It’s no secret that Intel’s new Core 2 Duo (and upcoming Quadro) has stirred up a great amount of buzz in over clocking circles. What was an AMD dominated field has been usurped by the new low voltage dual core creations of Intel.

Never one to let down its enthusiasts, Abit has unveiled their new AW9D-Max which they promise to be the Intel enthusiast/overclocking board.

Press Release:
“Abit AW9D-MAX is the essence of Bushido, the true "way of the warrior". This board is built with only one thing in mind – destroy the competition – no thought, no mind, only perfect results through righteousness: With superior strength in features and mental preparedness, the Righteous path of enlightenment and true domination comes with the AW9D-MAX”

A statement like that is bold to say the least, and they will have to pull out all the stops to back it up. Abit sent us a retail board you will get in the shops instead of press based hand selected pre-release boards with beta BIOS’s. We will be focusing on the board itself, from its design, construction, use, and overclockability.

Abit AW9D-MAX Specifications
CPU Support:	LGA775-based Pentium 4, Celeron D, Pentium D, Pentium EE, Core 2 Duo and “Quadro Ready”
Chipset:	Intel® 975X / Intel® ICH7R Express Chipset
Bus Speeds:	133 to 600 in 1MHz Increments
Memory Speeds:	SPD, 533, 667, 800
PCIe Speeds:	Auto, 100MHz~200MHz
PCI:	33.33 (Fixed)
Core Voltage:	Base CPU V to 1.7250V in 0.0250V increments
CPU Clock Multiplier:	Auto, 6x-11x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked
DRAM Voltage:	1.75V ~ 2.65V in .05V or .10V increments, after 2.35V all increments are .10V.
DRAM Timing Control:	SPD, 4 Options
NB Voltage:	1.50V ~ 2.00V in .01V increments
Memory Slots:	4 X 240-pin DIMM sockets support max. memory capacity 8GB Supports Dual channel DDR2 800/667 Un-buffered / Non-ECC memory
Expansion Slots:	2 - PCIe X16 (Operates 8x Under Crossfire) 2 - PCIe X1 1 - PCI Slot 2.3 1 - Audio Max Slot
Onboard SATA/RAID:	4 SATA 3Gbps Ports (RAID 0,1,1+0,JBOD) 3 SATA 3Gbps Ports 1 e-SATA 3Gbps Port
Onboard IDE:	1 ATA100/66/33 Port (2 drives)
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394:	8 USB 2.0 Ports – 4 I/O Panel - 4 via Headers 2 Firewire 400 Ports - via Headers
Onboard LAN:	Dual PCI-E Gigabit LAN controller supports 10/100/ 1000M Ethernet
Onboard Audio:	Realtek ALC882M HD-Audio 8-channel CODEC - Dolby Master Studio
Power Connectors:	ATX 24-pin, 8-pin EATX 12V, 4-pin 12V Molex
I/O Panel:	1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 2 x RJ45 (Ethernet) 1 x eSATA 4 x USB 2.0/1.1
BIOS:	AWARD 1.1
Extras:	Onboard Hardware On/Off and Reset Buttons Solid State Capacitors Extra power Conduits for Stability Silent OTES 2 (Dual Pipe) µGuru Chip LED Lights Debug Distplay OC Strips RoHS Compliant