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AOpen AK77-333 KT333


Date
: 05/12/02 – 10:19:35 PM

Author
:

Category
: Motherboard

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: AOpen
Price: $120

Introduction

Last week I posted a review on the EPoX 8K3A+, one of the first VIA KT333 based motherboards to arrive in the O² test lab. If you read that article, you know that I was totally amazed by the performance and the features of the EPoX mainboard. But, as you all know, there are other manufacturers out there who are aiming to get a place in your heart. One of those manufacturers is AOpen, a company that has been with us for a long time, delivering high quality motherboards with stability as a prime goal and overclocking/tweaking as secondary goal. Today I am taking a closer look at the
AOpen AK77-333
, which is AOpen's brand new KT333 based solution. Has AOpen managed to defeat EPoX? And what can you expect to find in the box? All these questions and more are all answered in the review, so let's get on with the show and see what this "blackbird" can do for us!

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

CPU

- AMD Athlon / XP & AMD Duron

ASIC

- VIA KT333 / VT8233A AGPset

Architecture

- 1 CNR slot + 5 PCI slots +1 AGP slot

Max. Main Memory

- Max. 3GB DDR333/266 SDRAM for 184pin DIMM*3

DIMM Type

- 64/128/256/512 MB/1GB

On Board USB

- VIA USB controller onboard

On Board Sound

- Realtek AC97 CODEC on board (5.1 channel)

On Board I/O

- 2 Serial Ports (UART 16C550 Support)
- 1 Parallel Port (SPP/EPP/ECP Support)
- 2 Channel E-IDE (Mode 4 and Bus master Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 Support)
- 1 Floppy Drive Connector (1.2/1.44/2.88MB)
- 2 Universal Serial Bus Ports(V1.1)
- 1 PS/2 Mouse Port
- 1 PS/2 Keyboard Port
- Game/Midi Port, Speaker-Out ,Line-In , Mic-In

Onboard Connector

- CD-In, AUX-in, Front Audio, IrDA, Wake-On-Modem , Wake-On-LAN, CPU Fan,Chassis Fan, Fan2 , Additional 2 USB V1.1 Ports, 4 USB V2.0 Ports (optional), Dr. LED , Chassis intrusion connector, SPDIF

Battery

- 3V Lithium Battery

Green Function

- Yes

BIOS

- Award Plug and Play 2Mb Flash ROM BIOS

Board Size

- 244mm x 305mm, ATX Form Factor

The AOpen AK77-333 is built around the VIA KT333 northbridge and the VIA VT8233A southbridge. This means that the board will take on any socket A processor currently available. Of course the board supports UDMA133 on both IDE channels and comes with 1 AGP slot, 5 PCI slots and 1 CNR (CommuNication Riser slot) to assure full expandability. Personally I would have like it better to see a 1/6/0 configuration, but since AOpen tends to target the OEM market with their boards as well, I can see why they included a CNR slot instead of the 6th PCI slot. Memory expansion shouldn't be a problem either, as the AK77-333 features three memory slots, for a total support of 3GB DDR 266/333 memory.

Now what else do we get onboard? As usual, AOpen installs an onboard sound card, this time an AC'97 based chip with full 5.1 surround sound support! These onboard solutions will do fine for most users, but hardcore sound enthusiasts will be better off with an add-on card like the Audigy from Creative Labs or any other third party card that fills their needs.

What I could not find on the AK77-333, was an onboard RAID controller. Somehow, I knew I didn't have to look for one because up to this point AOpen has never installed such a device on any of their boards that I know off. It's a shame, because even if you don't intend on using a RAID config, the extra IDE connectors would come in handy for people who want to hook up some more hard drives to their box …

Although there is no RAID controller to be found, AOpen does include a pair of USB 2.0 ports making this board ready for any upcoming USB 2.0 hardware. The ports are not onboard, but are sitting on an additional USB bracket, giving you a total of 4 USB ports: two of them are USB 1.1, the other two are USB 2.0 compatible (of course you can also connect USB 1.1 devices to it if you like!).

That pretty much covers the specifications of the board, but there are some other interesting features you should know about … I'll explain those in the "Layout" section!

Page 3 : Layout

Layout

AOpen</a> did a pretty good job with the layout, but as always I managed to find some points to comment on. First bad point: the placement of the ATX connector. Again, it is installed to the south-west side of the CPU socket, forcing the ATX power cable to cross the CPU, making it hard to work on you box and obstructing airflow.

[url=/images/articles/aopen/ak77/south.jpg]

The CPU socket is pretty "clear" of annoying parts that inhibit you from installing massive heatsinks, but still you will have to be on the safe side because I had some trouble installing the Swiftech MCX462 and the Alpha 8045 on this board. There are 4 holes around the socket so installing watercoolers through the board won't be a problem. Also, note that the northbridge is equipped with an actively cooled heatsink, something we didn't see on the EPoX.

The memory slots are installed in a way that they do
not
sit in the way of the video card! Yes, finally a board that allows you to swap memory without removing the video card every single time! Three hoorays for AOpen ;). The AGP slot is also fitted with a retention mechanism to keep the video card firmly locked in place … no more video cards falling out during transport to LAN parties …

Last but not least, I want to mention that the placement of the IDE and floppy connectors is excellent too. They are in the top half of the board, so reaching a far-out cd-rom shouldn't be a problem.

One last note: the board has a slick looking black PCB!! Sweeeeeeet :)

Page 4 : BIOS

BIOS

AOpen uses an Award BIOS on the AK77-333, just like they do on all their other boards. It is easy to use and it even comes with some "tweaks" for the more "demanding" users out there (read: overclockers). The CPU core voltage can be increased up to 1.85V giving you a small power boost to achieve some higher speeds.

It's a pity that they did not include a DDR voltage setting, because the way things are now, you can not increase the voltage of the memory, which puts a damper on the overclocking results of the board. Perhaps AOpen can address this in a future BIOS update?

The front side bus can be increased in 1MHz increments, all the way up to 248MHz (is there actually anyone who ever used such high FSB speeds?), but in order to change the CPU multiplier, you will have to use the onboard DIP switches because AOpen did not include this option in the BIOS. It's a shame they didn't include this setting in the BIOS, because it is a real hassle having to dive in your case to mod the multiplier, getting caught in fans, wires, … :p.

A last remark about the BIOS: AOpen fits a DualBIOS on the AK77-333. What does that mean? It means that the board has not one but two BIOS sockets. If the primary gets hit by a virus or you flash it the wrong way (or power goes down …) you can still resort to the secondary BIOS to get your board up and running.

Another cool feature is the AOpen "Watchdog" that will return the board to default values if you overclocked to a level that the board refuses to boot … Some other boards also use this feature and I must admit that I am totally hooked to it! It kicks some serious butt! Once you found the ideal BIOS settings for your box, you can save it to an onboard EEPROM. No more losing your ideal settings after a BIOS flash!

Page 5 : Overclocking

Overclocking

Like I mentioned earlier, overclocking was dampened by the lack of DDR memory voltage settings. Because of that, I was only able to reach a FSB of 147MHz before the board would crash on me. Since I was using Crucial PC2100 DDR memory, I was unable to go any higher without upping the memory voltage a bit. Other sites are reporting that the board can do 166MHz (DDR PC2700) when using "real" PC2700 memory that does not need a voltage increase in order to run at 166MHz.

But even when using PC2700 memory, the AK77-333 is not an overclocking monster. The boards lacks onboard multiplier adjustments and does not feature all the memory settings you would like to adjust when trying to get the most out of your board … but then again, since AOpen is not targeting the overclockers with this piece of hardware, you can't blame the board from being a not so good overclocker, can you?

If you overclock using the multiplier, all is well and the board will run stable as a rock. Just make sure you got some real PC2700 memory if a 166MHz FSB is what you aim for …

Page 6 : Testing

Testing

It's time to compare the board to the competition … how shall it behave? Let's take a closer look at the test setup first …

- AOpen AK77-333 motherboard
- AMD Athlon 1.4GHz TBird CPU
- 256MB Crucial DDR PC2100 memory
- Western Digital 20GB 7200rpm hard drive
- VisionTek GeForce 3 video card
- Accton NIC
- Windows 2000 + SP2 + latest drivers

MadOnion's 3D Mark 2001

16-BIT

32-BIT

MadOnion's 3D Mark 2001SE

16-BIT

32-BIT

Quake 3: Arena

Demo 001

Torture Demo

SiSoft Sandra Memory Benchmark

Page 7 : Conclusion

Conclusion

The AOpen AK77-333 is a pretty nice KT333 based motherboard that will be an ideal solution for the "normal" computer users out there who are not really into overclocking and tweaking the hell out of their system. The board comes with everything you need and more like USB 2.0 but it lacks some other cool features like onboard RAID, multiplier adjustments in the BIOS and DDR voltage modification options. Because of this, I was unable to run my board at 166MHz with Crucial's PC2100 memory, which is known to run at speeds up to +180MHz rock stable (with voltage increasement of course). So, to conclude my rant, let's say that this board will do fine and offer a very high level of stability for the web surfing, gaming, typing, … and any other stuff you want to throw at it. But in the end, it lacks some features to become the wet-dream of power users out there …