BIOS Features
The AN19E features the popular Phoenix Award BIOS software. A good PC Health
feature is included in the BIOS letting you see temperatures, warning temperatures
and different voltages.
A Frequency/Voltage option is available in the BIOS. This famous feature will
allow to push your Athlon CPU to the MAX. With this
option, you can adjust the CPU multiplier adjustments, CPU ratio and most importantly
FSB in 1MHz steps in order to truly discover how far you CPU can go.
A DRAM memory speed option is available as well, letting you run the memory
faster than the CPU default speed, quite innovative in order to get the maximum
bandwidth. In addition of running your RAM faster, you also have the option
of raising its voltage to another 0.70v in 0.10v steps.
Test System
| CPU(s) |
AMD
Athlon XP 2100+ |
| Heatsink
& Fan |
Standard |
| Motherboard(s) |
FIC
AN19E |
| Memory |
2 x 256Mb Mushkin PC3200 DDR SDRAM |
| Hard
Drive(s) |
IBM
15.3GB 75GXP 7200 RPM |
| CD-ROM |
Sony
48X |
| Sound
Card |
Onboard |
| Video
Card |
GeForce
3 TI500 |
| Software |
Windows
XP PRO SP1
SiSoft Sandra 2003
SYSMark 2002 |
Benchmarks
SYSMark is an application based benchmark that accurately reflects the patterns
for business users in the areas of Internet Content Creation and Office
productivity.
SiSoftware Sandra’s Arithmetic Benchmark shows how the CPU handles
arithmetic and floating point instructions.
SiSoftware Sandra’s Multi-Media Benchmarks shows how the CPU handles
Multi-Media instructions.
SiSoftware Sandra’s memory benchmark shows how the memory sub system
performs.
Bundle
Opening the AN19E package I was quite surprised to see the included options
to this board compared to some other previous mainboard reviews that only
came with the IDE cables and in some cases the RAID. Being a Serial ATA board
the product comes bundled with a Serial ATA 0.5M data cable along with a serial
power cable.
Featuring already 4 USB ports on board, FIC bundled an external two USB ports
(bracket) for further expansion. Because the Input/Output panel of the board
is already featuring an Ethernet port and four USB ports making it difficult
to include anything else, FIC did not implant the gaming port on the Input/Output
panel and instead just like with the two extra USB ports they used an external
bracket.
The included manual and reference guide are very straight forward and easy
to understand. As with their previous boards, FIC always includes a software
package with their products. In this case FIC is providing the AN19E with
the fallowing.
Norton AntiVirus 2002: The
popular and most used anti virus application.
Norton Ghost 2002:
Provides complete backups
of the entire hard drive.
Norton Personal Firewall
2002: Providing security for your PC and privacy for your personal information.
Summation
The AN19E is a great solution
for the ones looking into upgrading or building a good AMD Athlon system without
emptying their pockets. While we found some small design flaws on the board,
let me make no mistake when I say that the AN19E offers everything a high
end user would want in his AMD mainboard, with today’s latest technologies
and good performance the AN19E is something we would recommend
taking a closer look at if you’re planning to upgrade… especially if you’re
planning to squeeze the most out of your Athlon.
Oleg Mitskaniouk
O3/01/08
