The Good

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The most obvious thing about the SD-11, FIC's first Athlon motherboard, was its monstrous PCB. It seems that the release of Socket-A CPU's from AMD has done little to change FIC's philosophy on large PCB's as the AZ-11 is virtually identical in size. When we looked at the SD-11, it seemed that there was no good reason for such a large PCB and that is the case with the AZ-11 as well as we've seen many motherboards with equivalent functionality, but in a much smaller package. Why does it matter? The most obvious reason is that it may not fit in some smaller cases, but just as important it increases the cost to manufacture the board, which is then passed on to the consumer. A brief look at various vendors on the web does indeed show the AZ-11 to be priced slightly higher than other Socket-A motherboards.

The 5/1/0/0 (PCI/AGP/ISA/AMR) expansion configuration is also noteworthy, not because it is especially useful, but because it is a bit of an odd decision. There's room for an additional PCI slot plus an additional AMR or ISA slot, but FIC has chosen to leave that PCB space empty, despite support for such slots in the VIA 686A Super South Bridge. It turns out that FIC is actually working on another version of the AZ-11 that will feature an additional PCI and/or ISA slot as well as an on-board firewire controller. Although, we're still a bit surprised that Compaq, one of the largest OEM's in the world that also happens to use the AZ-11 in their systems, would not want an AMR slot, something that was targeted specifically at OEM's.

Located between the Socket-A connector and the AGP slot is the KT133's North Bridge, covered by the good old green heatsink that motherboard manufacturers have been using since the days of the i440LX. The 8373 North Bridge is nearly identical to the 8371 of the KX133 with a few timing changes to support AMD's Socket-A CPU's. The AZ-11 is designed such that it can take advantage of the pin compatible 8365 North Bridge of the KM133, which is basically a KT133 chipset with the addition of integrated S3 Savage 4 graphics. For that reason, FIC had to make room for the VGA connector on the ATX backplane, which in turn means that a serial port is lost on both versions of the AZ-11. The KM133 version of the AZ-11 will most likely receive a different name to make the distinction in the market clear.

The North Bridge provides all the key features of the KT133/KM133, most importantly 133MHz memory bus and AGP 4X support. The beauty of the 8373's memory controller is that it can run your memory at either 133MHz or 100MHz using a multiplier of the FSB frequency. So those users with PC133 SDRAM can take advantage of the increased bandwidth (1.06GB/s vs. 800MB/s) over PC100 SDRAM, while allowing backwards compatibility with older PC100 SDRAM. Support for VC100/VC133 memory is still included, but availability is still weak and prices high.

The AZ-11, as is the case with most Athlon motherboards, features 3 DIMM slots capable of accepting PC100/PC133 or VC100/VC133 SDRAM running at either a 3:3 (1:1) ratio with the FSB (by default, 100MHz) or a 4:3 ratio with the FSB (133MHz by default). This is the recommended maximum for PC133 support according to VIA.

Thanks to Award's built-in support for jumperless CPU setups, we find the FSB options under Frequency/Voltage Control in the BIOS. FSB settings include 100 / 102 / 104 / 106 / 107 / 109 / 110 / 111 / 112 / 133, although our experience with the Athlon/Duron's EV6 bus is that 110 MHz is the maximum FSB you can realistically expect to achieve and maintain stability. While a few have pushed further, it is relatively rare. Fortunately there are a number of settings between 100 and 110 MHz, allowing you to tweak the most out of the FSB. Twelve 1500uF capacitors make sure that the CPU gets enough power at all times.

The real way to overclock the Thunderbird/Duron is through multiplier adjustments since everything on the motherboard remains within spec. Although AMD has "laser locked" the multiplier on all Socket-A CPU's, Tom's Hardware Guide has shown the world how to get around the multiplier lock with the right motherboard. While FIC does not officially support multiplier adjustments of Socket-A CPU's, it is possible on the AZ-11. However, it requires quite a bit of work and is definitely much harder than the DIP switches of the ASUS A7V or the SoftMenu III setting of the ABIT KT7. We'll have a complete Socket-A overclocking guide in the near future and we'll cover the required modifications to the AZ-11 at that time. We highly recommend going with a motherboard that has built-in support for this feature if you want to overclock, especially since FIC could remove the necessary components at any time with a revision of the board

Although the FIC manual claims support for Vcore adjustments after setting the "Magic Tuner" jumper, the function did not work on our evaluation sample. It may be enabled with future BIOS revisions, although none were available at the time of publication.

The VIA 686A Super South Bridge helps reduce costs by integrating a number of features into a single chip. The VIA 686A actually adds a number of features, including support for 4 USB ports, integrated hardware monitoring, and an AMR interface. Two of those USB ports are available via the standard ATX I/O panel, while the other two are only available with an optional cable that can run to the front or back of your case.

The Sigmatel STAC9744T AC97 CODEC provides host-based audio support, but anyone that cares about their PC's sound will want to disable the onboard sound in favor of a true hardware-based solution. Interestingly, the AZ-11 does not have provisions for an integrated game port like most motherboards with integrated sound.

FIC has begun bundling what they like to call NOVUS II, a combination of hardware and software that makes their boards stand out from the crowd a bit. NOVUS II consists of LogoGenie, BIOS Guardian, Easy Key, Overclock Partner, Clockometer, and Audio Alert II. BIOS Guardian has been seen before on the FIC KA-11 and is designed to protect the BIOS from virus attacks. Easy Key was also found on the KA-11 and provides a set of hot keys to jump to specific areas of the BIOS. Finally Overclock Partner is also not new to the market and simply allows you to revert to default settings by holding down insert after a failed overclocking attempt.

However, Logo Genie, Clockometer, and Audio Alert II are new. Logo Genie allows the user to put a 640x464x16 image on screen in place of the standard Award BIOS POST screen. You can still see the original POST screen by hitting tab. While this isn't all that useful to most AnandTech readers, OEM's love this kind of stuff because it allows them to customize their systems that much more. Clockometer is a program similar to SoftFSB and allows you to change FSB speeds from within Windows 98. It offers no additional features over using the BIOS to adjust the FSB speed, but it does make it somewhat easier for those afraid of playing around in the BIOS.

The only truly new feature is Audio Alert II, something we briefly mentioned in our Computex Day 2 Coverage. Instead of getting POST beep codes from your PC speaker, an actual voice comes through your external speakers (via the onboard sound) to let you know that memory, CPU, or video has not been detected after power on. Once again, not extremely useful if you know your beep codes already, but it'll save you a trip to your manual if you don't. While Audio Alert II is an interesting idea, it would be a lot more useful if it were able to inform you of more than just a missing CPU, memory, or video card.

Beyond the NOVUS II utilities, FIC also includes Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Ghost, and Norton Virtual Drive. We're not sure what Symantec has done, but it seems every motherboard manufacturer is bundling the same products these days. The typical FIC manual ships with the AZ-11, which means that it lacks details on installing a motherboard, but is otherwise pretty good for the experienced user, and includes information on all connector pin outs as well as the various BIOS settings.

The Bad

We've yet to see any KT133 boards available with the ability to unlock the multiplier of AMD's Socket-A CPU's, but if such a feature does come to market, it will be sorely missed on the AZ-11 by all overclockers. We have discovered a method to enable it on the AZ-11, but it's not for the faint of heart and we highly recommend that users interested in overclocking via the multiplier choose a board with built-in support for that feature.

Unfortunately, while Audio Alert II does make things more user friendly, it requires the purchase of the optional Audio Alert II module. This item shouldn't be too expensive, but then again, it won't be that useful except on a few rare occasions.

Despite built-in hardware monitoring support of the VIA 686A South Bridge, FIC has failed to include the requisite thermistor in the Socket-A interface to measure the CPU temperature. Further, while two fan speeds are measured, no voltages or other temperatures are monitored.

A trend we're seeing throughout the motherboard industry that we don't like is a failure to include the required header for using the second set of USB ports integrated on the motherboard.

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 128MB Corsair PC133 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Corsair PC133 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM

Manufacturer: Corsair
Purchase Website: http://www.corsairmicro.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com

The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.

Final Words

Once again, FIC has one of the first motherboards on the market to support AMD's recently released CPU - this time it's the Thunderbird / Duron Socket-A processors. While FIC has made a concerted effort to make their board stand out with features like NOVUS II utilities, its simply not enough for most AnandTech readers, especially those looking to overclock their systems. Our recommendation: don't jump on the first available Socket-A motherboard, no matter how tempting it may be. If you can, wait for the first wave of Socket-A motherboards to come through and pick the best of that bunch.

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