VIA Apollo Pro 133A Motherboard Roundup - July 2000

AOpen AX34 Pro

AOpen AX34 Pro Specifications
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CPU Interface	Socket-370
Chipset	VIA Apollo 133A VIA 694X North Bridge VIA 686A South Bridge
L2 Cache	N/A (on-chip)
Form Factor	ATX
Bus Speeds	66 / 75 / 83 100 / 103 / 105 / 110 / 112 / 115 / 120 / 124 124 / 133 / 140 / 150
Voltages Supported	1.3V - 2.10V (in 0.05V increments) 2.10V - 3.50V (in 0.1V increments)
Memory Slots	3 168-pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AMR Slot 1 AGP Slot 4 PCI Slots (4 Full Length) 1 ISA Slot (1 Shared / 0 Full Length)
On-board Audio	AD1881 AC'97 CODEC
BIOS	AWARD BIOS 4.60PGMA AOpen Die Hard BIOS

AOpen has always been known for high quality products and that tradition continues with the AX34 Pro and AX64 Pro. AOpen's "Pro" line began with the AX6BC Pro Gold, an i440BX board, and have since included 24K gold plated heatsinks, CPU core voltage adjustments, low ESR capacitors, and now AOpen's Die Hard BIOS. Both boards are available in non-pro form, but these key features are missing on those versions.

These features combine to make these AOpen boards rock solid, but unfortunately a trade off was made to achieve this level of stability. The AX34 Pro and AX64 Pro are clearly a notch below the other boards in this roundup in terms of performance. If you take a look at our original VIA 133A motherboard roundup, you'll see that the predecessor to these boards, the MX64, was in the middle of the pack.

The Die Hard BIOS serves the same purpose as Gigabyte's Dual BIOS, that is to provide a backup copy of the BIOS in case of corruption or a failed flash attempt. This time, it's invoked manually via a jumper switch - Gigabyte's Dual BIOS is much more elegant, with automatic detection of a corrupted BIOS.

Interestingly, AOpen is still using their custom version of the Award BIOS, labeled version 4.60PGMA. It's pretty much the same as the old 4.51PG, which just about every other manufacturer has dropped in favor of Award 6.00. In fact, AOpen has begun using 6.00 on all recently released boards except their VIA-based models.

The board is almost completely jumperless, with the only jumpers being to control the AGP clock ratio. This can be set to auto in which case the board will detect what FSB settings and AGP clock ratio to enable based on the type of CPU is installed. The only time you'll need to touch these jumpers is if you plan to overclock your CPU and need a different AGP ratio.

Our biggest complaint about these boards is the expansion, which is limited to just 4 PCI slots.

AOpen AX64 Pro

AOpen AX64 Pro Specifications
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CPU Interface	Slot-1
Chipset	VIA Apollo 133A VIA 694X North Bridge VIA 686A South Bridge
L2 Cache	N/A (on-chip)
Form Factor	ATX
Bus Speeds	66 / 75 / 83 100 / 103 / 105 / 110 / 112 / 115 / 120 / 124 124 / 133 / 140 / 150
Voltages Supported	1.3V - 2.10V (in 0.05V increments) 2.10V - 3.50V (in 0.1V increments)
Memory Slots	3 168-pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AMR Slot 1 AGP Slot 4 PCI Slots (4 Full Length) 1 ISA Slot (1 Shared / 0 Full Length)
Onboard Audio	AD1881 AC'97 CODEC
BIOS	AWARD BIOS 4.60PGMA AOpen Die Hard BIOS