AOpen AX4SG Max II Review - PAGE 1

Introduction

With Socket 478 growing old and LGA 775 coming to erase its very existence, motherboard manufacturers are all abandoning ship and preparing for Intel's next CPU. Actually, that's not true. With the LGA 775 release date being pushed back to 2nd half 04, manufacturers can't afford to stop supporting Socket 478 for now. For the meantime, Socket 478 is alive and kicking.

As long as there is a market out there, there are companies that will squeeze as much out of it as possible. Until LGA 775 comes out for the Pentium 4, companies will continue to put new products for Socket 478 onto the market. However, you must wonder why you would buy a new motherboard now when you could buy an older one using the exact same chipset. There's a simple answer- pack every feature that's missing on older motherboards and entice buyers to get the latest for its features. With the AX4SG Max II, that's just what AOpen has done.

Today we have the AX4SG, which is based on the 865G chipset (with integrated graphics). The 865 and 875 have been the chipsets of choice, having both rock-solid stability and high-end performance (and in the case of 875 motherboards, high-end price too). As you will see later, this motherboard is quite different from its AX4C sister, which was based on the 875P chipset and thus targets a completely different user base.