AX6BC Specs

Features

Intel 440 BX AGPset chipset

ISA x2, PCI x5, AGP x1

DIMM x3, maximum 768MB

Award Plug-and-Play BIOS, 2M bit Flash ROM BIOS

Serial port x2, Floppy x1, Ultra-ATA x2, USB x2

Jumperless design (FSB and voltage)

Batteryless motherboard

APM and ACPI Suspend to hard drive

Wake On LAN, RTC timer, or keyboard/mouse

System voltage monitoring

Based on the ever-familiar BX chipset, the AX6BC Pro Gold is laid out with the 1/5/2 AGP/PCI/ISA combo that we've grown accustomed to, allowing for a good degree of expansion under the ATX form factor. The ATX form factor allows for 7 expansion slots, which is taken care of by our 1/5/2 combination (1 PCI and 1 ISA are shared). Also, the AX6BC Pro Gold gives us 3 DIMM slots for a maximum 768MB of RAM, which should be a good amount for any memory-crazed home user. However, these features are standard in the BX chipset motherboards that we see today. What's new about the AX6BC Pro Gold?

Solid operation

One of the biggest draws about the AX6BC Pro Gold is its stability, in normal and overclocked operation. It achieves this stability with the use of several features. The most common of these features is its ability to adjust CPU core voltage, by either +.1V or +.2V. This range is the "acceptable" range of voltage increases with normal heating, while higher voltage adjustments can be had if more robust cooling is implemented. The reason we need higher voltage is mainly for overclocked operation. A CPU will run fine on its default voltage, which is 2.0V in most Deschutes and Katmai core Intel CPUs. In order to run the CPU at a higher frequency (overclocked), however, the signal sometimes needs to be "cleaned up", which can be partially taken care of by adding more current.