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Digital-Daily : Motherboard Reviews : tul-ax480a-gf

Tul AX480A-GF (ATI Xpress 200P)

Tul AX480A-GF (ATI Xpress 200P)
Author: Aleksandr Mitrofanov
Date: 02.05.2005

Tul AX480A-GF
Chipset Ati Xpress 200P
Processor AMD Athlon 64/Sempron (fsb 200ÌÃö)
Memory PC2100/PC2700/PC3200
HDD 2x UltraDMA/100
4x SerialATA(RAID)
Additional Audio AC'92 v2.3
8 USB 2.0
2 Firewire
100Mbit LAN
Price: na

Taiwanese company Tul is widely known as a manufacturer of video cards built on the base of ATI chips sold under the PowerColor brand and one of closest partners of this chip maker. That is why I was not much surprised by the fact of emergence of motherboards bearing the Tul mark, since almost the whole assortment of produce is base on chipsets of the ATI Xpress 200 series. By the way, ATI's major partner - Sapphire - produces motherboards in the same way.

For tests, we received the Tul AX480A-GF motherboard built on the Xpress 200P (or RX480) chipset, i.e. a version of the chipset without the integrated graphic core. As a result, the board offers support for one PCI Express x16, three PCI Express x1, eight USB2.0 ports, and four SerialATA channels. Clearly, at the expansion options this chip is inferior to nVidia nForce4 UltraSLI, but is adequate enough as a basis for the middle-end Xpress 200P system and is aimed at just this niche.


Tul AX480A-GF Specifications


Tul AX480A-GF

Tul AX480A-GF
Processor - AMD Athlon 64 (Clawhammer/NewCastle) with 200 MHz bus speed;
- Socket 939
Chipset - ATI Xpress 200P chipset;
- South bridge IXP400;
- Interbridge link: A-Link bus (1616bit)
System memory - Four 184-pin slots for DDR SDRAM DIMM
- Maximum memory capacity 4GB
- Supported memory types PC1600/PC2100/PC2700/PC3200
- Dual-channel memory access
- Onboard power indicator
Graphic - PCI Express x16 slot
Expansion options - Two 32-bit PCI Bus Master slots;
- Three PCI Express x1 slots;
- Eight USB 2.0 ports (4 integrated + 4 additional);
- Two IEEE1394 ports (Firewire; 1 integrated + 1 additional)
- Integrated audio AC'92 v2.3;
- Gigabit Ethernet LAN controller
Overclocking options - FSB adjustable within 200 to 320 MHz in 1 MHz increments; multiplier adjustable;
- Adjustable voltages on the processor.
Disk subsystem - 2 channels for UltraDMA133/100/66/33 Bus Master IDE (with support for up to 4 ATAPI-devices & RAID 0, 1, 0+1);
- Support for SerialATA (4 channels - IXP400, with support for RAID);
- Support for LS-120 / ZIP / ATAPI CD-ROM
BIOS - 4MBit Flash ROM
- AMI BIOS with support for Enhanced ACPI, DMI, Green, PnP Features
Miscellaneous - One port for FDD, two serial and one parallel ports, ports for PS/2 mouse and keyboard
- STR (Suspend to RAM)
- SPDIF InOut
Power management - Wake-up on modem, mouse, keyboard, LAN, timer, and USB
- Standard 20-pin ATX (ATX-PW) power connector
- Additional 4-pin power connector
- Cool'n'Quiet technology
Monitoring - Temperatures of the processor, system, voltage monitoring, measurement of rotational speeds of the two fans.
Dimensions - ATX form factor, 245 mm x 305 mm (9.63" x 12")

Package

The board is packaged in a fairly well-made box of eye-catching design:


Inside the box, we found the following contents:

Package bundle

  • 1x Motherboard;
  • 1x software & drivers CD;
  • 1x additional software CD;
  • One rounded ATA-133 cable, one regular ATA-133 cable, and one rounded FDD cable;
  • 2x SerialATA cables + a power adapter (2 connectors);
  • User's Manual in English;
  • 1x header for 2 additional USB 2.0 ports;
  • 1x ATI logo sticker;
  • A cap to the rear panel of the case.

The board's package bundle is practically standard and contains only the most required items:


Of special mention is the disk with third-party software which includes CyberLink DVD Solution: PowerDirector SE+ (for video editing), MediaShow SE (image viewing), PowerDVD (DVD player), PowerProducer DVD (creating DVD), and Power2Go (also for creating DVD).


The user's manual has nothing to complain about: all is written in detail and thoroughly. Therefore, the package bundle deserves a "4.5/5" mark.

Content:

  • Specifications
  • Board layout
  • Expansion options
  • BIOS, monitoring
  • Overclocking and stability
  • Performance and conclusions




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