Given the name "Black Beauty" by Aopen, the AX4B Pro is based around a black PCB and is a no frills motherboard that performs well.

Feature wise it's pretty standard stuff; three 184-pin DDR DIMM slots, five PCI slots, an AGP slot, two IDE ports (allowing up to four ATA 33/66/100 devices) and a FDD port. The I/O panel contains the standard mouse, keyboard, three audio and parallel ports along with two serial ports. One of the disappointing features of the board is the integrated audio chip, an Analog Devices AD1885 codec, which is a 2-channel solution that offers just basic audio playback with no surround sound support.

Aopen has given the placement of the AGP slot some thought, leaving ample room between it and the memory retention clips which is a feature that many of the newer boards don't have. Not only that, but the slot also has a retention clip to make sure the graphics card is held in securely. A passive cooling solution has been selected for the 845 Northbridge.

One extra feature the AX4B Pro does have is Aopen's "Dr. Voice" troubleshooting assistance program. Having a problem booting the computer? No problem, not only will "Dr. Voice" detect the problem, it will also tell you what the problem is in either English, German, Japanese or Chinese - and you can also configure it with your own choice of messages.

As for extras in the box, you get single ATA 66/100, ATA 33 and floppy cables, a users' guide, a useful colour set up poster and a full copy of Norton AntiVirus 2002.

Although it doesn't come with as many features as some of the motherboards featured here, the Aopen AX4B Pro performs well and is a good choice for those who just want a straightforward motherboard.