Motherboard: AOpen AX4SPE Max Review :: Setup & BIOS

The manual of the AX4SPE is fairly well explained and will help even a veteran PC enthusiast on their way and for the beginning user this is an invaluable information resource. The board has an adequate layout other than the terrible design of where the power connectors are located, with one by the AGP port and the other way over by the memory. They should be located side by side which helps to keep your system clear of messy cabling jobs and is just more ergonomic than by being so far apart. The old engineering myth stated that the power connector should be as close to the memory as possible but that is an outdated thought and modern design alleviates that as being a necessary factor in the board's layout. The board will fit in any standard or larger ATX case and sizes in at 305 mm x 244 mm. Be sure to use an appropriate 350W 12V power supply as to keep system stability at its best as a low power cheesy PS can cause serious problems in the conceivable future not only by failure but by power surges by poorly regulated power sources that could potentially damage the board itself.

The rear I/O offers the user an amazing eight USB 2.0 ports (6X rear I/O 2X by Cable) as well as a Gigabit LAN (RJ45) port in addition to two COM ports a parallel port, analog audio and lastly one PS2 mouse/PS2 keyboard connector. The board features a four phase power control via AOpen's V4 power engine that uses PWM or Pulse Width Modulation that helps condition and control the power keeping the board running smoothly by ensuring a constant and accurate power voltage coming into the board. SATA is becoming the standard as parallel becomes obsolete and this affects the overclocking element completely as enabling the SATA device automatically shuts down the board overclocking features to insure stability in the SATA drive array. SATA150 is only slightly faster than its parallel ATA133 cousin a fact that overclockers may want to consider if they really want to push the systems bus interface to its maximum potential. Just putting the system together was no chore as the boards layout allows for easy setup times.

Understanding the Phoenix/Award BIOS interface is simple as it is user friendly and its settings are very straightforward and comprehensible so even green PC enthusiasts should have no problem custom setting up their system configuration. You can disable the ICH5R SATA controller allowing the overclocking settings to remain available. You can also adjust your memory, AGP, CPU voltages to increase stability in an overclocked situation as well as the clock and FSB settings for increased flexibility and control over your systems performance settings. The board features AOpen's WINBIOS a utility for working within the BIOS in the Windows environment. Overclockers can use the EzClock utility as well to control their system settings as well as the manual setup in the bios. The board uses a dual-Bios design that allows for boot ups in cases of extreme overclocking or Bios failure, the only drawback is they should be removable just in case of both failing. The BIOS automatically switches to the secondary BIOS chip in case of failure.

The BIOS has many options for the user including H/W Monitoring to see how the system is running and at what temperatures as well as Dr VoiceII a system monitor that tells the user in a human voice what possibly may be wrong with their system in case of a no post system. If your system gets totally out of whack AOpen offers a utility called EzRestore which allows your system to boot with a previous Windows and BIOS setting incase of user error or system failure due to a bad driver update or other software errors causing instability. Another feature is the SilentTek function that controls and monitors your systems internal fans allowing for manual adjustments for increased PC silencing by reducing the fans rotation speed or power consumptions. This is a new thing that if polished could become a very useful tool for the overclocker or enthusiast who likes the thought of a quieter PC. The driver CD that is included contains all the necessary drivers to get your system up and running although the Windows XP SP1 patch was needed to get everything running entirely properly and there is included Anti-Virus software to protect you from those nasty worms and MSBLAST viruses that can cause such problems for the PC.