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BIOS
BIOS is the usual AWARD fare, as we'll see in all the boards in the roundup. Voltage adjust is 1.1V to 1.85V on the CPU, 2.5 to 2.8 Vdimm, and 1.5 to 1.6V for the AGP port.
Good ranges, if maybe slightly low on the CPU. That's up to the tweaker to decide. Front side bus, CPU ratio adjust, DDR memory setting and timing adjust and all the IDE control options needed to tweak the SATA and PATA are there.
It's standard KT400A AWARD fare with AOpen's extras. Worth noting is their added support for CPU overheat protection in the BIOS, for protecting your CPU in the event of an accident with your cooling.
Bundle
To go along with the good feature list and layout and the nice BIOS, the bundle keeps up appearances. You get a lot with this board, including black IDE ribbons with the AOpen logo. Very stylish indeed. Another yellow IDE ribbon is provided in the cosy blue box for 3 IDE ribbons in total. Only a single SATA cable though, despite a pair of ports.
SP-DIF optical and coaxial digital outputs are provided on a backplane connector, along with 2 FireWire ports for the TI controller.
Finally, we've got the I/O shield for the backplane ports, a serial ATA driver disk for installing your OS onto SATA drives connected to the Promise hardware, and a CD packed full of good software including EZ-Restore and Norton AntiVirus. You've also got a good, readable manual (more on that shortly), along with the drivers for the rest of the hardware on a CD.
A quick installation guide, in English, rounds everything off.
Manual
Nothing much to report, bar that it's a decent size and easy to read. It's more flick book style than normal book. Get one and you'll see what I mean. It mentions an external BIOS reset switch that lets you clear CMOS without having to open your case (it occupies one of your case backplane slots) but I couldn't find it in the box with the sample.
Midway Conclusion
Mmm, good layout, great features, great bundle, good BIOS and good presentation. A lot better initially than the Albatron, and maybe one of the top runners as things shake out later on.
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