Specifications

abit KV8-MAX3
Written by Chris Emry
Friday, 04 September 2009 10:39
Exhaust System) mechanism. So close in fact that installing or removing a heatsink would
always scratch or bend the OTES. Luckily, ABIT has addressed this problem, and only the first
200 units that shipped out of manufacturing were plagued by this problem. If you were to
purchase a retail motherboard today, you would receive a board with the modified OTES design
that takes care of the heatsink mounting issues. Another problem is that both of ATX power
connectors have been sandwiched in-between some capacitors and the I/O back panel, which
could make it extremely difficult to tidy up cables, and could also give the user a hard time
removing or installing each power connector because of their current locations.
Finally, while other hardware review sites have reported that the Northbridge heatsink and fan
was rather quiet on their KV8-MAX3 sample, I beg to differ. Maybe the fan on our sample is an
exception, but it always produced an annoying whine that could be heard over all of the other
fans within the test system at the highest RPM setting. We have talked this issue over with
ABIT, and it seems that this is indeed a problem that is likely limited to our testing sample as
this isn’t a widespread problem. I was pleased, however, to find that ABIT coated the K8T800
Northbridge with some thermal grease to help aid in thermal transfer to pull heat away from the
chip more efficiently than using a standard thermal adhesive pad. It was also rather easy to
remove the heatsink and fan unit, should you decide to replace it with a more elaborate or
passive cooling solution.
When we flip the KV8-MAX3 over, we can see that the OTES cooling system is held to the
motherboard using two screws and a plastic nut for each screw. This mounting hardware is run
through two of the motherboard mounting holes. You might want to remove each nut before you
install the KV8-MAX3 in your case, because the motherboard could bend slightly and not line up
correctly with the I/O bracket. This could also possibly be the reason why some users, including
ourselves, have been greeted with a siren sound when turning on the KV8-MAX3 for the first
time. After we removed the nuts and then reinstalled the board in our case, the KV8-MAX3
worked flawlessly throughout operation. If nothing else, we hope that knowing about what we
did to get past the siren sound can give the user another chance to get the motherboard up and
running before requesting an RMA number.
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