Review: Aopen AX4C Max Motherboard

Dom · Jun 13, 2003, 01:13 AM

The Aopen AX4C Max is an unassuming motherboard. That's not a slam, but a compliment. It quietly goes about its business, eschewing flash for stability. The AX4C Max has its fair share of features, but Aopen has wisely chosen not to create a product that's different just for the sake of being different.

That's not to say that the Aopen lacks features, or is afraid to depart from the Intel canon. For example, the company has chosen to use Broadcom's 5702 Gigabit Ethernet chip instead of Intel's CSA-enabled Gigabit chip. On the other hand, the AX4C Max supports both Intel's ICH5R I/O controller and a Promise PDC20378 Serial ATA RAID controller. This yields terrific flexibility in choosing storage options for most desktop systems. Intel's ICH5R supports two serial ATA ports, which can be used as a single, RAID 0 striped array or to connect up to two discrete Serial ATA hard drives. The I/O controller also supports ATA100 parallel devices (up to a total of four).

The Promise controller lets you add two more S-ATA drives, either as single drives, as a RAID 0 striped array or as a RAID 1 using two S-ATA drives. You can even combine two parallel ATA drives and two S-ATA drives to create a RAID (0+1) array, if you're willing to dedicate four drives to the array. Of course, the PCC20378 is a PCI chip, so the PCI bus could be a gating factor.

Aopen also manufactures two other motherboards using the 875P chipset, differing mostly in Ethernet, RAID and audio options.

Read the whole review at ExtremeTech.com

Jun 13, 2003, 01:13 AM	#1
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	Review: Aopen AX4C Max Motherboard The Aopen AX4C Max is an unassuming motherboard. That's not a slam, but a compliment. It quietly goes about its business, eschewing flash for stability. The AX4C Max has its fair share of features, but Aopen has wisely chosen not to create a product that's different just for the sake of being different. That's not to say that the Aopen lacks features, or is afraid to depart from the Intel canon. For example, the company has chosen to use Broadcom's 5702 Gigabit Ethernet chip instead of Intel's CSA-enabled Gigabit chip. On the other hand, the AX4C Max supports both Intel's ICH5R I/O controller and a Promise PDC20378 Serial ATA RAID controller. This yields terrific flexibility in choosing storage options for most desktop systems. Intel's ICH5R supports two serial ATA ports, which can be used as a single, RAID 0 striped array or to connect up to two discrete Serial ATA hard drives. The I/O controller also supports ATA100 parallel devices (up to a total of four). The Promise controller lets you add two more S-ATA drives, either as single drives, as a RAID 0 striped array or as a RAID 1 using two S-ATA drives. You can even combine two parallel ATA drives and two S-ATA drives to create a RAID (0+1) array, if you're willing to dedicate four drives to the array. Of course, the PCC20378 is a PCI chip, so the PCI bus could be a gating factor. Aopen also manufactures two other motherboards using the 875P chipset, differing mostly in Ethernet, RAID and audio options. Read the whole review at ExtremeTech.com