abit IN9 32X-MAX (NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI)

abit is coming back to the Russian market with quite a wide assortment of high-end motherboards. Among them, there is the "flagship" board - abit IN9 32X-MAX, built on NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI which makes the most of the chipset's capabilities, and moreover offers quite an attractive package bundle, including an additional expansion card with support for Wi-Fi.

We note it specially that the PCB design is made by the engineers at abit, which makes this motherboard radically different from the produce of other manufacturers. In particular, only ASUS offers boards based on nForce 680i SLI of own design, and others prefer receiving ready-made motherboards of NVIDIA's reference design, and packing them into own boxes.

abit IN9 32X-MAX Specifications

Package

The board is packaged in a rather impressive box of stylish design:

There is a handle to carry it around, and one page of the cover opens up like that of a book:

Inside the box, the user finds the motherboard in a plastic transparent box, as well as another box with accessories:

Contents:

• Motherboard;
• Software & drivers CD;
• User's Manual in English + Quick Setup Manual;
• 1x rounded ATA-133 cable, 1x rounded FDD cable;
• Six SerialATA cables;
• 1x cap for the rear panel of the housing;
• Bracket for 2 additional USB 2.0 and one Firewire ports;
• Two SLI-connectors + enforcement bracket;
• Clips for the additional fan;
• Optical cable;
• Sticker with a jumpers layout diagram;
• WiFi module + aerial;
• WiFi setup guide.

The standard components of the package bundle does not fully unveil the potentials: you'll have to buy some extra items. I mean two SerialATA cables and a few power supply adapters (6 connectors altogether are needed). You also have to buy additional brackets for four USB ports. In all the other respects, there are no more claims: the package bundle includes a rounded P-ATA cable and cable for the hard driver, one bracket for two USB ports and two Firewire ports, as well as six SerialATA cables.

Besides, the package bundle includes clips to install an additional 40 mm fan (but the fan itself is missing), an enforcement bracket, as well as an optical cable.

The user's manual is highly detailed and contains a brief description in multiple languages. There is also a brief guide on uGuru features, a sticker with the jumpers layout diagram and a guide for WiFi setup.

As regards the regular drivers disk, it contains (apart from Windows and Linux drivers) a set of abit's proprietary utilities - FlashMenu, OC Guru.

Besides, the board comes bundled with an expansion card to support the WiFi, an aerial, a setup guide, as well as two SLI connectors (designed to merge two video cards into an SLI). It's not clear why they are two.

abit IN9 32X-MAX Layout and Features

We note it straight that abit has developed the IN9 32X-MAX on its own, without using NVIDIA's reference design. The only thing what coincides is the configuration of expansion slots: the board uses three PCI Express x16, two PCI Express x1, and two PCI slots.

The layout of the board's main components is not of any issue to the assembly operator. In particular, the main 24-pin power connector is installed on the board's bottom edge, with the additional 8-pin connector (the backward compatibility to the PSU with a 4-pin cable has been preserved) - on the right-hand edge. There is also a Molex power connector on the left-hand corner of the board; it is recommended to use when installing two or three video cards. Also, the use can remove the memory modules with the video card installed into the first PCI-Express class.

Near the DIMM slots, there is a 4-pin CPUFAN1 connector to plug in a CPU cooler.

Besides it, there are five more 3-pin connectors: SYSFAN1 and AUXFAN1 - also there where CPUFAN1, AUXFAN1 are located - near the main power connector, with AUXFAN3 and AUXFAN4 - on the left-hand edge of the board. Note that the IN9 32X-MAX not only determines the rotational speed of all the six fans but also controls their speeds depending on the temperatures.

On the north bridge, there is a huge copper radiator connected to the radiators of the south bridge and the power supply module with heat pipes.

If we use the wired clips from the bundle, a 40 mm fan can be installed on that radiator. On the other hand, we note that the dimensions of the radiator allow installing a larger radiator (i.e., one of better performance or quieter). In particular, the distance between the video card and the CPU cooler allows installing a standard 80 mm fan. But in this case the user has to invent the fastening on his own:

Under the north bridge, there are four DIMM slots; the maximum memory capacity makes up 8 GB.

To enable the dual-channel mode, the memory modules should be inserted into the slots of the same color. Once voltage is applied to the board, a few LEDs in the left-hand corner of the board light up. Besides, a 7-stage indicator is enabled.

As regards the expansion options, the board uses three PCI Express x16 slots (all with holders) as well as two PCI Express x1, and two PCI slots. We should also note that support for the WiFi standard is implemented with an external expansion card which is installed into the PCI Express x1 slot. Therefore, in using it the number of vacant PCI Express x1 slots is reduced to one.

It should be noted that to the black PCI Express ?16 slots there are 16 bus lanes allocated, with merely 8 to the central blue PCI Express ?16 slot.

Expansion options

abit IN9 32X-MAX supports 8 SerialATA-II lines. Of them, 6 lines are supported by the south bridge MCP55PXE. The matching connectors are colored black, positioned near the south bridge, with 4 of them orientated in parallel to the board's plane, and 2 - perpendicularly.

Also, the board uses an additional Sil3132 RAID controller made by Silicon Image. This chip provided support for another 2 SerialATA II channels. Both the ports are brought to the rear panel, near this chip.

Therefore, as many as 10 hard disks can be plugged in to N9 32X-MAX: 8 disks through the SerialATA II, with 2 more through the ParallelATA.

Then, on the board there are two Gigabit LAN controllers 88E1116 made by Marvell:

The board supports ten USB 2.0 ports, four of which are positioned on the rear panel, with 6 more plugged in via plates (the board comes bundled with one plate for 2 ports). Besides, the board offers support for the Firewire bus. To this end, there is an additional TSB43AB22A controller made by Texas Instruments. Therefore, the board offers support for two IEEE1394 ports: both are optional and plugged in with a bracket (available in the bundle).

The last thing to dwell on is the integrated audio - High Definition Audio. ALC888 chip is used as the codec, which supports output to 8 channels.

The board's rear panel looks like this:

You can notice see the complete lack of LPT and COM ports. That is a mandatory condition of the MAX concept with which abit (that time - Abit) made its debut four years ago. On the other hand, there is an optical SP-DIF output and input on the panel, as well as a switch to clear the BIOS settings.

Traditionally, a jumpers layout diagram:

Of the additional features, we note above all the 7-stage POST indicator.

It does a simple job - to display the code of the current operation (initialization of a block or a device) during the initial system boot-up. If some problem comes up, the user can detect it by the code taken from the manual.

On the board, there are Power-on and Reset buttons which will definitely praised by computer enthusiasts. There is also a real gift for enthusiasts - an additional uGuru chip.

It is meant for doing such jobs like extended monitoring, power management, and control of the fans' rotational speeds. It also closely interacts with the the uGuru utility that allows the user to control the mentioned features from within Windows. Finally, it allows storing up to 5 independent BIOS setting profiles in the memory.

We also note that IN9 32X-MAX supports plugging in a special uGuru Panel.

That is a rather multifunctional device that allows bringing two USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire port, an ear-phone output, and a microphone input over to the front panel of the housing. Besides, there is a special button to reset the BIOS settings. It is protected with a special plastic lid against accidental pressing.

On the panel, there is also a small screen where the information of the current CPU clock speed, rotational speed of the fans, voltage levels, PCI Express bus speed is displayed. The current time and temperature in the premises is also displayed.

With the buttons the user can adjust the brightness of the screen as well as amend the settings (e.g. overclock the system through raising the FSB speed). Besides, the screen may show ideograms which signal arrival of new mail, receiving an MSN message, or exceeding a temperature limit.

That is all fine, but the uGuru Panel is not part of the package bundle (despite the board's price over 280$), and you almost can't make it available anywhere in the retail!

Another amusing feature of abit IN9 32X-MAX is in a number of blue LEDs installed on the reverse side of the board.

The may light up or not light, they may also light up in various sequences which can be defined from within the BIOS:

By the way, it's high time we talked about the BIOS settings in more detail.

BIOS

The BIOS of abit IN9 32X-MAX is based on the Award BIOS Phoenix version.

The extended pack of memory settings is in the "Advanced Chipset Features/Memory Timing Settings" section:

The parameter in charge of selecting the memory operating frequency is in the section dealing with overclocking settings:

The frequency values are displayed in the quadruple form. By the way, the user does not have to rack brains but simply choose the required memory frequency multiplier:

Now move on to the section to do with the system monitoring.

This section is the most powerful of all we have ever seen. First, the board is able monitoring the current temperature of the processor and system, as well as displaying detailed information on the temperatures of the power supply module.

Secondly, the board monitors whatever voltages of the system

Thirdly, the board monitors the speed of all the six fans which can be plugged in,

and controls their speed using the fan EQ feature.

Also, the user can keep track of the monitoring readings from within Windows using the uGuru utility:

Despite the nice and easy interface, this program is still raw and has a number of flaws.

It should be noted that the user gets access to all the technologies supported by modern processors:

You can update the BIOS with either awdflash (DOS) or with FlashMenu (Windows).

In conclusion, we note that the uGuru chip allows saving all the BIOS settings as profiles (5 profiles altogether) and loading them on demand.

Overclocking and stability

Now look at the digital power converter in which traditional capacitors are missing completely.

Close view:

Now move on to examining the overclocking tools gathered in the "OC Guru" section.

Below listed are the overclocking features. First off, abit IN9 32X-MAX allows adjusting the FSB speed within 100 to 750 MHz in 1 MHz increments. It is convenient that you can enter the required value which has to be divided by 4 to know the precise value of FSB speed.

Also, the bus speed between the south and north bridges is adjustable within 200 MHz to 500 MHz (in 1 MHz increments):

The user can change the HyperTransport bus multiplier on the section between the NB and CPU:

Besides, the PCI Express bus speed is adjustable within 100 MHz to 200 MHz (also in 1 MHz increments). In so doing, the bus speed can be set independently for each PCI Express x16 slot.

If necessary, the user can adjust the CPU multiplier (which is locked towards the increase in Intel processors):

The adjustment range is within 6 to 60 in 1 increments. The next feature allows adjusting voltage on the CPU (Vcore) within 1.25V to 1.9V in 0.01V increments.

The next feature raises voltage on the memory modules:

The adjustment range for Vmem is wide enough (from within 1.8V to 3.0V in 0.025V increments)! Moreover, there are a few more settings to raise voltage on the memory controller

There is also a couple of useful features for adjusting voltage on the chipset. The voltage adjustment range on the north bridge is within 1.35V to 1.55V in 0.05V increments:

The voltage adjustment range on the south bridge is is within 1.5V to 1.7V in 0.05V increments:

Then, abit IN9 32X-MAX allows adjusting voltage on the HyperTransport bus within 1.2V to 1.4V in 0.05V increments:

Besides, the user can adjust the CPU VTT voltage within 1.2V to 1.5V in 0.1V increments:

Even with the most recent version (13) of the BIOS, the board demonstrated really weak results: a stable operation at merely FSB =375 MHz.

Performance

Note that abit IN9 32X-MAX sets the nominal FSB speed to some overstatement:

During the performance tests, we compared abit IN9 32X-MAX versus ECS PN2 SLI2+ (nForce 680i SLI) and ASUS Striker built on the same chipset.

In our test setup, we used the following hardware:

Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks.

Now on to the gaming benchmarks (i.e. real-world applications).

Final Words

This motherboard left some dubious impressions. On the one hand, there was nothing to complain about the technical part: the board was running stably, fully revealing its capabilities of the NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI chipset and offers powerful onboard expansion options (plus a Wi-Fi expansion card).

On the other hand, the produce of abit has always been perceived by users as solutions for overclockers. But at the overclocking part, IN9 32X-MAX is too weak - the maximum FSB speed = 375 MHz and does not allow squeezing the most of the CPU. So let's hope the problem is rooted in the current BIOS version and the situation with overclocking will be fixed in forthcoming versions.

However, if we look through the reviews of previous abit boards, we can see that they offer a lower overclocking capability than, for example, ASUS boards (abit used to be on par with ASUS, but surpassed it at overclocking).

As regards the retail price, on the moment of tests the IN9 32X-MAX was offered only by one company at $290, which seems a bit too high in our view. On the other hand, abit is expanding the user's choice which before the release of this board was about the various versions of ASUS Striker and numerous clones of motherboards based on NVIDIA's reference design.

In the end, we'll make the final conclusions regarding abit IN9 32X-MAX in the end of the year, in a large roundup review for motherboards aimed at Core processors.

Conclusion

• Excellent stability and performance;
• Support for SLI (two PCI Express x16 slots);
• Third PCI Express x16 slot (8 bus lanes);
• Support for SerialATA II (8 links; 2x RAID);
• Support for ParallelATA (1 link);
• Two Gigabit LAN controllers and integrated 8-channel High Definition Audio;
• Support for USB2.0 (10 ports) and Firewire (2 ports);
• Additional uGuru chip + utilities (FanEQ, BIOS profiles, OC Guru, etc.);
• The most advanced system monitoring and support for the uGuru Panel;
• 7-stage POST indicator;
• Passive/active* system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module;
• Optional WiFi expansion card.

• Flaws in the software.

• Additional LEDs, Power, Reset buttons, Clear CMOS switch;
• Poor overclocking results.