Singapore Hardware Zone

AOpen MX3L Micro-ATX Motherboard
Reviewed by CPU-ZILLA  (24 June 99)

Motherboard Specifications

Processor

  • Intel Celeron® Socket 370 Processor 266MHz-466MHz (66Mhz).

Chipset

  • Intel 440LX chipset 

Cache memory

  • CPU Built-in 128KB L2 cache for Celeron A Processor

System Memory

  • 3 x 168-pin 3.3v DIMM sockets support 
  • Supports 8/16/32/64/128 MB DIMM Module 
  • Supports SDRAM PC66 & 100(Supports ECC, 1-bit Error Code Correct function) 
  • Supports up to 768MB EDO or 384MB SDRAM memory 
  • Supports 66/68/75/83 MHz System Bus Speed Setting
  • Supports 1.5-8.0 Multiplier Setting 

PCI IDE

  • 2 X PCI Bus Master UDMA/33 IDE ports (up to 4 ATAPI Devices) 
  • Supports for PIO Mode 0-4, UDMA/33 IDE & ATAPI CD-ROM 

I/O Interface

  • 1x floppy port (360KB-2.88MB) 
  • 2x serial ports (16550 high-speed) 
  • 1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP) 
  • PS/2 Keyboard 
  • PS/2 Mouse 
  • 2x USB 
  • 1 IrDA HPSIR/ASKIR/Fast-IR header
  • 1 Audio port (Line_Out, Line_In and Mic_In) and 1 MIDI/Game Port powered by the ESS Solo 1 PCI audio chipset.
  • 1 CD-audio connector
  • 1 Modem connector (Mono in and Mic out)

Expansion slot

  • 3 x PCI 32-bit slots, PCI 2.2 compliant 
  • 1 x ISA 16-bit slots 
  • 1x AGP (1x/2x Mode, 66/133MHz) slot

Power Management

  • Power On by LAN, Modem (Zero Voltage), Keyboard, Mouse, RTC Timer & Soft-Power Switch 
  • Power Off by Windows® 95/98 Shut down & Soft-Power Switch 
  • ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) feature
  • 3 level ACPI LED
  • AC Power Auto Recovery
  • APM Suspend to Hard Drive

Form Factor

  • Micro ATX Form Factor : 24.4cm(L) x 22cm(W) PCB
  • Fits into regular ATX Case 
  • ATX Connector on Board

BIOS

  • 2 Mbit (256KB) FLASH memory
  • Award PCI BIOS with Green, PnP, DMI and Anti-Virus Functions 
  • LS120, ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4 bootable
  • Battery-less storage of CMOS setup configurations

<Introduction><The Good><The Test> <The Bad><Conclusion><Rating>

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Introduction

I was taking my dinner with a friend earlier this evening and we were chatting about old times. All the talk got me wondering how fast time actually flies (and how old I'm getting). Anyway, all these feelings of the good old days were brought back into my memory once again, and I must say that there were a lot to laugh about, and certainly a lot more to ponder on. Right now, looking at this new AOpen offering, the nostalgic feeling of the good old exciting days of the first Pentium IIs once again made me feel excited all over again.

Of course I'm talking about the older Intel 440LX chipset which is used in this current AOpen Socket 370 board. What else would you think I'm talking about? One look at the board and you'll know that it is targeted at low cost entry level systems with its built-in Audio chipset and with a smaller form factor. The board comes with a 1/3/1 (AGP/PCI/ISA) expansion slot configuration and several new features which I will talk about later in the review.

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The Good

At first glance, the board seems to be pretty plain and may strike off as one of those Socket 370 boards you find almost anywhere. However, if you do take a closer look at the specs, there are some pretty interesting features that users would find useful. First of all, the board adopted a battery-less design. So often, we hear users complaining that their CMOS configurations were wiped out because their Lithium cell decided to end its life cycle. Thus, AOpen came up with this solution where the CMOS settings are backed-up by a built-in EEPROM. As long as the power cord is plugged to the system, the CMOS settings and RTC (real time clock) would be kept running without the battery. However, if the CMOS setup was accidentally erased due to power failure, it could be restored from the EEPROM. However, the option for using a battery is still there.

Another interesting feature lies in the Advanced Power Management function of the board. The user can choose to Suspend the system to the Hard Drive where the system status and an image of the memory is saved to the hard disk before going into sleep. This feature saves the user time waiting for the system to reboot. However, in order for this feature to work, the system must use a VESA compatible PCI VGA and a Sound Blaster compatible sound card with the APM driver in order for this function to work properly. The PDF manual supplied in the CD-ROM clearly explains how to make this feature work.

This motherboard also features a zero voltage Wake on Modem (WOM) where the system (in a power off state) can be set to wake up automatically to answer a phone call like an answering machine or to send/receive faxes. This feature does not only apply to internal modem cards but also external modems. Although I did not have the luxury of time and components to test this feature, but I do believe that you need a compatible internal modem card to work properly without any power. However, one wonders how fast the system can wake up to answer the phone. On the other hand, even when the phone is beside my bed, most of the time, I'd still fail to wake up to answer the call on time. I must say some people are pretty impatient.

The built-in audio was surprisingly up to the standard of most low-cost PCI sound cards. I normally do not have very high opinions of the ESS brand of sound chips but I was surprised at the audio quality. Normally, most on board audio solutions are poorly implemented and you can often hear background "computer" noises in the audio output. Although this built-in audio still falls victim to these kind of problem, the noise is actually very faint and not noticeable unless you use a very good pair of speakers or headphones. Also, the CD-ROM seeking noises which is a normal problem is not quite audible in this system. Note that the CD-ROM noises can be eliminated if you use a good CD-ROM drive. What I have for the test system was an old 4x drive which isn't the best in quality.

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The Test

In the tests, I used the latest Intel Celeron 466MHz which I managed to overclock to a whopping 583MHz at 2.0V. That must be the highest speed I have ever achieved on a Celeron. I was a little greedy and popped the chip in my BX motherboard, hoping to push it up to 100MHz FSB, but alas, it didn't even do POST. Anyway, that would be a different story altogether. Overclocking the motherboard to 75MHz was simple and was problem free. The system was stable as far as running benchmarks was concerned. However, at 83MHz FSB, my CD-ROM drive was acting strange although the hard disk showed no signs of instability.

Test Configuration

Processor(s): Intel Celeron 466 SL3FL, 2.0V
RAM: 1 x 128MB Spectek ECC SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s): Quantum Fireball EX 6.4GB
Video Card(s): Creative Graphics Blaster TNT 16MB
Bus Master Drivers: Windows 98 Bus Mastering Drivers
Video Drivers: Creative Riva TNT detonator drivers v1.09
Operation System(s): Windows 98 (build 4.10.2222A)

Ziff-Davis Benchmark Results

CPU Mark 99 (Winbench 99 v1.1) MX3L P6BXT-A+
Celeron 466 MHz (66 x 7) 34.1 34.4
Celeron 525 MHz (75 x 7) 38.6 38.4
Celeron 583 MHz (83 x 7) 42.9 42.8

FPU Winmark (Winbench 99) MX3L P6BXT-A+
Celeron 466 MHz (66 x 7) 2490 2490
Celeron 525 MHz (75 x 7) 2800 2800
Celeron 583 MHz (83 x 7) 3110 3110

Business Winstone (Winstone 99) MX3L P6BXT-A+
Celeron 466 MHz (66 x 7) 20.9 21.5
Celeron 525 MHz (75 x 7) 22.5 23.0
Celeron 583 MHz (83 x 7) 24.2 24.3

Benchmarks
MX3L
P6BXT-A+
466 (66x7)
525 (75x7)
583 (83x7)
466 (66x7)
525 (75x7)
583 (83x7)
3D Marks
3422
3816
4060
3512
3882
4161
CPU 3D Marks
4119
4620
5100
4189
4693
5233
Quake II map1 (640x480)
73.3
78.9
83.6
74.0
80.5
85.1
Quake II map2 (640x480)
70.7
76.7
81.3
71.8
77.6
82.6
Quake II map1 (1024x768)
37.5
37.5
37.5
37.5
37.5
37.5
Quake II map2 (1024x768)
37.5
37.5
37.5
37.5
37.5
37.5

Comparing the results of MX3L with Elitegroup's BX motherboard, we can see that the BX chipset is faster as compared to the older LX chipset although both the test settings were the same. The ZD CPU and FPU benchmark scores were very similar. However, the difference is very obvious when we compare the benchmark scores for Business Winstone and 3D Mark. Quake II also seem to run faster on the BX chipset although at a resolution of 1024x768 there was no change in the framerates. This seems to suggest that the Riva TNT was no longer dependent on the processor speed.

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The Bad

Although the board seems to be pretty promising, it does have a few minor drawbacks. As usual, AOpen's motherboard layout design has always been very bad throughout almost all their products. The Floppy Disk Drive (FDD) connector was once again located behind the parallel/serial port connectors. This makes messy cable connections and is a real pain in the neck when one needs to do any form of hardware maintenance as it obstructs access. Another badly placed connector was the CD-In Audio pins which was located directly below the AGP card. I had to remove my AGP graphic card to plug in the CD Audio connector. So, make sure you plan your installation sequence correctly, otherwise you will end up unplugging your components.

I've had some horrifying experience removing clips where surface mounted components (like resistors and capacitors) were accidentally damaged when the tool I hit the components. Of course, this didn't happen here, but now I am more careful whenever there's any form of removal was needed. Well, what I noticed here were resistors built very close beside the Socket 370. What's more scary is that these resistors were mounted very close to the place where you clip on the heatsink. I almost freaked out when I had to push the clip very close to these resistors. This isn't very appealing to most inexperienced users.

Another minor inconvenience I experienced during setup was in the BIOS setup of the CPU Clock ratio. Most motherboards would allow you to change the multiplier setting from 1.5 to 8.0 in steps of 0.5. However, in this case, the multiplier selections were almost random. For example, after 1.5x, it changes to 7.5x and then followed by 2x, 4x, 3x, 5x, 2.5x, 4.5x, 3.5x, 5.5x, 6x, 8x, 7x and 6.5x. Although we don't really need to choose the multiplier settings (as all PPGA Celeron CPUs are multiplier locked), this really make it unattractive. I mean, if you want to build something, at least make it presentable. In addition, I find the printed manual too brief for inexperienced users. Although it was a good idea to put the manual in electronic format (hence saving our poor trees), I still think that they should have placed more details to make setting up a little more "idiot proof".

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Conclusion

After all that's been said, I do not doubt that this is a pretty nice motherboard although I wished AOpen could have made it more "upgrade friendly". With this board, you would be stuck with Socket 370 Celerons running at 66MHz FSB, and there's no option for future upgrading to Celerons running at 100MHz FSB (if Intel decides to release Celerons running at 100MHz bus). However, if this fact does not bother you at all, then I this board is excellent for those seeking a low cost, entry level motherboard for office applications and occasional gaming if it is fitted with a good graphic card. Overall, it is a good board with minor cosmetic glitches.

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MOTHERBOARD RATING

Overall Rating (Out of a maximum of 5 Star)

Installation ***
Performance ****
Price ****
Overclockability ****½
Material Quality ***
Stability ****
Overall Rating ****

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