AOpen AX64 Pro review

BXBoards brengt ons een review van de AX64 Pro, AOpen's nieuwe plank gebaseerd op de momenteel erg popie VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset. Helaas komt ook Andy Drake tot de conclusie dat dit plankje niet de kwaliteit met zich meedraagt zoals we eerder van AOpen gewend waren. Hoewel de mogelijkheden tot overklokken ruimschoots aanwezig zijn kan het bord niet dezelfde stabiliteit laten zien zoals de AX63 Pro dat deed.

Recent AOpen boards have worn their overclocking credentials proudly. Both the AX6BC Pro and AX63 Pro featured unlimited voltage tweaks and stellar overclocked stability. Newer AOpen boards including the Athlon based AK72 and now the AX64Pro have also unlimited tweaks, yet somehow there are not as stable as their predecessors when overclocked. The AX64Pro failed both the Celeron 300a @ 504 and the Celeron 366 @ 605, something previous AOpen boards have been capable of. This suggests that something in their design has changed for the worse, and I wonder whether all this talk of 2200uf capacitors and Frequency Isolations Walls is somewhat over-egging the pudding? Its sad to report that, like the recent AK72 Athlon mainboard,this board is not stable using 110, 112 and 115Mhz. AOpen, whatever you have changed, please reverse it, as your boards do not overclock as well as they did 3 months ago!

[...] The AX64Pro also suffers from a lack of PCI expansion with only 4 PCI slots. If AMR peripherals were more common this would not be such as issue, but as AMR peripherals are a rare as rocking horse s**t, the loss of PCI expansion comes as something of a blow.

AOpen have previously enjoyed very good reviews here at BXBoards but their crown does seem to be slipping this year. The AX64Pro does not compare well with its predecessor, the AX63Pro, which offers more expansion, and is more stable when overclocked. To date, we've not seen any really stellar VIA Apollo Pro133A boards, but that does not make the AX64Pro any more appealing. If you want a PC133 board from AOpen then take a look at the AOpen AX63Pro instead, as frankly, its a much better product if overclocking is a priority.