AOpen AK79D-400 Max Motherboard Review

With the K7 near the end of its lifespan, it seems as if every mainboard manufacturer worth its salt is making one last big push with socket A boards. Since nVIDIA recently rehashed the highly successful nForce2-SPP chipset under the moniker of the new nForce2 Ultra 400 name there is no better time than the present. Of course you'll recall that nVidia's nForce2-SPP chipset officially supported the 400 MHz based AthlonXP processors, but it was starting to get old (nForce2 has been around for about 11 months already!) so it was time for a refresh. When nVIDIA released the C1 stepping of the nForce2 they decided to rename the chip the "nForce2 Ultra 400." I suppose any new stepping technically deserves a new name. In this review, PCstats will be testing out the spiffy AOpen AK79D-400 Max mainboard which, obviously, uses the "new and improved" nForce2-Ultra 400 chipset. The Ultra name may be more symbolic than descriptive, but I would expect a little extra performance?