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Specifications -

• Support 400MHz FSB AMD Athlon XP CPU
• Support DDR400
• Dual Channel Memory Mode
• Support ATA133 IDE Interface
• IEEE 1394 on-board
• Support AGP 8X
• Serial ATA on-board
• CPU Jumper-less Design
• EzClock -- Overclocking is fun
• 1MHz Stepping CPU Overclocking
• 1MHz Stepping AGP/PCI Overclocking
• Adjustable CPU Vcore through BIOS
• Adjustable AGP Voltage
• Adjustable CPU ratio through BIOS
• Adjustable Memory Voltage
• WatchDog ABS -- Intelligent Overclocking Anti-lock Break System
• AGP Protection Technology
• AMD CPU Over Heat Protection (OHP)
• CPU Over Current Protection (OCP)
• Hardware Monitoring
• SilentTek Noise Reduction Technology
• SilentBIOS Noise Reduction Technology
• AC Power-On Auto Recovery
• Battery-less & Long-life Design
• Dr Voice II
• EzWinFlash BIOS
• DieHard BIOS
• AOpen Black Pearl PCB
• Full Colored Easy Installation Guide
• Online eBook User Manual
• AOpen Bonus Pack CD
• Norton Anti Virus

The AOpen is packed with an extensive list of features. A Promise SATA 150 controller provides an extra IDE channel as well as two SATA connectors but unfortunately there are no RAID options. Firewire is included through an external bracket. The onboard sound is driven by nVidia's MCP-T and a Realtek AC'97 codec, which means users get real time Dolby Digital Encoding and lower processor utilization as opposed to the regular MCP. An interesting feature that will hopefully propogate beyond Gigaybyte and now AOpen is the Dual Bios. An extra bios chip is included with the motherboard. In the event that a bios gets trashed or corrupted, there is a backup that can be loaded. This means no more waiting for a costly replacement bios and it also removes some of the taboos associated with bios flashing as the effects can now be undone. The AK79D has a good selection of overclocking options. Although a jumperless design for CPUs is more often the norm than not, some manufacturers are still lagging a bit behind with dipswitches or jumpers. It is good to see that AOpen has done this correctly right off the bat. Another great feature is the Silent Noise Reduction Technology. This allows for dynamic control of the fans on the AK79D. Fans can be set to automatically throttle back when temperatures are within a certain range. This will undoubtably please those who have computers on in their room at night or use applications that have a fairly low processor load. As a product line like the nForce2 matures, it is important for manufacturers to distinguish themselves from competitors with innovative features like this.

Bundle

The box comes with a SATA cable, a bracket for 2 extra USB ports and a game port, a bracket for 2 6-pin firewire ports, a bracket of 4 audio input / outputs - one set coaxial and one set optical, 2 black IDE cables, the floppy cable, a copy of Norton Antivirus and the usual assortment of driver disks and manuals. Here's a picture of everything in the box -