AOpen AK89 Max: From Ugly Duckling to Swan
by Wesley Fink on April 21, 2004 4:16 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
The AOpen AK89 Max is aimed at a different market segment than the AK86-L. The AK86-L excels by bringing very high performance and reasonable features to a value-priced board at less than $100. The AK89 Max that we are testing here is aimed at providing everything but the kitchen sink. It is feature-rich with Firewire, 4-drive SATA, Dual BIOS, and optical and coaxial audio IO. It brings with it just about every option that AOpen could cram on a Socket 754 nForce3-150 motherboard. Compared to other top nF3-150 boards, the AK89 Max can certainly hold its own.If the AOpen AK89 Max is evaluated just on the basis of our benchmark tests, the performance would be considered about average compared to other Athlon 64 motherboards we have tested. However, there is a lot more performance waiting beneath the surface of the AK89 Max - performance that is unique among the Athlon 64 boards that we have tested.
The AK89 Max is the first nForce3-150 board that we have tested with a true working PCI/AGP lock. Other enthusiasts report the Gigabyte K8NNXP and the Shuttle AN50R also to have working locks, but we have not personally confirmed this. We can tell you that with the latest 1.06M BIOS, AGP/PCI lock, and working multipliers, we achieved the highest overclocks yet on the Athlon 64. We were able to achieve a stable 233 FSB setting at default voltage with a standard multiplier. We also quickly outstripped the on-board range to 250 FSB. However, with the free Clock Gen for nForce3 from www.cpuid.com, we were able to fine-tune multipliers and FSB - reaching a truly astounding 347FSB.
When we first looked at the AK89 Max, we were not particularly impressed. In fact, we considered passing on reviewing the board with the first nForce3-250 boards starting to appear. We are glad AOpen persisted, however, because 2 BIOS revisions later, we see a remarkable nF3-150 board with tremendous capabilities. If we have a complaint about the AK89 Max, it is not with AOpen's implementation. AOpen got the nF3-150 right; it is just that it comes very late to the nF3-150 life cycle. The AK89 Max is still hampered somewhat by the maximum 600 HyperTransport of the 150 chipset. While the AK89 certainly makes the most of the 600HT and carries it to heights we didn't think the nF3-150 could reach, it really makes us just that more anxious to see a nForce3-250Gb motherboard from AOpen.
The AOpen AK89 Max is the best nForce3-150 motherboard that we have tested, but we already have nF3-250 motherboards that we are testing, which promise even more with working locks and a 1000 HyperTransport option. We do wish AOpen could improve the CPU voltage range and widen the available FSB settings. The AK89 Max is also the first nF3-150 or VIA K8T800 motherboard we have tested that deserves and can definitely use a FSB range to 350. But even without these options, the AK89 Max set new overclocking records in every category.
If you're currently in the market for a Socket 754 motherboard based on the nForce3-150 chipset, you won't do any better than the AOpen AK89 Max. We can't wait to see AOpen's nForce3-250 motherboard with all the lessons they learned in developing this design.
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GooFy - Sunday, May 30, 2004 - link
Could you somehow test some other memory modules with this board, i have a pair of Adata PC4000 that will not go over 230mhz @ original (Cas 3 8-4-4) or any other timings either yet they are stable @ 230 mhz fsb and Cas 2 6-3-3.I'm going to buy some new memory modules and i would like to know what options there are as it seems there are some other memories that will not go to 250+ fsb.
Anyway i'm sure that it is the memory that's stopping me because i ran alot of tests with different timings and lower multiplier and so on.
TrogdorJW - Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - link
What the crap... lost my post. Grrrr.... Okay, here's a recap of what was supposed to be in that last one:You're cruel, showing us scores of 200 * 10 and 250 * 8 and then holding out on the scores for the "Extreme Overclocking" setups. I don't want a screenshot, but I would have been curious to hear what sort of performance difference there was between the 233 * 10 and the 345 * 6.5 setups. Do the asynchronous RAM timings hurt performance a lot, or can the integrated memory controller deal with that okay? Would be nice to find out. Oh, well...
TrogdorJW - Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - link
MadAd - Sunday, April 25, 2004 - link
thanks wesley, they did look nice and clear in this one, thats why I asked - ill wait for your review.NegativeEntropy - Saturday, April 24, 2004 - link
cnq,I know if I had to program Cool'n'Quiet there would be, at minimum, a sanity check to make sure the Hyper Transport (~FSB) frequency was 200 MHz and the multiplier is where it should be for that model CPU prior to doing anything. It's what Cool'n'Quiet would do after that that is up in the air (or so goes my reasoning):
1) abort any attempt to engage Cool'n'Quiet (most likely given ease of programmability and official disdain for overclocking)
2) override any current settings, do its thing, and not reimpliment the pre Cool'n'Quiet settings upon an increase in CPU usage (thus effectively 'undoing' any overclock)
3) note the current state, engage Cool'n'Quiet, and then return to the pre Cool'n'Quiet state when CPU usage demands it (this is the scenario we dream about :)
As long as I get confirmation Cool'n'Quiet works on this mobo (even w/o overclocking), I may get it and answer the other questions myself :)
cnq - Saturday, April 24, 2004 - link
NegativeEntropy,Weird, I was about to ask the *exact* same question!
***This should be a FAQ.***
Everyone likes to overclock the snot out of their boards, and everyone likes cool 'n' quiet to kick in when they are just web browsing. (Naturally, when we stop web browsing and resume gaming, we want the system to return, automatically, to the fully overclocked settings we were using before.)
But is it technically possible for Cool'n'Quiet to coexist with overclocking? Just by reading AMD's technical docs (BIOS Guide), there is no answer on whether this will work. My fear is that overclocking can confuse the hell out of cool'n'quiet. Cool'n'quiet works by switching between P-states, which are combos of CPU frequency and CPU voltage. Problems could be:
a) Cool'n'Quiet is ignorant of overclocking in general. The possible P-state transition values are supplied by the BIOS, who in turn gets them from AMD documentation. Naturally, there won't be a P-state setting for an overclocked system in the official tables. But it would be possible for this to work: the BIOS could use your overclocked settings to create an additional P-state that isn't part of the official docs.
b) Even if this works, underclocking via Cool'n'Quiet is limited. P-states just define CPU speed and CPU voltage. There's nothing about FSB speeds in a P-state (and there should be, imo, along with RAM voltage). So, for example, when Cool'n'Quiet ramps down your CPU, does it also ramp down the FSB speed? If not, then it's pretty easy to see how things could crash here: a drop to (for example) 1000 MhZ might be done by setting the CPU multiplier to 5, on the (incorrect) assumption that your FSB is 200MHz, the "usual" value. But if you overclocked by lowering the CPU multiplier (already) and jacking up the FSB to outrageous amounts, then this CPU multiplier might actually _increase_ CPU speed rather than decreasing it. Not so much with a multiplier of just 5, but you get the idea.
c) Even if this works (the CPU multiplier is set to 5 in the above example, your FSB is overclocked to, say, 250 instead of 200, so you get 1250MHz instead of 1000MHz)...fine, except that the P-state contained a CPU voltage that is only guaranteed to work well with 1000MHz. Such a low voltage (whatever it is) might not be enough to power 1250MHz, causing a crash. If it is enough to power 1250MhZ, it's just blind luck, and not very stable.
Naturally, I hope I'm wrong on all of these points, as the combo of serious overclocking and cool'n'quiet would be fantastic.
Can someone speak from experience on this? In general, can you enable cool'n'quiet yet overclock huge amounts? Wes?
NegativeEntropy - Friday, April 23, 2004 - link
Wesley,Does Cool 'n' Quiet work on this MoBo?
If it works, does it still work when overclocking (or is it borked because of the lower than stock multiplier or for some other reason)?
The reason I ask: looking to build an HTPC -- CnQ would come in handy to reduce power usage, and this board would be more fun than the K8V :)
Wesley Fink - Friday, April 23, 2004 - link
#13 and #14 -Just skip Extreme Overclocking 1 and 2, then it's a standard motherboard review. ALL performance charts, like always, are at default speed and default ratios. Since this is the first A64 board we have tested with a working AGP/PCI lock and working ratios that are available on the A64, it was the perfect opportunity for a "how-to" and why of high FSB overclocking. These features will be the most important thing about this board for many Enthusiasts, and of little interest to others.
#15 -
I normally use a Pentax *ist D digital SLR with a 50f1.4 or 28-105f2.8 lens - at 800 ISO, no flash, and adjusted color temperature. However, most of the shots in this review were with a $300 Kodak 5 megapixel digital we will be reviewing on AnandTech in the next few weeks.
MadAd - Friday, April 23, 2004 - link
Its a bit of an OT question, sorry Wesley, what kinda of camera do you use to take the pictures of the board layouts/chips to use in the reviews please?retrospooty - Friday, April 23, 2004 - link
By that I mean, there are so many levels of OC, so many different ways to look at it. I am unclear what was screenshot stable, and benchmark stable, and I am unclear exactly what speed the final tests were run at. Maybe its just too early in the morning for me. :D