AOpen boards are already Merom compatible

AOpen is one of those quiet manufacturers that constantly releases good, sound products but doesn't always get much attention for them. Some of you may remember our write-ups of AOpen's plans back at CES 2006, particularly because so many of its boards were moving to the Pentium M architecture. Well, now we understand why that was such a big move - most of those boards are now drop-in compatible with Intel's new Merom processor after just a simple BIOS update.

The update will cover all boards that are based on Intel's 945-975x chipsets, which is to say most of them. Included are the new mini PC Duo MP945-VX, all MP945-VXR setups and the i975Xa-YDG, i945GTm-VHL and i945GTt-VFA motherboards. These boards span all the way from a full ATX (i975Xa-YDG) down to the mini PC, which is AOpen's intel-based answer to the Mac Mini. For people interested in something really small, the i945GTt-VFA is a mini-ITX model.

The motherboards have been on sale for a few months now, having been released around the middle of Quarter 2. So for those of you with these boards already, you can go grab the bios update off of AOpen's website as soon as you are ready for an upgrade. If you haven't but are considering a small-form-factor type of build, these might be a nice place to start since they're already up to speed with the latest chips.

Got a thought on the update? Do you own one of these boards, and are now looking forward to dropping in a Merom? Let us know your thoughts in our forums.