ABIT IN9 32XMAX Motherboard

680i on the Cheap, Just be Prepared for Headaches

Strengths: Handy CMOS Clear Switch | Dual Ethernet and eSata Ports | Comes with WiFi Card | Proven Heatpipe Design | Debug LED

Weaknesses: Crippled Bios Out of the Box | Poor Overclocking Ability

Summary: This board is a fantastic price for a reason: It is NOT for beginners! Out of the box, the board is quite crippled without a Bios update, often leading to crashes or hangs (won't POST) and it will even get to the point of not cutting on period w/o clearing the CMOS first. After the BIOS update, this board becomes quite solid - but be prepared to fight with this board tooth and nail to get said BIOS update to install and 'stick'. After the bios update, this is the best 680i board for the price you will ever find, though overclocking it is still a pain (as it is with most of the 680i boards). Overall, I'm quite satisfied with this board and would recommend it to any experiences systems builder who wants a cheap, solid board after a bit of elbow grease.

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Mobo works, but results are sub par for the price

Strengths: Dual LAN ethernet, SLI, ESATA/SATA connectors, CMOS clear button, many PCI slots

Weaknesses: Bios update, overclocking, Audio, memory compatibility, online support is poor

Summary: I bought this for the Nvidia SLI and rebate, but the setup for this mobo was not as smooth as I was expecting. My 2gb OCZ PC-6400 did not work, so I had to use Corsair 1gb XMS from another mobo. I still CANNOT update the BIOS with the floppy (it starts, but seems to hang and not update)! Very little troubleshooting help online. The mobo looks good and packaging was great, but in my opinion, performance is sub-par for the money. I'm using XP Pro, and cannot install the audio devices for some reason. I will probably use ASUS mobos in the future. Abit's online support did not help me in any way. I have yet to receive my (2) 8800GT's so I do not know how they will run in this mobo! I hope they work. .. So, until I can update my bios, I don't think it's as good as other mobo's bios. The include software seems buggy too. I really think Abit rushed this mobo out and did not take the time to make everything run smooth out of the box! It's a shame...

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Best 680i for the money.

Strengths: 3 USB Hubs on board; heatsinks are awesome; easy to setup RAID

Weaknesses: only 1 IDE; aBit website is horrible (better than ASUS, but horrible); 64-bit vista drivers are a bear!!

Summary: 2008-03-19 09:39:21 I'm waiting for a newer QUAD besides the Q6600 to drop below $300. Until then I'm running a D930 overclocking is simple; the uGuru does all the work. I have 4GB DDR2-1066 OCZ branded, and Dual 8800GT.

So far everything is good. Anyway, I don't think there is a better 680i board out there under $250. When I got mine only eVGA had released their 780i board. I don't have the budget for 3 Video Cards...and would not want to give up my PCI slots.

I do wish it had another IDE slot...as my DVD/RW are EIDE so UMA is my only option. The wireless card sucks in vista64, I'm using my old Linksys PCI card.

Fair warning...if you are going to run Vista64...download all the drivers that might be useful making good notes.

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I've updated a few comments. I still love my 680i board, but there are a few headaches with nVidia or Vista-64. I believe they are with nVidia. Virtual streaming music encoders don't work well, if they work at all. I did some music/video editing and I eventually gave up and used my Dell "Intel" XP2 laptop. The only other issue is PVR-150 with Vista64, I've only seen Intel boards do well with that setup.

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Great motherboard with multiple functions.

Strengths: Multiple functions on this single motherboard and stable.

Weaknesses: none.

Summary: When you get this motherboard, first you need update the latest BIOS immediately from www.abit-usa.com website and then install your software. All drives are 90% compatible with Microsoft VISTA except AirPace Wi-Fi Card and uGuru function. Nice motherboard and easy OC.

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IN9 32MAX Motherboard

Strengths: Clear CMOS switch on the outside of the case.

Weaknesses: Not all of the error codes are listed in the manual. However, Asus generally does not list any whatsoever, so they are doing better than ASUS.

Summary: I bought this board to replace an ASUS Striker Extreme. I RMAed my ASUS Striker extreme three times and they sent me a defective board back every time. This board works great however with the hardware I was attempting to get to work with the ASUS board. I recommend updating the BIOS right away. I am using Corsair pc-8500 ram, 850Watt power supply, evga8800GTX. It has really cool blue lights on the bottom of the board that rotate on and off quickly giving a nice effect. Tech support was helpful two times even though I was disconnected once. They were way better than ASUS and their overall customer service that is for sure.

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good mobo for gamers

Strengths: has 3 pci - express 16x slots you can go up to 32GB of memory

Weaknesses: the technology atm you cant realy put 32GB memory w/ only 4 slots.

Summary: good for gamers who are willing to put a lot of power to their graphics.i can say that it has a good price for its capabilities.As is said oboveyou cant put a 32GB w/ only 4 slots, maybe in the future we can have an "(1x)8GB memory".

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