FIC AU11 Chameleon Motherboard Review - PAGE 1

We have long been looking at VIA KT400 boards, and for a while those boards were at the forefront of AMD based boards. Technically, the KT400 didn't bring as much to the table as was hoped, but at the time Nvidia's vaunted NForce2 based boards were nowhere on the horizon. Well now the Nforce2 is out, and it's taking the market by storm, thanks to it's 128bit Dual Channel memory support, great performance, official DDR400 support, very nice overclocking support, and a superb feature set. Today we're looking at FIC's Nforce2 based AU11 board, a board that FIC very confidently believes is a sure winner. We're here to find out just how much of a winner.

If you may remember, the Nforce2's popularity is founded on 2 simple formulas: performance, and support for advanced technologies like DDR400 and DualChannel memory. Dual Channel memory, first hailed as a perfect alternative to RAMBUS RAM, has since shown itself to be less effective than RAMBUS memory at stock speeds, but with enough of a kick to give it a significant boost versus regular DDR configurations. Plus, because DualChannel performs best when run at the same speed as your FSB (thus explaining why GraniteBay boards support only DDR266 in DualChannel mode), you will notice even more impressive gains when the Nforce2 is paired with AMD's 333Mhz FSB Tbred-B and Barton chips.

Features and Specs

A recap on what the Nforce2 brings to the table would likely highlight it's support for 333Mhz FSB, DDR400 support, 128bit Dual Channel support, and AGP8X support as the central themes. This list is very similar to the KT400 list, except that VIA's chipset doesn't have DualChannel support - and that is one of the keys to the Nforce2's success. FIC adds its own touch by including their NOVUS features, which includes Overclock Partner, a convenient feature we will discuss later. NOVUS is basically a set of minor integrate utilities. You can get more details on NOVUS here.

FIC includes USB and Firewire expansion brackets with the board, along with the usual IDE and Floppy cables.

Chipset:
nVIDIA nForce2 128SPP
nVIDIA nForce2 MCP-T

Memory:
3 DDR DIMM; Up to 3GB
DDR 200/266/333/400 memory support
supports 128bit dual channel memory achitecture

Audio: Realtek ALC650 5.1 Channel Codec

Onboard LAN: Realtek RTL 8201L

Expansion:
1 AGP 8X
6 PCI

I/O
1 Parallel port
1 RJ-45 connector
1 Audio connector Line-in, Line-out, MIC-in (vertical)
2 Serial ports
2 IEEE 1394 pin-header
4 rear USB connectors and 1 front-pin-header supports 6 devices (USB 2.0 support)

Dimensions: 9.6" X 12"