AOpen AX4B Max P4 Mainboard

Manufacturer: AOpen
Supplied by:  AOpen
Price: $132

By Dean Barker (7/2/2002)

Introduction

Our last P4 mainboard review was the AOpen AX45.  While this was a very solid dependable board it was severely lacking in the tweakability department.  With the AOpen AX4B Max mobo, tweakability is everywhere.  The AX4B Max is based on the Intel i845D chipset.  This platform promises to give us some room to move our P4 Northwood performance up with hopefully a nice overclock (overbus actually.)  AOpen gets kudos for hooking us up with this i845 board today to look over and put through its paces.

What you get

The AOpen Blue/Orange box signifying a P4 mainboard is just as eye catching as it can be.  The box's top window is there showing off all of that shiny black PCB that AOpen uses to make its motherboards.  AOpen actually even calls their black PCB boards, "Black Beauty."  A fitting and well deserved name.

Opening up the box you will find the AX45B Max, matching black ATA-100 ribbon cables, a bracket with two additional USB ports, a bracket with two Firewire ports, driver / utility disk, a copy of Norton Anti-Virus 2002, fold out installation poster, and manual.  You may have noticed I said ATA-100 cables and not 133.  The AX4B Max unfortunately doesn't support the faster ATA-133 standard.  On the driver disk you will find a hardware monitoring utility to help you watch those temperatures and voltages readings.

  

A quick note about the AOpen installation poster.  I have mentioned this in every AOpen mobo review we have done because this is something I wish all motherboard makers would do.  The mainboard manual is through, well laid out, and easy to read; like everyone else's manual.  But everyone else doesn't make an installation poster.  The installation poster is a down and dirty, no fluff, no B/S, all you need to know to set up and operate the board. 

Specifications

Let’s look at the white paper and see what we see.

Specs

• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 Processor (478 pin)

• ASIC:  Intel 845 (+ICH2) Chipset 

• Architecture: 6 *PCI slots +1* AGP slot + 1 * CNR

• Max. Main Memory: Max. 2GB DDR SDRAM for 184pin DIMM*4

• DIMM Type: 64/128/256/512MB/1GB

• On Board USB controller: NEC USB 2.0 controller on board

• On Board IEEE1394: TI 1394 controller on board (Firewire)

• On Board Sound: Realtek ALC650 AC’97 CODEC on board (5.1 channel)

• On Board I/O:2 Serial Ports (UART 16C550 Support), 1 Parallel Port (SPP/EPP/ECP Support), 2 Channel E-IDE (Mode 4 and Bus master Ultra DMA 33/66/100 Support), 1 Floppy Drive Connector (1.2/1.44/2.88MB), 2 Universal Serial Bus Ports, 1 PS/2 Mouse Port, 1 PS/2 Keyboard Port, Game/Midi Port, Speaker-Out, Line-In , Mic-In

• Onboard Connector:IrDA, Wake-On-LAN , Wake-On-Modem, CPU Fan, Fan2, Fan3 , CD-IN, AUX-IN , FRONT AUDIO, Dr. LED, Chassis intrusion connector, Additional 2 USB V1.1 Ports / 4 USB V2.0 Ports

• BIOS: Award Plug and Play 4Mb Flash ROM BIOS

• Board Size: 305mm x 244mm, ATX Form Factor

Features

• Supports PC2100 / PC1600 DDR SDRAM

• Supports USB 2.0

• Supports IEEE 1394 (Firewire)

• Supports AGP Protection Technology

• Dr. Voice II

• Jumper-less Design

• Dr. LED (Upgrade Optional)

• Supports 4X AGP mode

• AC'97 2.1 Audio support / Audio Codec onboard

• Supports 4 USB V2.0 ports (Additional USB2.0 cable included)

• Supports 4 USB V1.1 ports (via optional USB cable)

• Support Ultra DMA66/100 HDD (Additional UDMA66/100 cable included)

• 1MHz Stepping Frequency Adjustment

• Watch Dog Timer

• DIE-HARD BIOS with External Controller (Upgrade Optional)

• CPU Vcore Adjustment for Overclockers through BIOS

• Chassis Intrusion Detector

• Hardware Monitoring

• Wake On LAN / Modem / Timer / Keyboard / Mouse
  Zero Voltage Wake on Modem

• PCI Rev 2.2 Compliant

• Resetable Fuse Providing Short Circuit Protection for Keyboard and USB Device

• AOpen Bonus Pack CD (Norton Anti-Virus 2002 included)
   

 

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