-Packaging,
Bundle, and Software-
The
retail box has a very eye catching samurai design
with a color scheme that matches the board itself.
This is by far one of Abit’s most attractive
boxes and I’m sure it will add some weight
to purchasing decisions. After the outer box it’s
much more simple and straight forward with thick
white cardboard and see through plastic housings.
Underneath
the plastic you’ll find the board itself
along with its Audiomax 7.1 riser card counterpart.
Unfortunately, the riser card doesn’t match
the main board PCB colour.
Within
the box you’ll find two smaller boxes full
of goodies. In one of them is the AW9D-Max Manual,
which covers all aspects of using and configuring
the motherboard. µGuru Manual, this is for
the included µGuru software suite which
puts all sorts of monitoring and overclocking
controls at your fingertips through the OS. Quick
Install Manual, this is a general quick install
manual and isn’t board specific. Jumper
Settings Sticker, a medium sized sticker that
shows the general board layout with jumper settings.
AW9D-Max Driver CD, the driver CD with you guessed
it, the samurai logo. When the disc launches to
install the drivers you’ll see… The
same samurai! I/O Backplate, standard stuff. 7x
red SATA Cables, which is odd because I was expecting
either blue or black considering how much Abit
seemed to be focused on color coding. 3x SATA
Raid Driver Diskettes which are ever so useful
for installing raid drivers.
The
other box contains: A round ATA cable (again red).
A black rounded floppy cable. Extra dongle for
the remaining USB and Firewire ports via headers.
And lastly, the SPDIF out cable for the Audiomax
card.
On
the included driver CD is something that is unique
to Abit, the µGuru software suite. The software
allows you to monitor temperatures, update bios
with one click, and overclock your computer all
from within the OS. And while the software is
functional, it appears to be a bit old. The suite
still utilizes Abit’s old logo and looks
fairly unpolished not only in the general appearance
but the menu specifics as well.
