Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/433



AOpen is the second manufacturer we've seen that's taking advantage of Intel's i820 delays by releasing one last i440BX board. We saw ABIT's ultimate i440BX solution with the BF6 and now it's AOpen's turn with the AX6BC Pro II Millennium Edition. The Millennium Edition is AOpen's way of getting in on the new millennium hype and is a special limited edition version of the AX6BC Pro II, which is in turn the sequel to the AnandTech Editor's Choice Gold winner AX6BC Pro Gold.

With all that in mind, the AX6BC Pro II Millennium Edition has quite a bit to live up to and expectations were high when the board arrived in the AnandTech labs. Despite the amazing quality of the AX6BC Pro Gold, AOpen has managed to raise the bar yet again in the quest for the ultimate i440BX board.


New Anand Tech Report Card Rating
92/A

Motherboard Specifications

CPU Interface Slot-1
Chipset i440BX
L2 Cache N/A (on-chip)
Form Factor ATX
Bus Speeds

66 / 68 / 75 / 83
100 / 103 / 112 / 117 / 124 / 129
133 / 138 / 143 / 148 / 153

Clock Multipliers 2.0x - 8.0x
Voltages Supported Auto Detect
Adjustable to 1.3V - 3.5V
Memory Slots 3 168-pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots 0 AMR Slots
1 AGP Slot
6 PCI Slots (5 Full Length)
0 ISA Slots
BIOS Award 4.51PG

The Good


Click to enlarge

To come up with the AX6BC Pro II, AOpen started with the original AX6BC Pro, dropped the 2 ISA slots, and added a 6th PCI slot for a 6/0/1 (PCI/ISA/AGP) slot configuration. Virtually everything else remains the same, including the placement of the floppy, HDD, and ATX power connectors. One PCI slot may be blocked from accepting a full length card due to a fan connector, but 5 full length PCI slots should be sufficient for most users. Three DIMM slots round out the expansion possibilities.

The Millennium Edition part of the equation is a series of modifications to the AX6BC Pro II design that go above and beyond the call of duty - almost into the realm of the ridiculous. This includes the use of a 24 karat Platinum-plated heatsink and monster 2200uF for better heat dissipation and enhanced stability, respectively. Those capacitors are the same low ESR (equivalent series resistance) capacitors from the AX6BC Pro Gold and further enhance stability. Emphasizing the limited edition status of the board is a, "special military grade" black PCB, Platinum-plated "Millennium Edition" plaque, and the names of the board's designers inscribed at the front of the board.

Whether or not these changes significantly enhance the stability of the board is debatable, especially features like the Platinum-plated heatsink. Rather, what is clear is that the AX6BC Pro II Millennium Edition is quite possibly the most stable board to pass through the AnandTech labs in both overclocked and non-overclocked situations, edging out the previous champ, the AX6BC Pro Gold, by a small margin.

A point of criticism for the whole AX6BC line, including the AX6BC Pro II from the layout standpoint has been and still is the placement of the floppy connector at the back of the motherboard.  Although this does allow for the ATX Power Supply connector to be placed in a highly desired position at the front corner of the motherboard, it does provide the user with an unfortunate cooling obstruction as you have to channel the floppy cable across the motherboard to get to your floppy drive.

Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge

From an engineering standpoint, it makes sense to place the floppy connector up there as it is physically closer to the Winbond controller chip.  However most users don't usually look at their motherboard and say "hmm, that is a beautiful piece of engineering" as they stretch their floppy cable across the length of their motherboard.

There is another option that makes much more sense and removes the placement of the floppy connector as a downside to this, and many other AOpen motherboards.  Instead of routing the floppy cable over the motherboard, why not route it under the motherboard?  Provided you have a long enough cable (which most of you probably should), try running your floppy cable underneath your motherboard as diagrammed in the picture to the right on the AX6BC Pro Gold.  It can help to eliminate air flow problems, and makes perfect sense when you think about it.  It seems like there's a reason Apple has been doing it for this long...

AOpen's jumperless CPU configuration is carried over directly from the original AX6BC and AX6BC Pro Gold. That means FSB settings of 66 / 68 / 75 / 83 / 100 / 103 / 112 / 117 / 124 / 129 / 133 / 138 / 143 / 148 / 153 are all available from the BIOS. A PCI ratio of 1/4 is available on speeds above 117 MHz. Unfortunately for AOpen, the ABIT BF6 and BE6-2 have clearly surpassed the competition in FSB flexibility with its SoftMenu III that offers FSB speeds from 83 - 200 MHz in 1 MHz increments. As we noted in that review, speeds above 124 MHz are generally not too useful since they push the AGP bus too far out of spec. The problem stems from the fact that the i440BX only features a 1:1 and 2:3 AGP ratio. This is of course a limitation of the i440BX chipset and cannot be blamed on AOpen.

A 6 pin jumper block determines the AGP ratio - options include Auto, 1/1, and 2/3. Unfortunately, the Auto setting is not as intuitive as it should be. AOpen listened to Intel's suggestion that the AGP ratio be linked to the state of BSEL, the CPU pin that determines whether a 66 or 100 MHz FSB speed should be used. This the infamous B21 pin on Slot-1 CPU's. When BSEL indicates 66MHz operation, the AGP ratio is set to 1/1 by the chipset and when BSEL says 100MHz, a 2/3 ratio is selected instead. AOpen's Auto setting links the CPU's BSEL pin to the chipset and lets it select the AGP ratio. The 1/1 and 2/3 jumper settings simply force the state of BSEL. Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just make the Auto setting automatically select 2/3 when 100MHz or higher FSB speeds are used and 1/1 otherwise? Better still would be a BIOS controlled setting.

The AX6BC Pro was the first AOpen board to offer CPU core voltage tweaks in the BIOS and the AX6BC Pro II continues the tradition. Voltage tweaks have been a boon for overclockers everywhere looking to push their CPU's to the limit as an additional 0.1V can do wonders for overclocked stability. The default detected voltage is reported in the BIOS followed by what it is currently set for. Changing the voltage from the default results in a warning message that it could damage the CPU. Once that has been bypassed, the options range from 1.3V to 3.4V. From 1.3 - 2.1V, the increments are 0.05V and then from 2.1V to 3.5V, increments are 0.1V.

Unlike some other recently updated i440BX boards, AOpen has passed up the option to upgrade the BIOS core to Award 6.00PG, sticking with version 4.60PGMA. Award 4.60PGMA is nothing more than an AOpen customized version of the classic Award 4.51PG. Like all other AOpen BIOS's, an option to load a set of "Turbo Defaults" is included to get the BIOS all tweaked up with just a couple key strokes. The user can then also save and load his/her own set of BIOS settings, allowing for experimentation without having to write down old BIOS settings. Each PCI slot can be assigned a specific IRQ for working out IRQ nightmares in a loaded system. Unfortunately, the onboard audio/video IRQ's cannot be changed nor can the USB IRQ be disabled.

One feature that is often forgotten, but included on the AX6BC Pro II, is the ability to configure what the system will do when AC power is restored after a power outage. The system can either remain off, turn on, or resume last power state when power is restored. This is a feature often overlooked since ATX and soft power became available, but is critical for anyone using their system where it must be on 24/7 or as close as possible. It also allows for users to shut the system on and off from a surge protector.



The Bad

We've said it before and we'll reemphasize it here - AOpen's hardware monitoring capabilities have always been weak and nothing has changed with the AX6BC Pro II. Hardware monitoring is performed by the Genesis Logic GL518SM - a chip that AOpen uses on most of their boards, but is rarely seen from other manufacturers. Four voltage are reported by the utility - +3.3V, +5V, +12V, and Vcore. No temperature or voltage information is provided in the BIOS, that information is only available via software. A thermistor mounted under the CPU socket provides the CPU temperature. Unfortunately, this chip is not capable of reading the CPU temperature from the on die thermal diode included in all Deschutes / Katmai / Mendocino / Coppermine CPU cores. Fortunately, software support from the shareware community has improved, so you're no longer stuck with AOpen's relatively weak utility if you don't like it.

Once again, it was a little disappointing to not find AOpen's usually excellent manual not 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 6th PCI slot is only a slave slot, meaning no bus mastering devices can be used in it. Once again, this is more of a limitation of the i440BX chipset rather than anything AOpen did wrong. The same goes for the ineffectiveness of FSB settings in the 133 MHz and up range due to the lack of a 1/2 AGP ratio.


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 64MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin SEC Original PC133 SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Mushkin SEC Original PC133 SDRAM

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site:
http://www.memory-man.com

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




The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.

Test Configuration

Processor(s): Intel Pentium III 550E
RAM: 1 x 128MB Samsung Original PC133
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Expert 418000 - UltraATA/66
Bus Master Drivers: Microsoft Windows 98SE DMA Drivers
Video Card: Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 TNT2 Ultra AGP
Video Drivers: NVIDIA Detonator Reference Drivers 3.53
Operation System(s): Windows 98 SE
Motherboard Revision: AOpen AX6BC Pro II
Millennium Edition Revision 1.0

 

Windows 98 Performance

  Sysmark 2000 Content Creation
Winstone 2000
Intel Pentium III 550E (5.5 x 100) 125 24.4
Intel Pentium III 710E (5.5 x 129) 157 26.2

The Final Decision

Editor's Choice AwardTake the only motherboard to receive AnandTech's Gold Editor's Choice Award in a standalone review, the AOpen AX6BC Pro Gold, make some basic, but useful improvements, and you get the AX6BC Pro II Millennium Edition - the best overall i440BX motherboard on the market.

For the hardcore overclocker, the latest offerings from ABIT, the BE6-2 and BF6 may be a better solution thanks to SoftMenu III's increased tweaking flexibility. For everyone else, there is no reason to pass on the AX6BC Pro II and its rock solid stability under all conditions. That is, of course, if you still want an i440BX board this late in its life cycle...


How it Rates

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

  Business
Performance 85%
Price 85%
Ease of Use 90%
Overclocked Stability 97%
General Stability 97%
Quality 97%
Documentation 88%
Reliability 97%
Overall Rating 92%

Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.

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