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We'll wrap up this review with a round of benchmarks from Unreal Tournament 2003 and Call of Duty. Both games were run at a resolution of 640x480 with all the details and sound turned off to put as much stress on the system's CPU performance and memory bandwidth.
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| Benchmarks With Unreal Tournament 2003 |
| DX8 Performance |
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This test consists of running a "Fly-By" on the "Citadel" level of Unreal Tournament 2003. The UT2K3 scores give the edge to the ABIT motherboard, but the performance difference is very slight. At this point these motherboards remain in a dead heat and both are posting some impressive numbers.
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| Benchmarks With Call of Duty v1.2 |
| OpenGL Performance |
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Call of Duty was run through a round of multiplayer action on the mp_dawnville map at both the default and overclocked settings. The ABIT motherboard again managed to outpace the AOpen motherboard although these numbers are probably within the margin of error for this benchmark. Keep in mind the ABIT AI7 is set a bit higher at the overclocked settings. These motherboards are evenly matched and continue to put up notable scores.
AOpen AX4SG MaxII Analysis:
Motherboards using the Intel Springdale chipset have been around for some time now and there are already quite a few impressive products available using this technology. There really isn't anything that separates the AOpen AX4SG MaxII motherboard apart from the lot. Dual BIOS has been seen before, as well as having six SATA ports. That being said, while the AOpen AX4SG MaxII doesn't have that one killer feature to help set it apart, it does have a multitude of useful, proven features all integrated on-board. It's easy to see that the AX4SG MaxII has some valuable features with onboard graphics, 7.1 sound, SATA RAID, IEEE-1394, USB 2.0, Gigabit LAN and dual BIOS. Couple that with the fact that this motherboard is as stable as we've tested to date and this is a product that shines. While the price comes in around $165 on various search engines, which isn't terribly cheap for a Springdale board, there is a lot offered in this package and in our minds it is worth the extra cost. Granted the onboard graphics aren't meant for gaming, but that's not completely out of the question with some older titles. The bottom line for this motherboard is that it's an all-in-one type solution that offers stability and solid performance. We're giving the AOpen AX4SG MaxII motherboard a rating of 8.0 on the Heat Meter.
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- Loaded with features
- Six SATA ports with RAID support
- Gigabit LAN
- 7.1 Sound
- Supports latest Pentium 4 processors including Prescott
- Dual DDR400 support
- USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394
- Dual BIOS
- Very stable with good performance
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- Not a great overclocker
- BIOS options a bit lacking
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