AOpen AX4PE Max (845PE)

AOpen AX4PE Max: Basic Features

AOpen's 845PE board offers some very similar features as those found on the recently reviewed ASUS P4PE and Epox 4PEA+ motherboards.

AOpen doesn't include anything too fancy in the way of LAN or sound chips. Realtek has clearly taken a commanding lead when it comes to onboard features like sound and LAN, and the AOpen AX4PE Max continues this trend. Onboard LAN is powered by Realtek's 8100BL chip.

Moving on we see that the onboard sound is powered by Realtek's ALC650 chip. This is exactly the same sound chip found on Albatron's 845PE motherboard (the PX845PEV Pro) as well as Epox's 845PE motherboard, the 4PEA+.

The I/O configuration included with the AOpen AX4PE Max isn't too bad either. There are two PS/2 ports, two serial ports, one parallel port, four rear USB 2.0 ports, a LAN port, a Game Port, Mic In, Line In, and Line Out that is driven by the onboard sound.

AOpen looks ahead to the future by offering Serial ATA RAID capability through the Promise PDC20275 controller. This controller is capable of supporting up to two independent Serial ATA devices, similar to the Silicon Image 3112 controller. As with basically all the RAID chips on the market, this RAID chip offers RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring) array capability.

There's also one additional IDE connector (besides the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors that are capable of providing two channels per connector). This connectors adds another two possible drives to your system, which in total gives you up to six IDE drives you can hook up to this system, which is very nice.

As is pretty normal with most 845PE boards, AOpen doesn't include an additional onboard USB 2.0 controller, but instead simply uses the native USB 2.0 support located in the ICH4 South Bridge, which offers support for up to six USB 2.0 ports. Only the Gigabyte 8PE667 Ultra offers more possible USB 2.0 ports (a total of ten) among the 845PE motherboards we've tested. Additionally though, AOpen is good enough to include FireWire support. FireWire is powered by TI's TSB43AB22 controller, which supports up to two FireWire ports.

There are two FireWire headers positioned at the bottom of the motherboard that allows you to take advantage of the onboard TI FireWire controller.