Abit overclocks IN9 32X-MAX to 557MHz FSB

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 4th January 2007

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Abit overclocks IN9 32X-MAX to 557MHz FSB

We're looking forward to getting our hands on the IN9 32X-MAX to see if it is the pick of the nForce 680i boards.

Some of Abit's top engineers have been tweaking the company's latest IN9 32X-MAX motherboard. It's based on NVIDIA's nForce 680i SLI chipset and Abit initially announced it on the chipset's launch day in November.

They ended up getting the board running up at pretty lofty 557MHz front side bus, with the memory running in Sync Mode. You can check out the CPU-Z Validation link here. We don't have details on how much voltage was required for this overclock, but it's an impressive feat nonetheless.

The IN9 32X-MAX is the company's next addition to the MAX product series and comes with a whole host of new features.

It's the first MAX board to come bundled with Abit's new AirPace Wi-Fi card, along with a digital PWM controller to save large amounts of space around the CPU socket.

In addition, the board is completely passively cooled with an over-sized Abit Silent OTES cooling solution and comes kitted out with 100% solid state capacitors.

Abit's engineers tell us that the company opted for an over-sized heatsink because NVIDIA's nForce 680i SLI chipset can get quite hot once you start overclocking. This is part of the reason why NVIDIA recommends installing the additional fan on its reference board (as sold by EVGA, BFGTech, Biostar and ECS) if you're overclocking.

However, we're told that Abit didn't want to go down the route of recommending enthusiasts should use additional cooling if they want to overclock the motherboard. Instead, they opted for the larger heatsink to ensure the chipset stays cool when running at frequencies well beyond what it is specified to run at.

We're told that the board should be in stock by the end of January and you can expect a review of this board on bit-tech in the very near future. In the meantime, there's a full run down of the specifications on Abit's homepage and we'll leave you with an overview shot of the board...

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Tyinsar 4th January 2007, 15:53

Looks good but one hand picked sample might give customers false hope - this could backfire on Abit. If, however, all the boards are like this then guess what my next board might be. :)

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xrob 4th January 2007, 20:47

i really wish they would stop using these damn heat pipes on mobo's, if you have a case with the mobo upside down these boards run so dam hot. my next upgrade i am going to have to water cool it.

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BUFF 5th January 2007, 01:54

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Originally Posted by xrob
i really wish they would stop using these damn heat pipes on mobo's, if you have a case with the mobo upside down these boards run so dam hot.

Sean at abit UK tested this on an AW9D-MAX & apparently it made about 0.5C difference.
nVidia says that the reference 680is are fine to run inverted.
So, maybe they've all improved the design of their heatpipes?

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