Friday, May 07, 1999

Introduction

The Abit BX6 revision 2.0 Slot1 Intel 440BX is the new revision of the very popular BX6 motherboard. This 100% Jumperless motherboard has quite a lot to offer to the end users and it's Soft Menu II is just one of the nice features of this motherboard. Full expendability is a word that takes all its sense with all the possibilities spported by this motherboard. Instead of having non buffered memory banks like most of the similar motherboards, the Abit BX6 rev. 2.0 comes with data buffers to achieve greater stability in a large memory environment. The BX6 rev. 2.0 is also supporting Pentium III processors. In fact, the BX6 rev. 2.0 is more than just another revision of the classic BX6 as it sets new standards in term of performance, reliability and usability. Let's see together what else has to offer this superb beast in the following analyse I did of it for your reading pleasure.

The Features

Like I said in my intro, the BX6 rev. 2.0 is using data buffers. Now, what the heck... are used for these memory buffers are you saying? Please, allow me a short explanation. This servel-level specification is accomplished by a 6 chip data buffer set to ensure memory stability and reliability under 8 banks DRAM running. The data buffers acts as a sort of power enhancement to increase the stability and data integrity when using all 4 DIMM slots.

The expansion slots installed on the BX6 rev. 2.0 are including 5 PCI slots, 2 ISA slots, 1 AGP port and 4 DIMM slots.

The BX6 clock frequency can be selected from a choice of frequencies ranging from 66Mhz to 153Mhz including: 66Mhz, 75Mhz, 83Mhz, 100Mhz, 112Mhz, 117Mhz, 124Mhz, 129Mhz, 133.3Mhz, 138Mhz, 143Mhz, 148Mhz and 153Mhz.

The clock multipliers can be selected from a choice ranging from 2X to 8X in steps of .5X and the processor voltage core can be adjusted from 1.3vdc to 3.5 vdc in ..05vdc increments.

As you can see, this is by far the highest versatility available on a motherboard at this moment but its not all... A 1/4 PCI clock divider for all system clock frequencies higher than 100Mhz is also available as well as a 1:1 or a 2:3 ratio for the AGP port operating frequency in order to keep the AGP port working condition as close as possible to the AGP specifications.

Another very interesting feature of the BX6 is its SEL66/100# function. This feature when set to low will permit for instance to set a different multiplier on some processors using a multiplier lock. For instance, a Pentium II 350Mhz can be easily set to 100Mhz with a 4X multiplier to operate at 400Mhz, a possibility not reachable without this function...

Additional features such as: Wake up on LAN, PS2 mouse and keyboard connectors, USB connectors, Irda TX/RX header, SB-Link header, Keyboard power-on, Wake up on modem ring, mouse wake-up, and hardware monitoring are all supported.

Below, we have a picture of the Abit BX6 rev. 2.0 motherboard and a good view on its components layout;

Installation

The installation of this motherboard is totally storyless as there as no jumpers no nothing to set before to power on the motherboard for its very first boot. The motherboard is programmed in such a way that it detects itself the installation of a new processor and a message will warn you to go to the BIOS Soft Menu to make sure everything is OK for the new processor installed at the first boot.

The Software Bundle

The software bundle included with the Abit BX6 rev.2 includes: a CD version of the users manual, Xstore Pro, CD Xpress, Intel Bus master drivers, BIOS flashing program, Win95 PCI bridge drivers, the Hardware Doctor system health monitoring utility and a low level hard disk drive formatting utility. Other applications such as a screen saver, Acrobat reader, Dynadoc Reader, the Abit Web site and a freeware section including: PointCast Network and Inforia Quest98 are also included.

Continue on next page with The performance tests results