ABIT has announced the IC7-MAX3, the heir to the fabled MAX series with the latest unique ABIT Engineered solutions, including ABIT OTES cooling. For users who require maximum security and storage, the ABIT MAX3 features 6 channel serial ATA RAID with the Silicon Image 4-port serial ATA RAID controller plus native 2 channel support, as well as ABIT's latest ABIT Engineered feature: Secure IDE?. But what is most exciting about MAX3 is that it features the most advanced cooling technology ever seen before on a motherboard. The product is aimed to deliver a whole load of features in addition to those provided by the standard IC7 and IC7-G, but probably the main advantage of the IC7-MAX is guaranteed support for Intel Prescott processors, Intel?s next hot chip code-named Prescott.

The original OTES redefined VGA cooling to the point where manufacturers are now using gimmicks like multiple fan combinations on VGA cards in a vain effort to match the cooling prowess of OTES. Now, in the interests of cooling and performance, OTES has been redesigned to cool the hottest part of a motherboard: the PWM power regulation mosfets and capacitors. While active cooling on the northbridge has been developed in recent years, the PWM area has been completely ignored. OTES fills this need, while also serving to exhaust air outside of the PC case. Fig. 1 & 2: Thermal photos showing PWM area with OTES (R) and without (L). Browse Abit IC7-MAX3 product pages Source of Prescott support news: Xbit-Labs