Home
Old News
Contact
Glimpses
CPUs
Graphic
Cards
Monitors
Motherboards
Storage
Systems
Other
Reviews
Graphic
Cards
Monitors
Motherboards
Storage
Systems
Other
Benchmarks
Graphic
Cards
Storage
Systems
Other
Other
About
me
Advertising
Links
Other
|
|
PROS: Stable as a rock! Supports 83mhz bus. Expandable. Support
for future clock multipliers and voltages.
CONS: Expensive (except for at grumpmicro , there , everything
is cheap :) Can only cache 64k ram. (Intel TX chipset limitation) No Softmenu.
RATING: 9.5/10 BIOS SETTINGS: FAST ones! Unless you have cheap SDRAM. Basically , this
board is very stable so bios settings shouldn't give you any trouble. The
manual does a decent job explaining all of the settings.
|
The one thing that everyone
who has ever used this motherboard remembers is the CD-ROM that came with
the motherboard. Since when do motherboards need a software bundle? Well
, AOpen was nice enough to package their motherboard with Norton Anti-Virus
, and many more useful utilities. ( I am too lazy to list them all , as
I did in my previous review :) Most of them are hardware monitoring software
and Bus mastering devices. Also a small telecommunication program in included.
Well , enough of that , on to the meaty stuff. The latest revision of AOpen's
AX5T combines the features of the Intel TX chipset , 83mhz bus speed ,
4 ISA/4PCI slots , and future clock multipliers which when coupled with
the 83mhz bus speed allow CPU's running at up to 450+mhz! The AX5T comes
with a very comprehensive manual which explains just about everything you
could ever want to know about a motherboard in utmost detail (it would
be perfect were it not for the grammar :) The AOpen AX5T - 3.1 can best
be described as a rock. This is the most stable most solid board I have
ever encountered. Much of this boards stability is due to the high quality
components AOpen uses in its motherboards. I would not be surprised
if some of the newer socket 7 chips can be clocked at 83.3x5.5 with this
board! I have managed to clock a 6x86pr200 at 200mhz without upping the
voltage! (83.3x2 worked flawlessly even with EDO RAM!) The AX5T-3.1
is not only a stable board , but an excellent performer as well. The AX5T
gives a noticeable improvement over generic boards and ranks right at the
top in performance. (Though most decent motherboards are within a few percentage
points when it comes to Winstone , in real world tests , the difference
is negligible) Though the AX5T is an excellent performer , I would recommend
purchasing this board not for the performance , but for the features and
upgradability. The board features 4ISA and 4PCI slots for maximum upgradability
in the future. The 2.0v and 5.5x multiplier support only adds to this boards
excellent feature list. Even such a great board like this one though still
has its weaknesses. Most of the weaknesses of the AX5T are really little
problems which won't bother most people. One small problem is the use of
jumpers instead of DIP switches , or better yet , Softmenu. Also , the
AX5T is picky about SDRAM , so don't give it any generic crap , because
it is highly unlikely that it will like it. (It will probably work , but
if you wanna push the bus speed , it may cause problems) Overall , the
AX5T-3.1 is an excellent board. It combines ultimate stability with great
performance and expandability. I would highly recommend this board to tweakers
and overclockers , as well as those looking for a good long term investment.
(Though nothing in the tech world is really long lasting :)
--Rage |