Overclocker Recommendations
- Abit BX6
Abit focussed on overclocking again, but this time they almost took it over the top. The 'SoftMenu' doesn't only offer the adjustment of the CPU multiplier and the FSB in a large range, it also gives you the ability to change the CPU voltage. In the first BIOS revisions the range was so big, that you could easily fry your CPU, as successfully accomplished by nobody less than Georg Schnurer, c't-Magazine's star motherboard tester, who had all reasons to be very upset about this crazy feature which killed a brand new Pentium II 400 CPU. Abit reduced the range, but I still want to make clear that it's fairly unlikely to be more successful in overclocking after raising the CPU voltage to levels beyond Intel's spec, whilst having a good chance of sending your shiny new Intel CPU into the eternal hunting grounds. Anyway, for the gamblers of you this board may be the number one choice. The BX6 does not offer any adjustments of the memory timing, which I consider as pretty good. It runs fine with all the memory I used for testing, but it had a compatibility problem with an ISA network card. The performance of the BX6 is average, the feature list is average too. - AOpen AX6B, Chaintech 6BTM, Soyo SY-6BA
These three boards let you adjust the FSB in a range from 66 to 133 MHz regardless which CPU is used. This as well as the multiplier setting is adjusted comfortably form within the BIOS setup. The performance of these three is equal as well, so you've got to look into the features list to find out which board applies to you most. - DFI P2XBL/S, DFI P2BXL (Yakumo Y686BX)
The two DFI boards have a dip switch for the multiplier setting whilst the FSB can be adjusted in a range from 66 to 133 MHz from within the BIOS setup. Whilst the P2XBL is a tad faster than the P2XBL/S, the latter comes with onboard U2W SCSI adapter. - Asus P2B
The P2B is certainly no bad board for overclockers, but it's the only one in this list which requires fiddeling with jumpers. If you haven't got a problem with that, you will certainly remember why this board is on top of the overall recommendation list.
Performance Recommendations
- MSI MS-6119
The MS-6119 is the fastest board in the test, which doesn't mean that it's a lot faster than the others in the list. It comes with pretty good compatibility, great stability and good features. - Asus P2B, Supermicro P6SBA, Tyan Tsunami S1846
These three boards are a tiny bit less fast than the MSI board. Unfortunately, the Tyan Tsunami board suffers from the incompatibilities caused by AMI's pretty useless WinBIOS and so does the Supermicro P6SBA. - Elitegroup P6BX-A+
The P6BX-A+ is also a board from the fast league and if the BIOS setup would allow to disable the IRQ for the oh-so-wonderful USB, it would even have been mentioned in the overall recommendations list