MaximumPC 2004 03

N

ot everyone can afford to build

a top-flight Athlon 64 FX sys-

tem. But that doesn’t mean

that a 64-bit OS and on-die memory

controller are beyond the reach of

regular folk. Consider Athlon 64.

Coupled with VIA’s red-hot Apollo

K8T800 chipset, AMD’s budget CPU

series is anything but sluggish. In

fact, the numbers we saw from the

new Athlon 64 3400+ exceed those of

the “normal” 3.2GHz Pentium 4.

Although we’re convinced the

Athlon 64 is a solid investment, if

you have an eye toward upgrading,

pay attention to AMD’s plan to con-

solidate the platform around the

upcoming Socket 939 platform. Still,

according to AMD, Socket 754 will be

a viable platform for at least 18 more

months. And with the move to DDR2

and PCI Express this year, mobos are

bound to become obsolete after 24 to

36 months anyway.

Here’s a look at three mother-

boards that try to go the distance

with the Athlon 64.

—GORDON MAH UNG

AOpen AK86-L

A glance at AOpen’s AK86-L specs

would lead you to believe that this is

a no-frills board. After all, it lacks

FireWire ports, dual BIOS, and a

plethora of parallel

ATA ports. But

you’d be surprised.

AOpen has

tucked numerous features into its

64-bit mobo. For example, a special

circuit in the AK86-L protects the

motherboard from a PS/2 or USB

short circuit. You know, like the last

time you plugged in a PS/2 keyboard

while the PC was on. Normally,

that’s an easy way to blow a mobo’s

circuit, but on the AK86-L, a minia-

ture fuse/circuit breaker resets itself

after an electrical short.

There’s also a color-coded con-

nector for the front panel connector

that eliminates the pain of plugging

in the power, reset, and hard drive

connectors. AOpen uses a set of

capacitors that are more than twice

the size of caps used in most other

motherboards (including the two

others reviewed here). In theory,

these higher capacitors help stabilize

power going to the CPU.

RealTek silicon provides Gigabit

Ethernet and AC97 5.1 audio. An

extra we’re not exactly sold on is its

“Jukebox” feature. The technology lets

you boot your PC in a few seconds so

you can play a CD without waiting for

the OS to boot. Why you’d want to

do this, we don’t know. Perhaps it

would come in handy for home enter-

tainment PC usage.

The AK86-L uses VIA’s impressive

Apollo K8T800 chipset, which has a

reputation for being one of the fastest

Athlon 64 chipsets around. We

assumed chipset performance differ-

ences would be marginalized when

the memory controller moved from

the northbridge to the CPU in

Athlon 64 chips, but it appears ven-

dors are still managing to create some

variance in speed. In VIA’s case, the

fast performance likely comes from

the 16-bit, 800MHz Hyper-Transport

link between the CPU and the north-

bridge. While competing chipsets use

slower links, the K8T800 is a full-

speed connection.

Performance-wise, the AK86-L

places at the back of the pack, but

by a speed differential of just a few

percentage points. On a more posi-

tive note, the AOpen board was able

to run all the RAM we threw at,

while the Albatron K8X800 ProII

and the MSI K8T Neo both experi-

enced memory problems when using

DDR400 in all three DIMM slots.

Albatron K8X800 ProII

Albatron didn’t skimp on the fea-

tures when it forged the K8X800

ProII motherboard. It sports FireWire

by way of a VIA VT6037 controller,

a dual-BIOS feature that lets you

recover your board should you nuke

it during a failed update attempt,

and even 24-bit audio (well sort of).

There’s also a crapload of USB

and FireWire headers on the board.

Even though Albatron doesn’t pimp

a “resettable fuse” as a feature for

the PS/2 ports, the board appears

to have the same circuit as AOpen’s

AK86-L. Albatron even gives you a

whopping six PCI slots. We’re not

sure what you’d fill them with, but

hey, the more the merrier.

The board uses VIA’s K8T800

chipset and VT8237 southbridge

with SATA RAID. The VIA VT8237

also provides Serial ATA and RAID,

but unfortunately lacks native SATA.

That means you’ll need to have a

floppy drive and a set of drivers

Reviews

66 MAXIMUMPC MARCH 2004

Although slightly slower, the

AOpen worked with a wider range

of RAM than the other mobos here.

64-bit Mobos for the Masses

Three Athlon 64 motherboards encounter unexpected limitations

Most compatible with the RAM we used.

MERCEDES BENZ

KIA

BIOS is soldered and not socketed, and the board lacks

FireWire.

$125, http://www.aopen.com

MAXIMUMPC VERDICT 8

AOpen AK86-L

tainment PC usage.

Apollo K8T800 chipset, which has a

reputation for being one of the fastest

Athlon 64 chipsets around. We

assumed chipset performance differ-

ences would be marginalized when

the memory controller moved from

the northbridge to the CPU in

Athlon 64 chips, but it appears ven-

dors are still managing to create some

variance in speed. In VIA’s case, the

fast performance likely comes from

the 16-bit, 800MHz Hyper-Transport

link between the CPU and the north-

bridge. While competing chipsets use

slower links, the K8T800 is a full-

speed connection.

places at the back of the pack, but

tucked numerous features into its

64-bit mobo. For example, a special

circuit in the AK86-L protects the Although slightly slower, the

Albatron’s board features dual-BIOS, a ton of

USB and FireWire headers, and six PCI slots!