A couple of years ago the concept of mounting an FM radio inside a PC would have been called redundant thanks to the broadband explosion and Internet radio.
A couple of years ago the concept of mounting an FM radio inside a PC would have been called redundant thanks to the broadband explosion and Internet radio. No longer would the hits of the 1970s, '80s and '90s be the only option when the MP3 collection got boring. With streaming radio you could finally sit down and listen to that 24-hour Black Metal station from Norway you'd heard about.
Restrictive broadband caps and the inability for record companies to cope with new technology mean that streaming radio is no longer the perfect solution. AOpen's solution is to include an FM radio tuner with its latest i845GE motherboard. The tuner comes as a blanking plate with an aerial connector, hooking up to the motherboard through a USB header. It is operated either through AOpen's Jukebox FM software, which is OS-independent and is selectable as an option after boot; or the bundled FM software for Windows, which includes support for recording radio programs to wav files. That is the totality of the FM radio experience.
The tuner works well and the software is easy to use, but one cannot help but wonder why an FM radio tuner is seen as an essential add-on to your PC, especially considering the low cost of separate FM radios and the prevalence of FM support on TV tuner cards. Those wanting to record regularly from the radio may see the benefit of the AX4GEFM; others will more likely look to the benefits brought by the new generation of Intel chipsets for their system satisfaction.
With the motherboard feature race ramping up to insano levels, the AX4GEFM is poorly positioned to take on its feature-heavy competition. AOpen's decision last year to build the Tube motherboard was inspired -- but the AX4GE FM is pure gimmick. Heck, even those dodgy exercise machines advertised on early morning TV now come with free FM headsets, so hopefully this isn't an indication of the motherboard market starting that slide.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012