440BX Motherboard Review – Summer 1999 – THG.RU

Introduction

It’s been quite a while since we at Tom’s Hardware Guide have reviewed any BX based motherboards. Since our last review 440BX Motherboard Review – FALL 1998 most manufacturers are shipping newer and improved versions of their BX motherboards. In this review we will discuss each of the boards unique features, performance and overclockability. Given the maturity of the BX chipset I decided to stay away from any major compatibility testing.

As we have shown in previous reviews, the selection of a motherboard is not as easy as just picking the fastest one. Since the performance delta of the motherboards tested is so slight the user must base their purchasing decision on features and functionality. All of these boards share common features such as AGP slot, IDE & floppy controllers, 2 serial, 1 parallel and 2 USB ports. But the manufacturers also try to include their own unique differentiating traits. Some of these might help the potential buyer make their decision, while to others these unique board characteristics might not be of importance. I will list the standard options such as number of memory, PCI and ISA slots. In addition, I will cover the special functions each board has to offer with a brief description.

Motherboards and their Features – ABIT BX6

Standard Features

Unique Features

Everyone has come to love the BX6 from ABIT. They were the first to develop a fully CPU configurable and jumper-less motherboard. Besides being the largest motherboard in this review the BX6 also includes 6 data buffers for the memory. These data buffers are typical for high-end server mainboards where large amounts of memory are installed (512MB or greater). The buffers provide the main memory with a power enhancement to increase the stability when the motherboard is fully populated with memory (all 4 slots filled). As we have seen in our past reviews, this board is one of the top performers in the bunch. In addition to the BX6’s great performance, it is also one of the best boards available for overclocking. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that all of the CPU settings (i.e. clock multiplier, and core voltages) can be adjusted via the BIOS. This board also provides numerous external clock settings. This board was designed with overclocking in mind. Our testing shows this to be one of the board’s best features.

I have two small complaints with this product. The first is the labeling of the internal IDE connectors. Besides the fact that the BX6 doesn’t have color-coded IDE connectors, the labels on the motherboard are extremely hard to read causing the user to plug the IDE devices into the wrong connector. I must also point out another small annoyance of this motherboard’s layout.

If you look at the memory lock-clips (white levers) it is apparent that if you do not close them all the way, the lock-clips will cause the AGP adaptor to seat improperly. This could result in a damaged AGP graphics card or a support nightmare for the motherboard seller. (Note: we at Tom’s Hardware do install a memory stick before testing :))

Motherboards and their Features – ASUS P3B-F

Standard Features

Unique Features

ASUS’s old P2B motherboard was known as one of the best performing products in the BX based motherboard market. Although the performance of this older board was stellar, it lacked some features that would really set it apart from the competition. ASUS recently went back to the drawing boards to improve the old P2B and created the new successor P3B-F. Probably one of the most missed features in the old P2B was a JumperFree setup. Configuring the old P2B required messing around with various jumpers to configure the CPU. The new P3B-F board now includes a JumperFree BIOS configuration. This allows the user the same ease of setup within the BIOS (i.e. clock multiplier, and core voltages). This feature was once only unique to the ABIT BX6. The unique option the P3B-F board brings to the table, is the ability to disable the JumperFree BIOS configuration. This ability is useful for system integrators or MIS departments that do not want to allow the user the ease of entering the BIOS and making configuration settings that might be harmful to the system (i.e. high voltage settings). It’s nice to see that ASUS recognizes possible support problems and offers a way to disable the nice JumperFree option. As with the old P2B the new P3B-F provides top-notch performance. This board much like the ABIT BX6 is very overclockable. The ASUS provides the smallest increments with its external clock. This is a nice feature for a user interested in overclocking their system. Allowing small increments in the clock frequencies gives the user the ability to fine-tune their system (i.e. 105MHz to 110MHz to 112MHz).

I only have a few complaints with the ASUS P3B-F. Although the IDE labels are better marked than the ABIT board, I would like to see ASUS use different colored connectors for the floppy and primary IDE connectors (such a white). This allows for a quick identification, of which connector is which. Regarding layout, I wish ASUS wouldn’t have placed the floppy connector in front of the PCI slots. Routing the floppy cable around and over a full length PCI card makes the system look a bit cluttered. However, I much prefer the floppy in this location rather than behind the CPU on the back part of the motherboard. Another issue I found which might not affect all configurations, are the capacitors behind the CPU slot. They are a bit high for some of the older Celeron heatsink attach mechanisms.

In this picture one can see the Celeron heatsink attach mechanism touching the top of the capacitors. Simply bending the clips up alleviates this problem.

Motherboards and their Features – BIOSTAR M6TBA

Standard Features

Unique Features

The BIOSTAR M6TBA board provides the standard set of features found on most BX based boards. This was the only board to provide 3 ISA slots and 4 PCI, instead of 2 ISA and 5 PCI that were default on all the other boards tested in this review. Also, all of the motherboard settings of this board are achieved via jumpers. This board was one of the slowest boards tested in our performance suite. Given the results in our test suite are so close the M6TBA isn’t far behind the other boards in the performance area. If you are interested in overclocking then this board isn’t one for you. The M6TBA automatically ID’s the CPU and sets the frequency to the CPU’s specification. However, I do like that BIOSTAR did use colored connectors to differentiate the floppy and primary IDE connectors.

I only wish that the power connector were located at the back of the board. Running the power cable to the already cluttered front (IDE & floppy cables) of the motherboard makes the inside of the chassis appear less tidy.

Motherboards and their Features – Gigabyte BX2000

Standard Features

Unique Features

The Gigabyte BX2000 board also provides a pretty standard set of features. However, one of the BX2000’s unique features is the Dual BIOS feature. Basically, the motherboard contains two different flash memories that contain the BIOS program. The backup BIOS can be invoked in the case the main BIOS becomes corrupt. This is a nice feature especially for those who are always upgrading to the latest BIOS. I always cross my fingers when flashing a BIOS hoping that there isn’t a power loss during the program process. A damaged or corrupt BIOS on most motherboards render the board unusable. All of the configuration settings for this board are achieved via dip switches. The performance of the BX2000 was usually among the top three. Even though the BX2000 offers a good selection of various external clock settings they are missing a very important requirement. That requirement is adjustable voltage settings. Without this the user doesn’t have much hope when trying higher frequencies. This is shown in the overclocking section of this article.

I am pleased with the layout of the BX2000 motherboard. However, if I had any say, I would like to see them use colored floppy and IDE connectors.

Motherboards and their Features – Microstar MS6163

Standard Features

Unique Features

The Microstar MS6163 motherboard provides the basic set of features expected from a BX based platform. The unique feature that the MS6163 offers is a set of diagnostic LEDs on the motherboard.

These four LEDs light up in different sequences, which provides the user or technician information regarding where the system is in its initial post (or startup). By looking at the LED status and referring to the manual, the diagnostic LED codes can help the user pinpoint where the system is having a problem. This is a pretty clever tool for troubleshooting motherboard boot problems. Although this boards performance isn’t at the top, it still performs within reason. This board does allow various external clock and voltage settings, the MS6163 didn’t cooperate with our finicky SL2W8 Pentium II 300 overclocked to 504MHz or 450MHz. This leaves me to believe that this board might not provide the tolerance required for successful overclocking.

Feature Comparison Chart

Common Hardware & Software Settings

Performance Test Suite

Even though each of these boards performance is extremely close to one another, this testing is definitely a must. Besides making sure each of these boards are optimized properly, these performance results also provide us with a good idea of the compatibility and stability these motherboards have to offer. Our benchmark test suite includes three passes of Sysmark98, which is run under both Windows 98 (SE) and Windows NT (SP5). The highest achieved score is used for the final result. Sysmark98 runs recorded scripts of 14 different popular business applications and provides us with an idea of performance in a typical office environment. Regarding gaming performance I included results from Quake 3 Arena Test, Shogo and Expendable Demo. Each game was run 5 times and then the highest score achieved was selected. Because the difference in performance is so slight, the numbers are merely just a reassurance that no manufacturer has fouled up their chipset performance settings. Since the benchmarks were run I have included the results for the performance freaks :).

Sysmark98 Results

Even though each of these motherboards scores are very close, the ABIT and ASUS achieve the highest scores out of the bunch under Windows 98SE.

Similar to the Windows 98SE results the ABIT and ASUS score the best under Windows NT 4.0 with the ABIT barely outperforming the ASUS.

Gaming Performance

These Quake 3 Arena results show the ABIT, ASUS and Gigabyte as the top performers.

Again, running Shogo the ABIT and ASUS hold the top spots.

Interesting enough, the ABIT and ASUS win the race.

Overclocking Test Suite

Testing the overclockability of each motherboard is a huge task. I came up with a set of tests that should make my results interesting and informative. I didn’t just want to boot into an operating system and run a single application and claim the board stable. Also, I didn’t want to pick a single application and burn it in for 24 hours given the time requirements. Instead I created a test suite which includes Booting Windows 98, running Shogo, Quake 3 Arena Test, Expendable Demo, and 3 passes of Sysmark98. If any of the motherboards failed any of these apps I upped the voltage and ran the test suite again. For this testing I used our lab characterized SL2W8 Pentium II 300MHz CPU. The CPU I chose is one of our most finicky parts to overclock. I wanted to give each motherboard a worse case overclocking scenario. This CPU in our Overclocking Special – The Intel Pentium II 300 SL2W8 review was characterized to run in most motherboards at 450MHz (4.5*100) at 2.2v, and only a few at 504MHz with a core voltage of 2.2v. I would also like to mention that each motherboard used the same CPU, video board, memory stick, hard drive, network adaptor and power supply. Using the same exact peripherals in each motherboard alleviates any discrepancies regarding the peripherals sensitivity to the higher bus speeds, etc.

The overclocking tables show the voltage required to run stable at a certain frequency. The GREEN colored cells and letter “P” indicates a passing run. Once a test/application failed at a particular voltage, the cell was marked with the letter “F” and all the following cells for that tested voltage were skipped and colored RED. Then the next voltage was tested. Once a frequency and set voltage was able to pass the entire test suite without any failures, the evaluation for that motherboard was complete. If a motherboard couldn’t pass at 504MHz, the frequency was brought down to 450MHz and testing was restarted at 2.0v. I decided not to push the voltage of the CPU beyond 2.3v. Let’s check out the results.

Overclocking Test Suite, Continued

ABIT BX6 Overclockability

The BX6 did quite well with the ability to make it through the overclocking test suite at 2.2v.

ASUS P3B-F Overclockability

The P3B-F tied the ABIT BX6 @504MHz with a core voltage of 2.2v. It almost, but didn’t quite, cut the mustard @504MHz a 2.1v. It tried for fun 517MHz but the P3B-F and our SL2W8 CPU couldn’t boot Windows 98.

BIOSTAR Overclockability

The M6TBA is not intended to be overclockable.

Overclocking Test Suite, Continued

Gigabyte BX2000

Using the CPU default voltage of 2.0v the BX2000 was able to run @450MHz.

Because the BX2000 automatically sets the voltage to the CPU factory default it is unable to provide the higher necessary voltage for the SL2W8 CPU to function at 504MHz.

Microstar MS6163 Overclockability

Even at 450MHz, the MS6163 can’t give our CPU what it needs to function!

Ain’t going to do it. The MS6163 just can’t get our SL2W8 CPU to run @504MHz.

Summary

Each of these manufacturers was able to create a functionally stable and well performing motherboard within the Intel specification, but only a few were able to push the limits of our finicky overclocked Pentium II CPU. Unfortunately, the purchase decision cannot be made on performance alone, given the small differences we see in the performance testing. The most important decision on any product is to make sure the product meets your functionality and feature requirements. Therefore, each of the features must be taken into consideration. If a user doesn’t plan on doing any overclocking, any of these motherboards could fit the bill. Given my preferences, I like the ASUS P3B-F. I believe it provides the best all around flexibility giving the option of a JumperFree BIOS configuration for advanced users. It also provides the system integrator the ability to disable this feature prohibiting an un-experienced user the potential to misconfigure the CPU settings, possibly destroying the system. I am also fond of the frequency granularity provided by the P3B-F. Having this allows the overclocker to step up their frequency gradually until they reach a stable setting. Also, the ASUS P3B-F has a slight edge in the gaming benchmarks, which scores another point with me.