AOpen
AX4B-533 Tube (i845E) Mainboard
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The board won't be very popular with users: its high price (because of the
unnecessary tube amplifier) negates all its advantages. But the board will remain
in the memory of all who have seen its specs and its photo - well, this is what
a company stakes on when releases an advertising product. Accessories:
- Dark box with a conceptional picture and an additional section with
the vacuum tube;
-
Documentation: user manual, description of Tube's functions, poster with brief
description of installation of the board - in English;
- Cables:
1 ATA66/100/133, 1 ATA33 and FDD;
- Bracket with audio connectors;
-
SOVTEK 6922 twin triode;
-
Bracket for the rear computer panel;
- 2 CDs containing:
- drivers;
- user manuals for several AOpen's boards in PDF;
-
DirectX 8.1;
- Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.05;
- DocuCom
Reader (for reading PDF files);
- System monitoring programs;
-
AOConfig;
- E-Color;
- Norton CrashGuard 1.0 (rarity,
1995!);
- Norton Antivirus 98 (rarity, 1998);
- Norton
Antivirus 2002.
The layout is unusual because of the tube amplifier - the full-size ATX board
houses only 3 PCI slots. Audio-ins, IDE and FDD connectors are in not very good
positions, and when a video card is installed it's difficult to handle the memory
modules. It's not difficult to reach jumpers when the board is already installed.
Their functions are shown on the textolite.
The
3-channel switching voltage regulator incorporates 8 capacitors of 3300 uF and
3 of 2200 uF. The following controllers are integrated: -
audio controller based on the Avance Logic ALC650 AC'97 codec with a connector
for front audio inputs/outputs and supporting 5.1 audio systems;
-
network controller based on the chipset's capabilities supporting 10Base-T/100Base-TX.
The
board supports the AOpen's technologies Vivid BIOS (a picture during booting),
AOpen Dr. Voice II (tells about problems during booting) and AOpen EzRestore (data
backup on the hard drive). The back side of the board houses a metallic
plate that prevents the textolite from distortion when massive coolers are installed.
+5V
in the StandBy mode is indicated with the red LED. Non-unsoldered connectors:
none. The system monitoring is supported by the Winbond WT83627HF-AW
chip. What is controlled: - processor voltage, +3.3, +-5 and +-12
V, VBAT, +5 V Standby;
- speed of 3 fans;
- temperatures
of the processor (a built-in sensor), and the board (a built-in sensor).
There
are 3 connectors for adjustable connection of fans. Brief characteristics
of the board: memory slots - 3 DDR SDRAM; expansion slots - AGP/ 3 PCI; I/O
ports - 2 COM/ LPT/ 2 PS/2/ 6 USB 2.0; dimensions - 305x245 mm.
Adjustment
can be carried out with:
| jumpers and switches | Jumper
to clear up the CMOS | | | Jumper for starting
up computer from a PS/2 keyboard | | | Jumper
to supply power to the tube amplifier | | | Jumpers
for selecting a language for the Dr. Voice II | English/ Chinese/ Japanese/
German | | BIOS based on the AwardBIOS 6.00PG from
Phoenix | Setup of memory timings | + | CAS Latency,
Active to Precharge Delay, RAS to CAS Delay, RAS Precharge | | Setup
of memory frequency | + | Auto, DDR200, DDR266 |
| Setup of AGP bus | - | | | Setup
of PCI bus | - | | | Changeable scaler
of AGP and PCI buses | - | | | Manual
assignment of interrupts | - | | | Changeable
FSB frequency | + | 100 - 248 MHz in 1MHz steps |
| Changeable CPU multiplier | + | x8 - x50 |
| Changeable core voltage | + | 1.1 - 1.85 V in
0.025V steps | | Changeable memory voltage | - | |
| Changeable chipset voltage | - | | | Changeable
AGP bus voltage | - | | We used the
latest available version of the BIOS - R1.02.
This product is not going to boast of speed, settings or functionality, it's
meant for a person who wants a piece of art instead of a noname Chinese fake-up.
However, its basic part - sound section - doesn't have outstanding characteristics
at all.
Test results:
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