Thursday, November 07, 2002

Introduction

The AOpen AX45-8X Max is the newest AOpen's motherboard to support 533MHz FSB Pentium 4 processors. The AX45-8X is based on the SiS 648 Northbridge, and the SiS 963 Southbridge.

In terms of graphics performance, the AX45-8X has a lot going for it; it supports AGP 8X, which has a theoretical bandwidth of 2.1GB/sec. It also uses DDR-SDRAM memory, at frequencies of 100MHz/133MHz/166MHz or 200MHz (ie. DDR200, DDR266, DDR333, and DDR400).

A function also allows the board to automatically detect the presence of DDR400 memory. This feature is an important addition, due to the increased voltage required by the chipset in order to work flawlessly at DDR400 speeds. Users can select any of four different voltage levels ranging from 2.5V to 2.65V, via jumper JP29.

The features don't end there though -- the AOpen AX45-8X also comes complete with a six-channel Realtek ALC650 sound-card, a 10/100Base-T Ethernet controller, and IEEE1394 Firewire support.

Support for ATA133 drives is also insured thanks to the Sis chipset.

Audio

The AOpen AX45-8X Max's audio circuitry is based around a Realtek ALC650 sound-chip. The ALC650 supports AC3, and 5.1 Surround Sound, and allows users to hook-in up to six audio channels, including a center base channel.

From a fidelity standpoint, the Realtek AL650 is quite good at what it does, and should satisfy most users.

Configuration

The AOpen AX45-8X only sports a small number of jumpers, but none of them relate directly to the CPU configuration. Once your hardware is up and running, you can drop into the BIOS to make any necessary adjustments.

The Frequency/Voltage menu, for instance, allows users to set the FSB frequency to a value ranging from 100MHz to 248MHz in 1MHz increments, or else allow the frequency to be automatically set by the system.

The BIOS allows users to manually set the memory frequency (to 200/266/333/400Mhz), and various memory timing settings. The DDR voltage can also be set manually (to between 2.5 and 2.65 Volts) via jumper JP29.

Next: Technical details

AOpen AX45-8X Max