ABIT IN9 32X-MAX and MSI P6N SLI Platinum motherboard tests

The latest offering of Core 2 Duo motherboards from ABIT, this IN9 32X-MAX Wi-Fi is a top of the range card that integrates the AirPace Wi-Fi technology. It is therefore without great surprise that we find that this model comes in at a hefty 475 dollars. People will think twice about this, even if this model is made by ABIT and is another level again above the eVGA. This price is also partly explained by the prohibitive price of the nForce 680i chipsets requested from nVidia.

The bundle is quite complete, which you would at least hope for at this price:

• Quick user guide
• User Manual
• Quick guide to AirPace Wi-Fi
• Drivers/utilities CD
• 1 back panel connections blank
• 1 card place holder
• 2 fan locations
• 1 round IDE cable
• 1 round floppy cable
• 6 S-ATA cables
• 1 card integrating 2 USB ports and 2 firewire ports in mini format
• 1 audio optic linking cable
• 1 external WiFi antenna
• 1 PCI express AirPace WiFi card

We will now take a look at the characteristics in more detail:

• Supported processor: Core2Duo, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad Pentium XE, Pentium D
• Supported FSB: 1333/1066/800/533
• SPP: nForce 680i SLI (C55SLI)
• MCP: nForce 590i (MCP 55)
• Supported memory: 533/667/800 DDR2 4 port DIMMs (89 GB max)
• 2 x 16x PCIe
• 1 x 16x (8x) PCIe
• 2 x 1x PCIe
• 2x PCI
• Dual nVidia Gigabit Ethernet
• 2 x IEEE1394a
• Audio HD 7.1 (Azalia 1.0) HDMI ready
• 1 IDE Ultra DMA 66/100/133 port
• 4 S-ATA II nForce 590SLI port – RAID 0/1/0+1/5 and JBOD
• 2 eSATA ports at the back Silicon Image Sil3132
• 1 Floppy port