CeBIT 2000 Coverage - Athlon Motherboards

AOpen AK-72

Motherboard Specifications
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CPU Interface	Slot-A
Chipset	VIA KX133 VIA 371 North Bridge VIA 686A South Bridge
L2 Cache	N/A (on-chip)
Form Factor	ATX
Bus Speeds	Unknown
Voltages Supported	Unknown
Memory Slots	3 168-pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AMR Slot 1 AGP Slot 5 PCI Slots 1 ISA Slots
AC'97	Unknown
BIOS	Unknown

This is a board we have been waiting on for quite some time. We were originally supposed to take a look at the board at the end of January, but the design was held up as the BIOS was tweaked but is now finally nearing completion. It shouldn't be much longer before we see the AK-72 in our hands and shortly thereafter, available on the market.

One interesting thing is that AOpen stuck the AMR slot on the end of the motherboard, although they may decide to kill the AMR slot in the end. The beauty of putting the AMR slot on the end of the motherboard like that is that it doesn't prevent you from having a full 5/1/1 expansion slot configuration. Most manufacturers simply place the AMR slot next to the AGP slot, other than Tyan that outfitted their i810 board with a shared AMR slot stuck on the end of the board like this.

AOpen has always been known for their high quality products, and as the second largest motherboard manufacturer in the world they have a huge reputation to keep up. The AK-72 shouldn't be a disappointing solution if AOpen sticks to tradition, in fact it should be one of the better Athlon motherboards on the market.

AOpen has won more Editor's Choice awards here on AnandTech than any other manufacturer, so we're definitely anxious to get the AK-72 in our hands.