AOpen AK89 Max / AK86-L (AMD 64) Mainboard

BIOS (AK89 Max)

Here we find the familiar Award BIOS with the save EEPROM option that is so good it bears repeating. 

Jumping to the Advanced Chipset Features and selecting the DRAM Configuration screen we find memory tweaking options but nowhere near those of the AK86-L.  As we did earlier, you can see the tweaking ranges and options below. 

  

     

Next is the Frequency and Voltage Control screen.  Your front side bus range is 200 to 255MHz in 1MHz increments.  Supported DRAM options are DDR200 through DDR400 alongside the automatic detect selection.

  

The CPU voltage range with the AK89 Max is as dismal as it was with the AK86-L.  AGP voltage tapped out at 1.6v.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the DDR voltage maxed out at 2.8v instead of the 2.7v we saw with the AK86-L.

     

We wrap up the BIOS with the Silent BIOS/Hardware Monitor screen.  Unlike the AK86-L, the AK89 Max allows us to monkey with the CPUFan1 and the SYSFan2. 

        

Performance

Testing was completed by making five runs of each benchmark in our suite.  The highest and lowest score for each bench were thrown out and the remaining three averaged which is the score you will see forthcoming.  Our benchmark suite included: SiSoft Sandra 2004 Pro, Business Winstone 2004, Content Creation 2004, Code Creatures, Comanche 4, AquaMark 3, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, Unreal Tournament 2003, Quake III and Return to Castle Wolfenstein.  All synthetic and gaming benchmarks were patched with the most recent updates available at the time of this writing.  FSAA and AF will be off unless otherwise noted.

Test Bed

• AMD Athlon 64 3000

• Thermaltake K8 Silent Boost Cooler

• Maxtor Diamond Max 9 SATA 80gb HDD

• Corsair XMS3500 DDR (x2)

• VisionTek Radeon 9800 XT

• Generic CD-ROM

• Windows XP Professional with all patches and service packs installed.

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Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - AK86-L  Layout and Features
Page 3 - AK86-L  BIOS
Page 4 - AK89 Max  Layout and Features
Page 5 - AK89 Max  Layout and Features (cont)
Page 6 - AK89 Max  BIOS
Page 7 - Benchmarking  Productivity
Page 8 - Benchmarking  Gaming
Page 9 - Overclocking and Conclusion