AOpen AX4B Max Motherboard Review - PAGE 1

> Introduction

Aopen makes a LOT of different products. Basically every piece in a computer and out of it (keyboards, mice) you can get a hold of it brought to you by Aopen. For the most part they cater to the value market. Trying to bring the best items to market as possible at the price points. With their motherboards they do exactly that. They bring you a good amount of what you want and are often one of the cheaper guys on the block. They always deliver very stable boards with the least amount of sacrifice to other things as possible.

Todays board uses Intels 845D chipset which brings DDR to the 100Mhz FSB processors. This chipset is targeted to the lower end market. When properly tweaked the 845D can offer performance that rivals the 850 at a considerably lower cost.

The product information page from Aopen can be found here.

Motherboard Specifications
Chipset	Intel 845D + ICH2 Southbridge
Bus Speed Options	100-248Mhz in 1Mhz increments
Voltages	1.1v to 1.85v in 0.025 increments
Memory Support	4 x 184-pin DDR
Expansion Slots	6PCI, 1AGP, 1CNR
USB Support	2 x Standard USB ports on the mobo 2 x USB 1.1 riser 4 x USB 2.0 risers
Integrated Components	6-channel AC'97 Audio USB 2.0 Firewire
Bios	AMI BIOS
Onboard IDE	2 x ATA100 EIDE

What's In The Box

This box is made for retail shelves. With a nice window on the box so you can look in at the CPU socket and other things. It displays the black PCB quite well.

• 1 motherboard
• 1 manual
• 1 CD with northon AV 2002
• 1 Aopen Bonus pack (drivers)
• 1 black 80-conductor ATA66/100 IDE Cable
• 1 black 40-pin ATA33 IDE Cable
• 1 blackFDD Cable
• 2 USB risers

The Aopen bonus pack CD has acrobat reader, the drivers, HW monitor utility, Suspend to hard drive utility and the AOchip utility. It's always nice to have the added USB riser tossed in Aopen not only included that but also another riser giving you 6 USB ports straight out of the box.