865PE/875P Motherboard Roundup June 2003 - Part 1: 20-way Shootout
by Evan Lieb on June 12, 2003 10:57 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
AOpen AX4C Max
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Motherboard Specifications |
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CPU
Interface
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Socket-478
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Chipset
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Intel
82875P MCH (North Bridge)
Intel 82801ER ICH5R (South Bridge) |
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Bus
Speeds
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up
to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments)
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Core
Voltages Supported
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up
to 1.850V (in 0.0250V increments)
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I/O
Voltages Supported
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N/A
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DRAM
Voltages Supported
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up
to 2.8V (in 0.0225V increments)
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Memory Slots
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4 184-pin
DDR DIMM Slots
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Expansion Slots
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1 AGP
8X Slot
5 PCI Slots |
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Onboard IDE RAID
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Promise
PDC20378 controller (RAID 0, RAID 1 & RAID 0 + 1)
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Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394
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Eight
USB 2.0 ports supported through South Bridge
Agere FW323 IEEE-1394 FireWire (2 ports available) |
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Onboard LAN
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Broadcom
5702 Gigabit LAN (no CSA)
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Onboard Audio
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Realtek
ALC650 codec
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Onboard Serial ATA
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Two
SATA connectors via ICH5R (RAID 0/1 only)
Two SATA connectors via PDC20378 controller (RAID 0, 1, & 0 + 1) |
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BIOS
Revision
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Rev.
1.04a (5/21/2003)
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As you can see the AX4C Max is an extremely feature-packed motherboard with lots to offer.
The most notable feature the AX4C Max has to offer is its Serial ATA and IDE ATA support. Using the Promise PDC20378 controller the AX4C Max contains RAID support in both the Serial ATA and IDE ATA standard, with array levels of 0, 1, and 0 + 1. Two IDE drives can be connected to the single Promise-controlled connector onboard the AX4C Max. The Promise PDC20378 controller also supports two of the four onboard Serial ATA connectors, with one SATA drive capable of being connected to each of the two connectors. So, including the Primary, Secondary, Promise-controlled Serial ATA and IDE connectors and two ICH5R SATA connectors, the AX4C Max is capable of supporting a total of ten drives. This sort of drive support is quite unique to find on a motherboard, though it's not totally unexpected considering the high-end nature of this board.
Another defining feature of the AX4C Max is its IEEE 1394 FireWire support,
courtesy of Agere's FW323 controller. AOpen makes a sensible move by bundling
a two-port IEEE 1394 FireWire bracket to utilize the two onboard FireWire headers
located at the bottom of the PCB. Assuming you're willing to lose a bit of performance,
you can always connect more than two FireWire devices to the AX4C Max via the
daisy chaining method. Still, most users should do just fine with the eight
available USB 2.0 ports (six rear ports) and two IEEE 1394 FireWire ports.
Another feature we like to see is dual BIOSes. Gigabyte is famous for always including a dual BIOS feature on their high-end line of motherboards, and somewhat more recently AOpen has adopted this trend. having two BIOS chips can be helpful if you've permanently corrupted your first BIOS chip (through overclocking, overvolting, etc.) and instead being forced to RMA your board or replace the chip yourself, your board will simply revert to the second backup BIOS chip.
As already illustrated in the chart at the top of the page, the AX4C Max contains some excellent BIOS performance tweaking options as well as powerful overclocking options. One of the most important performance tweaking features within the AX4C Max's BIOS is its memory frequency and memory timings. As always you can tweak your memory modules' timings to CAS 2/2T/5T/2T with some good Corsair TwinX or XMS PC3200 memory, and as usual you can adjust memory frequency to 266MHz, 320MHz or 400MHz DDR if you've installed an 800MHz FSB processor. The most intriguing feature of the AX4C Max's BIOS is the grayed out area that automatically adjusts itself in front of your eyes as you choose your FSB (up to 400MHz single pumped), AGP (up to 98.68MHz), PCI (up to 49.34MHz) and memory frequencies. Little features like this make a positive impact on overclockers and high-performance users alike, so hopefully more motherboard makers catch on.
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18 Comments
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Zak - Sunday, January 18, 2004 - link
I bought IS7 after reading this article and I've been having problems. Random resets, then BSOD after changing XP recovery settings. Over the past few months it worsened. In the begining it like once a week maybe. I wasn't concerned, bad driver I thought. Now it won't run more than an hour without BSOD. I have Corsair XMS DDR400 in it. I've played with memory settings for weeks, timings and voltages as well, reinstalled XPPro several times, updated BIOS, got all newest drivers and run out of ideas... I've put a stick of DDR333 because that's all have to test and I still get the same random BSOD, even durnig XP installation. I have no PCI cards in this box. Mushkin calls this board problematic and attributes the memory problems to forced implementation of PAT that is not normally present in 865. I may try getting it replaced by NewEgg but I don't suppose it'll help. I'm thinking about getting a 875 board instead. Zak.Anonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link
I would like to see part II of the roundup of the 865 chipset. I wonder what is the delay?Anonymous User - Monday, October 13, 2003 - link
I thought Part 2 would be out by now at least... There are good new boards out there I'd like to see... Shuttle AB60R (cheap and full featured) and Abit IC7-MAX3 (OTES for mobo power area). I am still looking forward to seeing this, eventually, right guys?Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
Any comments on newer motherboards? Why hasn't supermicro been tested since 2000?Looking to compare supermicro
Intel s875wp1-e and Super P4SCE (SuperServer 5013C-I (SYS-5013-CI)) for a $50k cluster
Thanks
syzygyus@yahoo.com
Anonymous User - Friday, August 29, 2003 - link
Evan, how in the world is #4 going to research your statement when the articles/review comments forum gets purged/is gone now ?Anonymous User - Saturday, August 23, 2003 - link
Any word on Revision 2 of the Gigabyte 8knxp ultra board yet?Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link
I bought the is7 after I read this article. It had many problems. I ended up having to ram this board twice. If you read the abit forum boards you will see alot of problems I am fairly surprised after all the tests this board was put through nothing ever went wrong. I will not buy another abit product period. I will stick to gigabye i've built 6 systems with Gigabyte and yet to have any problems with them. Save for the chipset fans having a low life.Anonymous User - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
I bought the Abit IS7 and am completely pleased. One note is that many of the IS7's appear to be getting shipped with the gigabit lan as opposed to the sales brochure stated 10/100. (mine has the gigabit)Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 5, 2003 - link
How could it be that the Asus p4c 800 de luxe is more expensive then the asus p4p deluxe but in the testresults it is slower?I would think i am misinformed by the computershop?
And the p4c deluxe got a gigabit lan on board, despite mentioning in the summary of this Mb it has not.
PixelDoc - Sunday, July 27, 2003 - link
Error Re: Gigabyte GA-8KNXP MoBoThis MoBo has 4, not 2 SATA connectors, 2 controlled by ICH5R and 2 more contolled by the SIL3112 chip.