AOpen AX6C/AX6C-L ATX Slot-1 i820

It was a little disappointing not to find AOpen's usually excellent manual in the box. Here they did cut corners a bit to save some money and have included a Quick Installation Guide. The manual is included, but only on CD - not much good if you can't get the computer up and running. The Quick Installation Guide is also surprisingly brief with little information about the physical installation of the board. There is just some information on basic jumper settings and CPU setup.

The presence of the software AC'97 codec on-board the AX6C may be a dream come true for OEMs and system integrators, but for performance enthusiasts, the idea of a software based modem or sound isn't the most appealing. Luckily, you can disable the option should you want to use your own hardware devices, but then again, for a user not interested in anything more than decent sound support, the on-board codec is just fine.

In spite of all of the tweaking options that AOpen provided, it was a shame that the core voltage of the CPU could not be manipulated either on-board or in the BIOS setup. This is a pretty big oversight on AOpen's part and something we'd really like to see addressed in future revisions of the board or its BIOS.

The final and most obvious downside to the AX6C isn't a fault of AOpen but rather of the i820 chipset itself, which is the exclusive support for RDRAM, a very costly memory option. If you are planning on spending the money on RDRAM, then the AX6C is a perfect combination for the $500 - $1000 you would spend on a single stick of RDRAM at the time of publication.

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 128MB MB Mushkin SEC PC800 RDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB MB Mushkin SEC PC800 RDRAM

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com