Home

News

Forums

Hardware

CPUs

Mainboards

Video

Guides

CPU Prices

Memory Prices

Shop



Sharky Extreme :


Latest News


- Toshiba Extends Notebook Line with 5400 and 7200-RPM Drives
- Patriot Hits "Warp" Speed with New Line of Solid State Drives
- OCZ Adds the Elixir Keyboard to its Alchemy Gaming Line
- Seagate Unleashes 1.5TB of Storage with the Latest Barracuda Hard Drive
- Lancool Unveils their K1 and K1-Pro Mid-Tower Cases
News Archives

Features

- SharkyExtreme.com: Interview with Microsoft's Dan Odell
- SharkyExtreme.com: Interview with ATI's Terry Makedon
- SharkyExtreme.com: Interview with Seagate's Joni Clark
- Half-Life 2 Review
- DOOM 3 Review

Buyer's Guides

- July High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide
- May Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide
- March Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide

HARDWARE

  • CPUs

    - AMD Phenom X4 9950 BE & 9350e Review
    - AMD Phenom X3 8750 Review

  • Motherboards

    - Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 Motherboard Review
    - AMD 780G Chipset Review

  • Video Cards

    - PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB Review
    - Gigabyte Radeon HD 3870 512MB Review
    - ASUS EN8800GT TOP 512MB Review




  • Following in the path overclockers wish more motherboard manufacturers would take, the AX63Pro supports not only 32 different bus settings, but allows you to change them in the BIOS. This coupled with the ability to use PC133 Memory, make this board one of the best overclocking boards available.

    In regards to supporting up to 155MHz FrontSide Bus speeds, the VIA chipset is nothing new. What it does offer, however, are AGP dividers that let your system operate at these speeds. With a PCI divider of 4, the board allows your PCI bus to run at 33MHz while still having an FSB speed of 133MHz. The AX63Pro also allows a divider of 2 on the AGP bus, bringing the AGP clock down to 66MHz when the FSB is at 133MHz.

    Coupled with built in UDMA/66 support, the AX63Pro is able to deliver some value added features without having value added prices. Some of the best new hard drives in the market are UDMA/66 capable, and taking advantage of this feature is generally a speed booster, especially in your everyday Windows usage.

    As jumperless motherboards become more popular, installing them is nothing short of easy. The AX63Pro is no exception and our only real gripe, as we have stated before, is the lack of a printed manual. While being environmentally conscious is certainly "hip" nowadays, and the cost savings are probably desirable to the manufacturer, the lack of a full printed manual is disturbing. While the quickstart guide is good, nothing beats having the weight of a full manual in your hands in those moments when something does go wrong.

    Aside from having to put the RAM in before the AGP card and the poor location of the floppy connector, we had no real problems installing this board. While needing a few installations off the CD, (files that don't come with Windows), this board does require a little bit more of a setup than one of its Intel based counterparts.

    Bundled with the standard Norton AntiVirus, an E-Manual and a couple of motherboard utilities, the AX63Pro's bundle is nothing special, but for a price of under $100, there's really no call to complain.





    Copyright © 2002 INT Media Group, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. About INT Media Group | Press Releases | Privacy Policy | Career Opportunities