All of the known bugs, such as the battery overvoltage problem and the incompatibility with some ATX power supplies, have been fixed in rev. 2.22. Don't let it's previous problems effect your opinion of the AX5. ABIT has indeed fixed all of the problems, and they no longer exist.
And a quick note about using SDRAM!
If you happen to have any difficulty getting SDRAM to work in the AX5, or if you haven't bought SDRAM and you want to make sure you buy the right kind, ABIT says that 10NS Toshiba SDRAM works "rock solid". I used a 32MB DIMM made by "Siemans" for the review.
Three 168-pin DIMM sockets: support FP, EDO and Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM)
DIMM sockets use PC modules (3.3V Unbuffered DRAM)
Up to 256MB memory configuration possible
Allows you to mix EDO SIMMs with SDRAM DIMM(s) -- (The AX5 that I am using to type this has 2 16MB 60ns EDO SIMMs and 1 32MB SDRAM DIMM co-existing without any problems)
BIOS
AWARD BIOS
Supports Plug-and-Play (PnP)
Supports Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI)
Supports Desktop Management Interface (DMI)
Multi I/O
Two Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports
Four fast IDE channels (PIO mode 0-4, Ultra "DMA/33" and Bus Master)
One EPP/ECP parallel port and two 16550 serial ports
Two floppy disk drive connectors (FDD) (360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M, and 2.88M)
Other features
Standard ATX architecture dimensions
Four ISA bus slots and four PCI bus slots
Supports 3-MODE for a special Japanese floppy disk drive
Supports two bootable hard disks--able to run two different operating system
The CPU Soft Menu is a menu within the BIOS Setup that allows you to setup the speed and voltage of the CPU, as well as the bus speed and multiplier factor. Because the CPU is setup completely through the Soft Menu, there is no need for jumpers or DIP switches.
Soft Menu's outstanding features:
The ability to specify the the CPU speed and have the external clock and multiplier settings automatically set,
The ability to manually specify the external clock settings. The supported speeds are: 50MHz, 55MHz, 60MHz, 66MHz, 75MHz and 83MHz.
The ability to manually specify the clock multiplier settings: 1.5x, 2.0x, 2.5x, 3.0x, and 3.5x,
The ability to manually specify the voltage from single or dual. Single processors such as the Pentium P54C, the Cyrix 6x86, and the AMD-K5, use only one voltage. However, future processors such as the P55C MMX Pentium, the Cyrix 6x86L, and the M2, require dual voltages - one for the internal processing of the CPU and one for external processing.
The single voltage options are: 3.38v, 3.52v, and 3.6v. The Dual, Core Plane Voltage options are: 2.50v, 2.70v, 2.80v, 2.93v, and the I/O Plane voltage options are: 3.30v, 3.38v, 3.52v.
One additional feature of the CPU Soft Menu is the Turbo Frequency Setting. This setting allows you to speed up the external clock by 2.5%, thereby increasing the CPU speed as well. Take note however, the turbo frequency feature is only an option at a bus speed of 66MHz. The feature is designed to be used as an important tool for test units to verify CPU stability, and it is reccomended that it not be used for normal operation. The AX5 performed flawlessly with the feature enabled though (it also performed flawlessly with the external clock speed set to 75MHz and a CPU speed of 225MHz, so I doubt 2.5% extra on top of 66MHz is going to faze it ;), but it is a bit of a speed increase for those who don't want to overclock.
A new feature to ABIT's CPU Soft Menu is an option called "Speed Error Hold." When enabled, this function prevents the user from operating the CPU at a higher speed than is intended. (if you put a P55C-200MHz CPU in the AX5 and try to run it at 250MHz, and Speed Error Hold is enabled, the BIOS won't let the system boot and will give you an error such as, "CPU settings have changed..." When disabled -- overclock till your heart's content!
Documentation All of the ABIT manuals are virtually identical. Therefore, the following text is basically a duplicate of the other ABIT board reviews. The manual for the AX5 is detailed, accurate, and very complete. There are explanations for all of the external connectors, all of the CPU Soft Menu settings, and almost all of the BIOS settings. It is by far one of the most complete manuals I have seen. By comparison, most manuals give pictures of what settings are present in the BIOS Setup, and some even say what the options are for each setting, but few offer explanations on what the settings do.
The only shortcoming of the manual's explanations is on the DRAM memory settings. Instead of detailing what each of the settings does, the manual simply states:
"... If you do not understand this very well, don't make any changes. Our BIOS is able to autodetect the characteristics of your DRAM and to choose the best settings."
There are a ton of diagrams in the manuals that include information such as:
For Pentiums: What multiplier factor and external clock settings should be used with a certain speed CPU. The diagrams even go so far as to list the CPU model number to be certain that the voltages/clock settings are set correctly for each model.
For Cyrix and AMD:
Tables that describe the different parts of the CPU model number to help you decifer the codes into different things such as Internal Clock speed, processor name, P-Ratings, Package Type, Case Temperature and Operating Voltage.
All of the tables are extremely detailed and contain very useful information.
Performance The performance of the AX5 was measured using the benchmarks shown below for various CPUs, with a system setup of:
ABIT AX5 Motherboard Matrox Millenium 4MB WRAM (@1024x768 - 16bit color) One (1) 32MB SDRAM DIMM Western Digital Caviar 22100 2.1GB HD
No jumpers on the motherboard to have to bother with, yet no loss of user control over system parameters.
Ability to change CPU speed, bus speed, CPU voltage, clock multiplier, through the BIOS Setup.
The Turbo Frequency feature,
Ability to run two operating systems via two boot devices,
75MHz support,
P55C MMX support, Cyrix 6x86L support, and M2 support,
Synchronous DRAM support and control of CAS Lat/RAS-to-CAS timing,
Excellent documentation over all areas including the BIOS Setup (except Advanced Chipset/DRAM memory timings).
Disadvantages
Same old poor documentation of Advanced Chipset/DRAM memory timings.
Overall Report The AX5 is regaining popularity after the battery overvoltage bug has finally been fixed. I'll admit that even I looked at the AX5 as somewhat of a lesser board due to all of the rumors and what not. But, I'm here to say that the AX5 is as good or better than other 430TX ATX boards out there. So if you've heard rumors, forget them. Revision 2.22 is really a great board. The AX5 was one of the first boards to offer an ATX form factor with the TX chipset and SDRAM support. You can't go wrong with that combination. And of course, it supports 75MHz and 83MHz.
Of the CPU's that I tested (P55C-200 and 233, K6-233), I encountered absolutely zero system instability (once the DRAM timings were properly balanced). I was also able to mix 32MB of EDO RAM in the SIMM sockets with 32MB of SDRAM in a DIMM socket. Again, no problems.
Important Note: All of the known bugs have been fixed in rev. 2.22. This includes the battery overvoltage problem and the incompatibility with some ATX power supplies. These problems no longer exist in the AX5.
Once again, another good board from ABIT. 430TX chipset, SDRAM support, 83MHz.... (The board I tested didn't support 83MHz, however I had an early revision -- all AX5's do support 83MHz) Be sure to read the postings in USENET (alt.comp.pc.hardware.chips). There is alot of discussion of ABIT boards that might benefit you (problems I have not discovered, performance gains I am unaware of, etc.)
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