Introduction

I would like to thank AOpen for supplying the tested motherboard.

AOpen is offering a wide range of products, many of them geared toward living room multimedia. The dual-core capable AOpen i945Ga-PHS is a motherboard designed to be used for building a Media PC. Its outstanding feature is integrated VGA with analog, TV and HDTV output without the need of any addon card. This gives you everything to build a very low profile machine.



Intel's i945 and i955 chipsets are the first to support dual core Pentium D CPUs. The i955 is the "Performance" part, while it's i945 counterpart is geared more towards value. Although the price difference between the two is quite big, the technical differences are rather small. I955 has support for up to 8 GB of ECC memory, while i945 can "only" support 4 GB of non-ECC memory, not really important for you, as long as you don't plan on running a high-performance server. The other difference is that the i955 features Intel's proprietary "Memory Pipeline Technology". According to the Intel Website it "enables a higher utilization of each memory channel, accelerating data transfers between the processor and system memory and resulting in higher system performance".

Features

Specifications from AOpen

CPU

• Intel LGA775 CPU (Prescott, Cedar Mill, Smithfield)
• Socket 775
• 1066MHz (533/800/1066MHz)

Chipset

• Intel 945G
• Intel ICH7

Super I/O

• Winbond (83627THF)

Clock Gen.

• Realtek (RTM862-480)

Main Memory

• Dual Channel Mode
• Support : DDR2 667 (DDRII 400/533/667MHz)
• DDRII DIMM x 4
• DIMM Type : 128/256/512MB & 1GB
• Max Memory : 4GB

Graphics

• Integrated VGA Engine in chipset
• PCI Express x16 (PCIe x16) slot
• Support ADD2 Card

IDE

• Integrated ATA100 and Serial ATA Controller (Serial ATA II controller)
• Silicon Image Serial ATA II Control Chipset [Support RAID 0,1] (SIL3132)
• Max Disk : 144,000,000GB [by 48 bits LBA Spec.]

LAN

• Realtek Gigabit PCI LAN Chip (8110SB)

Sound

• Azalia Codec on-Board (ALC880)
• Dolby Digital System : Azalia (Supports 7.1 Channel and above)
• 7.1 Channel and above (EX_AUDIO conn)

USB

• Integrated in chipset
• USB2.0 x 8

IEEE 1394

• Agere 1394 Control Chip (FW3226-100)

Slots

• PCI Express (PCIe x1) x 2
• PCI Express x16 Graphics (PCIe x16) x 1
• PCI x 3

Storage & Back Panel I/O

• Floppy Drive Connector x 1
• IDE Channel : ATA100 x 1
• Serial ATA II Channel x 6
• PS/2 Keyboard x 1
• PS/2 Mouse x 1
• VGA Port x 1
• Standard Video x 1
• 1394 Port x 1
• LAN Port x 1
• USB Port x 4
• Printer Port x 1
• Line_In x 1
• MIC_In x 1
• Speaker_Out x 1
• Center x 1
• Rear Surround x 1
• Side Surround x 1

On Board Connector

• CPU FAN x 1
• System FAN x 1
• Chassis FAN x 1
• Power FAN x 1
• Power Temperature Connector x 1
• Case Open Connector x 1
• Front Audio x 1
• Front Panel x 1
• USB Port x 4
• COM Port x 1
• COM2 x 1
• Game Connector x 1
• IEEE 1394 x 1
• S/PDIF x 1
• CD_IN x 1
• IrDA x 1

BIOS

• Award PnP 4Mb Flash ROM BIOS

Form Factor

• ATX

Board Size

• 305 mm x 230 mm

Software & Utility

• Acrobat Reader
• AOconfig utility
• EzInstall utility
• EzSkin utility
• EzWinFlash utility
• WinDMI utility
• Online eBook Manual

Accessory

• Back Panel I/O Shield x 1
• Easy Installation Guide x 1
• Enhanced Full Pictured Manual x 1
• Bonus Pack CD disc x 1
• Floppy Disk cable x 1
• 40-wire IDE cable x 1
• 80-wire ATA133 cable x 1
• Serial ATA cable x 1
• Serial ATA Power cable x 1