Thursday, November 07, 2002

Technical details

The standard amount of space has been provided around the CPU socket in order to fit a P4 heatsink.

The memory slots are located too close to the AGP port thus introducing the chance of a retention bar coming into contact with the graphics card when installing memory.
 

Six 3300mfds, two 2200mfds, and one 1000mfds capacitor have been placed around the CPU socket.

The CPU retention bar is made of plastic, so handle with care.

The Northbridge is capped with a heatsink, but no fan.

The ATX connector is located nearby the IDE connectors, to the east of the CPU. Users must thus contour the power cables around the CPU, but in such a way that it shouldn't interfere with ventilation. The 12V connector is located to the west of the CPU.

Three fan connectors are included, but only two are controlled by the hardware monitoring system.

Hardware monitoring is controlled by a Winbond W83697HF circuit.

This board permits the manual assignment of IRQs.

USB 2.0 (480Mbps), and Firewire ports are included, and are controlled by an AGERE FW802A microchip.

Sound-support is provided by the six-channel Realtek ALC650.

10/100Base-T Ethernet networking is possible, thanks to a Realtek RTL8100BL controller.

And finally, the AX45-8X also benefits from a number of all AOpen's small refinements, such as Low ESR capacitors, CPU Over Current Protection, AGP Protection Technology, Die-Hard BIOS, Watch Dog Timer, and Resettable Fuses. A DR.Led diagnostic panel is also available as an option.

Next: Additional features

AOpen AX45-8X Max