Ok, a rundown of what I tested:

- 512 MB of PC133 Reg SDram
- Matrox MGA
- Corsair TX650
- 1 Slot 2 cooler (came with the Aopen box) replaces the heatsink on one Xeon

2 5V/12V 900 Xeon PIII: no POST
1 dummy + 1 5V/12V 900 Xeon PIII: no POST
1 dummy + 1 2V 450 PII Xeon: POST
Still have to test with two PII's, but I suppose it will post as well.

I guess that the people over at the ArsTechnica forum were mistakenly supposing that not supporting the 2.8 PIII Xeons meant that this board would support 5V/12V Xeons out of the box. That would be, as m1919 suggested, surprising. There's no mention at all of voltage settings, nor are there jumpers or VRM slots. So I suppose it's no-go for the 900's, but I'll make this a worthy successor to the deceased Asus P2B-DS. The Compaq 5500 I have in the garage (same as this one) will have to give up another 450 of its three 450's.

I'll post boot pics soon.

Still to do:
- Suitable case
- Suitable drive (SCSI)
- Suitable graphics card
- Install Win2k/XP

No pics as of yet. I had a second disappointment, the Compaq 5500 quad Xeon only had three slots filled. Two 450 PII's, and 1 400 PII. No reason why, but my guess that this system had been cannibalised before. No issues, as I got that heavy bastard for free.

Only one of the 450's works on the Aopen, unfortunately. No post with both installed and no post with the presumed dead Xeon. The 400 posts as well, buit I cant mix it with the 450 of course.

So after this hassle, I end up with just one Slot 2 filled up, at only half the speed I was hoping for in the beginning. You win some, you lose some...

Are the two 450s the same model?

flupke11 wrote:

No pics as of yet. I had a second disappointment, the Compaq 5500 quad Xeon only had three slots filled. Two 450 PII's, and 1 400 PII. No reason why, but my guess that this system had been cannibalised before. No issues, as I got that heavy bastard for free.

Only one of the 450's works on the Aopen, unfortunately. No post with both installed and no post with the presumed dead Xeon. The 400 posts as well, buit I cant mix it with the 450 of course.

So after this hassle, I end up with just one Slot 2 filled up, at only half the speed I was hoping for in the beginning. You win some, you lose some...

Going to be hard finding dual 2.8v 900/2MB Xeons. I suggest looking at some 700/1MB or 700/2MB Xeons, the 2.8v procs don't seem that hard to find.

If the AOpen board lets you adjust FSB you might even be able to overclock them a little.

That board could definitely use a re-cap... Those tall green caps with the honeycomb vents look like Hermei brand... Use Panasonic FM or better.

2.8V Xeons= I'm not sure whether they'll work. I have a PIII Xeon 667 boxed which is 2.8V, but as it is a 133 Mhz and 2.8V, chances are that it also will not work.

450 PII's= both have same SSpec, but only one seems to function. I don't have another Slot 2 board to test the other 450 on (the compaq 5500 is dead as a dodo)

Recapping= Thanks for the suggestion. I'll take a closer look at the green caps, but for now, I'd just like to see it work, before I hit it with the soldering iron.

I am not at all surprised that those 900mhz didn't post as support beyond 700mhz for most boards is limited from what I can find research wise. Its a shame though as I would love to have seen those 900mhz scores.

What scores are you looking for? I got a pair of 900's.

Quick update: the board is live with two PIII 550's/1MB, which were the cheapest fastest 2V processors I could find on Ebay.

That is good news and nice to know that the build is alive.

Had also no success with faster Xeon Modells on this Mainboard.
I run also 550's with 2M Cache.

i also have a Pair of Drake's left with 400Mhz 1M (P2)