AOpen is set to release its i915GA-HFS motherboard, which although based on Intel’s 915G desktop chipset, will support Pentium M CPUs, according to sources at the company. The motherboard will be released later this month, with volume shipments coming in the beginning of June.
The i915GA-HFS will support a number of improved features over the recently released 915Mm-HFS motherboard, which is based on the mobile Intel 915GM Express chipset. The new motherboard will support up to 4GB of dual-channel DDR2 memory instead of 2GB and the motherboard will support four serial ATA connectors instead of two. In addition, AOpen claims the integrated graphics performance of the I915GA-HFS will be improved over the i915Mm-HFS, despite the graphics core being the same.
However, the motherboard will not support DDR memory.
Other features of the motherboard will include a 533MHz front side bus (FSB), one Gigabit LAN port, support for PCI Express (PCIe) graphics cards, high-definition audio, three PCI slots, one PCIe x1 slot and four USB ports, while connectivity options include DVI, YPbPr (for connecting to HDTVs), D-Sub, S-Video and a D-4 connector.
AOpen is positioning the 915Mm-HFS in the market as a motherboard for media servers, while the i915GA-HFS will target users looking to build quiet but powerful multimedia systems that are energy-efficient, the sources stated.
In related news, Asustek Computer recently introduced an adaptor for using Pentium M CPUs with some of the company’s desktop motherboards, but the adaptor only can be used with socket 478 motherboards.
AOpen i915GA-HFS
Photo: Company