AOpen AX4C Max II

Review by Harry Lam on 12.16.03
Motherboard provided by AOpen

BIOS / Features:

AOpen produces some of the most high-quality BIOSes available, jammed full of innovative features that are targeted towards the enthusiast market.

Overclocking:

Overclocking the AX4C Max II was pretty standard, with adjustable VCore, AGP voltage, and DDR voltage.  The VCore maxed out at a standard 1.85V, adjustable in .025V increments.  AGP voltage maxed out a 1.70V with .05V increments.  DDR voltage maxed out a 2.8V max, adjustable in .025V increments.

SilentTek/ Silent BIOS:

SilentTek is AOpen's proprietary suite of monitoring and control hardware/software.  For the most part, this is AOpen's own temperature, voltage, and fan speed monitoring utility.  However, there is one very useful aspect of this feature: the ability to control fan speeds directly from software.  AOpen has basically integrated a variable baybus into their motherboard, allowing you to control fan speeds based on temperature, a fixed speed (where fan speeds are adjustable in 1% increments from 0-100%), or AOpen's own algorithm (fan speeds are adjusted by ambient temperature and CPU usage).

Open Jukebox:

Open Jukebox is a CD player built directly into the motherboard BIOS, allowing you to boot directly into their Jukebox utility and use your computer as a CD player.  Since this is part of the BIOS, all you have to do is hit a specific key during POST to enter the Jukebox.  The Open Jukebox is completely skinnable (and AOpen has a utility which flashes that specific portion of your BIOS).

Watch Dog Timer:

AOpen's Watch Dog Timer is one really neat feature for overclockers.  Basically, the BIOS monitors the POST process, and if the POST process fails it will set the motherboard to automatically reboot in 5 seconds.  Upon rebooting, the BIOS resets the CPU to it's default frequency and starts the boot process over again.  Basically overclockers don't have to constantly pull the reset CMOS jumper every time the computer crashes on POST.

Dr Voice II:

Dr Voice II is AOpen's onboard auto-diagnostic feature; the motherboard literally talks to you when there is an error, and informs you of the location (memory, CPU, keyboard, etc).  The feature supports four different languages: English, German, Chinese, and Japanese.

This feature is somewhat annoying (the audio quality is horrible), but it does allow one to quickly identify the source of a problem.

Vivid BIOS:

Vivid BIOS is a skinnable portion of your POST process, allowing you to use regular GIFs or animated GIFs for display during the post process.

Vivid Bios flashing tool

V4 Power Engine:

Without going into technical details, the V4 Power Engine allows for greater voltage stability on the motherboard.  This potentially can translate to lower temperatures or higher overclocking capabilities.