AOpen AK79D-400 Max nForce 2 Motherboard<base href="http://www.atruereview.com/" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.atruereview.com/images/favicon.ico" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <link href="http://www.atruereview.com/templates/rt_versatility_iii/css/template_css.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="http://www.atruereview.com/templates/rt_versatility_iii/css/style10.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="http://www.atruereview.com/templates/rt_versatility_iii/slimbox/slimbox.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="http://www.atruereview.com/templates/rt_versatility_iii/css/rokmoomenu.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />  <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.atruereview.com/images/favicon.ico" /> <style type="text/css"> td.left div.moduletable, td.right div.moduletable, td.left div.moduletable-hilite1, td.right div.moduletable-hilite1, td.left div.moduletable-hilite2, td.right div.moduletable-hilite2, td.left div.moduletable-hilite3, td.right div.moduletable-hilite3, td.left div.moduletable-hilite4, td.right div.moduletable-hilite4, td.left div.moduletable-hilite5, td.right div.moduletable-hilite5, td.left div.moduletable-hilite6, td.right div.moduletable-hilite6, td.left div.moduletable-hilite7, td.right div.moduletable-hilite7, td.left div.moduletable-hilite8, td.right div.moduletable-hilite8 { width: 175px; 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This coupled with the recent discoveries of the not so secret Athlon XP mobile chips and their superb overclocking abilities makes this a great time to get a good Socket A motherboard. </p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/AOpen/01.jpg"></a><a href="atruereview/AOpen/01.jpg"><img src="atruereview/AOpen/01th.jpg" width="250" height="197" border="0" alt="AOpen AK79D-400 Max nForce 2 Motherboard" title="AOpen AK79D-400 Max nForce 2 Motherboard"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>By now, just about everyone knows when considering a Socket A motherboard, look for one that is equipped with an nVidia nForce 2 Ultra 400 chipset for the best performance and overclocking abilities. But why choose one company's nForce 2 chipset board over another's? Price and features, of course. AOpen has managed to balance those two things with their flagship Socket A motherboard, the AK79D-400 Max which is what this review will be looking at.</p> <p><b>Packaging:</b></p> <p>AOpen's AK79D-400 Max comes in the standard sized motherboard box. For the most part, it is black and aqua. Fading circuit patterns are on the front and back of the motherboard box. On the front, the chipset's name is printed across the top in silver. To the upper right corner is the NVIDIA nForce 2 Ultra 400 logo and a sticker explaining that this board is Barton ready. The company name, AOpen, and the motherboard's model number are printed across the bottom. Just above the company name is a sticker touting that AOpen's board has EzColor - color coated jumper connections. </p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/AOpen/02.jpg"><img src="atruereview/AOpen/02th.jpg" width="250" height="203" border="0" alt="AOpen AK79D-400 Max nForce 2 Motherboard" title="AOpen AK79D-400 Max nForce 2 Motherboard"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>The left and right sides of the AOpen retail box have the specifications list. The back of the box has a picture of the AK79D-400 Max motherboard and is surrounded by a graphical listing of numerous features that AOpen has implemented into it.</p> <p>Inside, the AOpen motherboard is enclosed in a statically shielded bubble bag. The various included accessories lay on top of the motherboard and are enclosed in their own bags.</p> <p><b>Contents: (one of each)</b></p> <ul> <li>AK79D-400 Max motherboard</li> <li>Easy installation guide</li> <li>User's manual</li> <li>AOpen Bonus Pack - CD consisting of drivers and utilities</li> <li>Promise Serial ATA driver on floppy disk</li> <li>A copy of Norton Antivirus 2003</li> <li>80-wire IDE cable</li> <li>40-wire IDE cable</li> <li>Floppy drive cable</li> <li>Serial ATA cable</li> <li>IEEE1394 expansion bracket</li> <li>USB 2.0 expansion bracket</li> <li>S/PDIF expansion bracket</li> <li>I/O shield</li> <li>Registration Card</li> </ul> <p></p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/AOpen/03.jpg"><img src="atruereview/AOpen/03th.jpg" width="250" height="58" border="0" alt="AOpen AK79D-400 Max nForce 2 Motherboard" title="AOpen AK79D-400 Max nForce 2 Motherboard"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p><b>Specifications:</b></p> <ul> <li>CPU: AMD Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron</li> <li>Chipset: NVidia nForce2 Ultra 400 / nVidia MCP-T</li> <li>LAN: Integrated nVidia 10/100Mbps LAN Controller, Realtek PHY (RTL8201BL)</li> <li>Graphics: 8X AGP slot</li> <li>IDE: Integrated ATA133 Controller, Promise ATA133 and Serial ATA Control Chip, Max Disk: 144,000,000GB [by 48 bits LBA Spec.]</li> <li>Main Memory: Dual Channel Mode (128bit), Support DDR400 [PC3200], DDR DIMM x 3,</li> <li>DIMM Type: 64/128/256/512MB & 1GB</li> <li>Max Memory: 3GB</li> <li>Sound: Realtek AC'97 CODEC on-board (ALC650E), 5.1 Channel</li> <li>USB: Integrated in chipset, USB2.0 x 6</li> <li>IEEE 1394 (Firewire): Integrated nVidia 1394 Controller, AGERE PHY (FW802 (2ports))</li> <li>Slots: AGP x 1, PCI x 5, ACR x 1</li> <li>Form Factor: ATX</li> <li>Dimensions: 305 mm x 244 mm</li> <li>BIOS: Award PnP 4Mb Flash ROM BIOS, 2nd Flash ROM for DieHard BIOS</li> </ul> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/AOpen/04.jpg"><img src="atruereview/AOpen/04th.jpg" width="250" height="209" border="0" alt="AOpen AK79D-400 Max nForce 2 Motherboard" title="AOpen AK79D-400 Max nForce 2 Motherboard"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font></p> <p><b>Features:</b> </p> <p>AOpen implementations, complete list and expanded explanations can be found on AOpen's <a href="http://usa.aopen.com/products/mb/AK79D-400Max.htm">web site</a>.</p> <ul> <li>Dr. Voice II: audio diagnostic if something is preventing the system from booting</li> <li>Watch Dog ABS: If a setting causes the system to not boot, it will wait five seconds, then reset to the default BIOS settings</li> <li>OverHeat Protection: protects Athlon XPs from, you guessed it, overheating</li> <li>EzWin Flash: allows for BIOS flashing within Windows</li> <li>EzRestore: Works with ProMagic 6.0 to get your system to a previous working state if system crashes</li> <li>EzClock: overclocking utility that lets you adjust various bus and multiplier values within windows</li> <li>WinDMI: utility that shows numerous information about the system</li> <li>WinBIOS: utility allow for accessing the BIOS within windows</li> <li>DieHard BIOS: dual BIOS setup, one BIOS kicks in if main BIOS falls victim to virus or flash failure</li> <li>DieHard BIOS Lite: if boot kernel on BIOS gets corrupted, it will then try to recover the BIOS code from floppy automatically</li> <li>Vivid BIOS: allows for display of GIF stills or animation on POST screen. Displays the GIF under the POST information, not full screen covering up everything</li> <li>SilentTek: Utility that monitors voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds. Fan speeds can be set to be adjusted according to temperatures. Voltage ranges can be set so if voltage goes out of range, computer will shut off. Highs for CPU and system temperatures and lows for fan speed can be set so the computer will shut off if they go out of range</li> <li>JukeBox: allows the computer to play music CDs without booting an OS</li> <li>1MHz stepping for AGP & CPU: AGP/PCI can be overclocked in 1 MHz increments (who would want to do that) and the FSB can be adjusted in 1MHz increments (so it's not really 1MHz stepping for CPU)</li> <li>Hyper-Transport Technology</li> </ul> <p align="right"><a href="atruereview/AOpen/nforce.php"></a> <a href="AOpen/nforce.php">Next (Description)</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <div id="footer" class="clr"> <div class="rk-1"> <div class="rk-2"> <div id="the-footer">  </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </body> </html>