removed. Please note that the IDE drive needs to be formatted after the SecureIDE feature is installed. Just make sure you don't lose your keys.
The hardware jamboree continues with an exact replica of the IC7-MAX3's bundle. 4 SATA cables, 2 molex-to-SATA convertors (2 SATA plugs on each), lovely rounded cables for both the main IDE and floppy cables, and a custom I/O shield help give the KV8-MAX3 the deluxe touch. The additional multibracket, on the right, provides a further 2 USB2.0 and 2 FireWire ports (4-pin and 6-pin). Pretty satisfactory from our standpoint.
