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After the success of the AT& in the MAX range of boards, ABIT have release the next generation the AT7-MAX2. The MAX2 offers 8x AGP and support for DDR 400 Memory. It also incorporates the Serial ATA system for storage devices. Looking at the ports that are on offer from the ABIT board, I don't think that you will be left short. You have 6 USB, 2 Firewire, 2 PS/2 ports a network (RJ45) connector and an optical digital outlet. Like the previous max boards though the older technologies such as ISA and serial com ports as well as the parallel ports are missing. However buying such a new board should mean that you shouldn't need them. Lets have a look at the full run down of the boards specs.
Serial ATA This is a new one for me and probably for most others of you. Serial ATA is a new way of connecting your storage devices. You will all be used to the way we connect IDE devices to out motherboards. We have a wide 40/80 pin wire plugged into both the motherboard and the storage device. These wires are big and bulky and often get in the way of a lot of other things inside the case. They are also based on Parallel data transmission which sends data in parallel cause interference with other signals. Serial connectors only have a send and receive cause much less problems in that respect. The serial cable is only a small thin cable as opposed to the bulky IDE cables. This helps with the airflow around the case and helps system cooling. The cables themselves can also be longer than the set limit of 40cm of the IDE cables. This makes it a lot easier to connect those awkward HD's at the top of a tower case. This board uses a controller to allow the use of Serial ATA Expect to see Chipsets integrate this technology soon next year. Also HD manufacturers are going to adopt this technology very soon. The ABIT MAX Breed of Boards So what is this MAX thing all about then. Well to put it bluntly ABIT want to get rid of all forms of legacy devices, these include ISA slots, PS/2 ports, Serial ports and the parallel port. These are to replaced with the abundance of USB and Firewire ports. The reason behind this is simple, ABIT wishes to allow to user to plug in or swap peripherals at will, Plenty of ports for mice, keyboards, camera's, gamepads etc. They could all be plugged and unplugged without the need for shutting down the computer.
The ABIT offering of the KT-400 is not a great seal different from the ASUS A7V8X. Differences do include however the extra DIMM slot and the impressive SoftMenu Technology in the BIOS. If you like to have everything new in your computer and you not sitting with any legacy devices, which include items that use the COM or Parallel ports then this is a good board. Plenty of expansion slots this time round. The original AT-7 only had the 3 PCI slots which proved not to be enough., Now ABIT have added 2 extra PCI slots and brought back the PS/2 ports for the time being as many people are obviously still using them. Useful Links
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