| |
 |
|
Date |
: Apr 24th, 2002 |
| Category |
: Motherboards |
| Manufacturer |
: AOpen |
| Author |
: Jin-Wei Tioh |
|
Other than the DFI AK76-SN, every motherboard that passed through our labs had integrated AC'97 audio. AOpen went with the no frills Analog Devices AD1885 CODEC. For casual use, the integrated audio performs acceptably, with processor use not noticeably slowing down the system. However, for more intensive uses, such as DVD playback or gaming, it would definitely be preferable to go with a hardware-based sound card as they generally hog less CPU time while providing more audio functionality and better sound quality.
Another standard feature on AOpen motherboards are the Dr. Voice, Dr. LED and Die-Hard BIOS technologies. Dr. Voice is a diagnostics tool, audibly telling you what is wrong with your motherboard in 4 languages; English, German, Chinese and Japanese. Dr. LED, an optional accessory, is a set of 8 LEDs, which indicate which part of the motherboard might be having problems. Finally, the Die-Hard BIOS technology helps to protect your system from virus attacks or failed BIOS updates. Essentially, there are two BIOS chips on the motherboard, with only the primary chip being active during normal use. Upon corruption of the primary chip's contents, the machine will switch over to the secondary chip. Oddly however, it seems the the second BIOS chip was missing from our evaluation sample.
To complete the package, a product registration card, superb "getting started" poster and 2 CDs are included; one with an electronic version of the manual, the drivers and utilities; the other with a full version of Norton Antivirus 2002 for Win9x/NT/2000/XP. This is a welcome addition, saving the time, money and inconvenience of separately purchasing an antivirus program. The package also contains a detailed manual. So far, AOpen's motherboard manuals describe the product and related technologies / terminologies in detail but lack any descriptions and explanations of the BIOS settings.
|
|
