Singapore Hardware Zone

AOpen AX6BC Slot 1 Motherboard

Chaintech 6BTM Slot 1 Motherboard
Reviewed by Poh Leng Wee (02 Sep 98)

Singapore Hardware Zone

 

Motherboard Specifications

Processor

  • Intel Pentium® II Processor 233MHz-366MHz (66Mhz).
  • Intel Pentium® II Processor 350MHz-450MHz (100Mhz).
  • Intel Celeron Processor 266Mhz-300Mhz.
  • Slot 1 Socket for Future Expansion.

Chipset

  • Intel 82440 BX two chip AGPset

Cache memory

  • CPU Built-in 256KB/512KB L2 cache for Pentium II Processor

System Memory

  • 4 x 168-pin 3.3v DIMM sockets support
  • Supports 16/32/64/128 MB DIMM Module
  • Single bit ECC capability
  • Supports 16MB to 512MB DRAM Size
  • Supports 66/68/75/83/100/103/112/133 MHz System Clock Speed Setting
  • Supports up to 5.5 Multiplier Setting

PCI IDE

  • 2 X PCI Bus Master UDMA/33 IDE ports (up to 4 ATAPI Devices)
  • Supports for PIO Mode 3, 4, UDMA/33 IDE & ATAPI CD-ROM

I/O Interface

  • 1x floppy port (360KB-2.88MB)
  • 2x serial ports (16550 high-speed)
  • 1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP)
  • PS/2 Keyboard
  • PS/2 Mouse
  • IrDA IR function
  • 2x USB

Expansion slot

  • 4 x PCI 32-bit slots, PCI 2.1 compliant
  • 3 x ISA 16-bit slots
  • 1x AGP (1x & 2x Mode,66/133MHz) slot
  • Support Cretive PCI Sound Card SB-Link™.

Power Management

  • Power On by PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, LAN, RTC Alarm, Modem Ring & Soft-Power Switch
  • Power Off by Windows® 95 Shut down & Soft-Power Switch
  • ACPI features ready
  • Poly-fuse current protection for USB and keyboard

Form Factor

  • ATX Form Factor, 4 layer PCB
  • Fits in Regular ATX Case
  • AT & ATX Connector on Board
  • Double Deck ATX Back Panel

BIOS

  • 2 Mbit (256KB) FLASH RAM
  • Award PCI BIOS with Green, PnP, DMI, INT13 (HD>8.4)and Anti-Virus Functions
  • Includes SYMBIOS SCSO BIOS
  • LS120, ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4 Bootable

<Introduction><The Good><The Bad><Conclusion><Rating>


Introduction

While shopping for a cheap BX or EX board for my Celeron chip, I came across the Chaintech 6BTM. It was selling at a very low price for a BX board (~$200) so I decided to buy it. And to my astonishment, this board is actually a pretty good one. That's the main reason why I have decided to write a review about it.

After reading though Chaintech portfolio, I realised that it is actually quite an establish brand in the States. However, it's still a pretty new brand in Singapore. There are only two shops in SLS that I know of that sells this board, MarketPlace (OEM version) and Unlimited Electronics (boxed version).

Back to top


The Good

The Chaintech 6BTM is one of the few boards that allows a 66Mhz processor to be clock to 100Mhz (or even 133 MHz). To do so, you only need to download the overclocking bios to flash the bios. If overclocking is not on your mind, it is also advisable to download it's updated normal bios as Chaintech regularly updates it's bios to include new features and etc.

For such a low cost BX board, this board runs stability even on a Celeron 266 overclocked at 4 x 100 MHz. Hence, I can't seem to be able to find anything unstable about it.

Like the Abit BX6, this board is jumperless. It comes with their own SeePU technology which is essentially just the same as Abit's Softmenu. Basically, it allows user to manually set the multiplier and the cpu bus speed. An interesting feature of this board is that when the home key is depressed for 5 sec while switching on the system, the board will boot at it's lowest system speed. This is useful if the computer refuses to boot due to overclocking.

The bios also allows the user to view the cpu temperature, system temperature and other monitoring data. A Chaintech software called Shepherd can also be install to monitor the respectively data in Windows 95/98.

The Test

With only the Celeron 266 processor available, I was unable to test it on a PII. As the Celeron 266 processor is multiplier tied to 4, I can't get it to boot at 112 MHz (=448Mhz) and 133 MHz (=533!!!!). However, it was able to run at 100Mhz but too unstable in Windows 98 for 103Mhz. It's inability to change the VCore voltage could be one of the reason why it can't run at higher than 100Mhz. Anyway, below is the result that I have tested on the Celeron 266 processor.(NB. Wintune 98 detected the Celeron as a PII)

Test Configuration

Processor(s): Intel Celeron - 266 Retail
RAM: 1 - 64MB Mitsubishi PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s): IBM Deskstar 8 6.4Gb
Video Card(s): Diamond Viper V330
Operation System(s): Windows 98 (build 4.10.1998)

Wintune 98 Result for Intel Celeron 266 Mhz @ 4 x 66 Mhz

CPU (1) Intel Pentium II with MMX@266 MHz
Video Board Diamond Viper V330 (Nvidia Riva 128)
Video Mode 1024x768@16bits/pixel
RAM 64 MB
OS Windows 98 4.10.1998
Area Tested Value
CPU Integer 750.4048 MIPS
CPU Floating Point 301.567 MFLOPS
Video(2D) 41.38317 MPixels/s
Direct3D 66.89258 MPixels/s
OpenGL 5.612191 MPixels/s
Memory 397.7792 MB/s
Cached Disk 33.60934 MB/s
Uncached Disk 1.976351 MB/s

Wintune 98 Result for Intel Celeron 266 Mhz @ 4 x 83 Mhz

CPU (1) Intel Pentium II with MMX@333 MHz
Video Board Diamond Viper V330 (Nvidia Riva 128)
Video Mode 1024x768@16bits/pixel
RAM 64 MB
OS Windows 98 4.10.1998
Area Tested Value
CPU Integer 937.5328 MIPS
CPU Floating Point 378.7183 MFLOPS
Video(2D) 54.69342 MPixels/s
Direct3D 74.89658 MPixels/s
OpenGL 7.112071 MPixels/s
Memory 498.5256 MB/s
Cached Disk 42.89826 MB/s
Uncached Disk 2.286448 MB/s

Wintune 98 Result for Intel Celeron 266 Mhz @ 4 x 100 Mhz

CPU (1) Intel Pentium II with MMX@400 MHz
Video Board Diamond Viper V330 (Nvidia Riva 128)
Video Mode 1024x768@16bits/pixel
RAM 64 MB
OS Windows 98 4.10.1998
Area Tested Value
CPU Integer 1134.788 MIPS
CPU Floating Point 451.7055 MFLOPS
Video(2D) 71.05754 MPixels/s
Direct3D 82.43731 MPixels/s
OpenGL 8.824936 MPixels/s
Memory 602.9561 MB/s
Cached Disk 52.17253 MB/s
Uncached Disk 2.308955 MB/s

Back to top


The Bad

The 6BTM could have been as good as the Abit BX6 for overclocking if not for it's inability to change it's VCore voltage. Due to this, an overclocked CPU might not be as stable as it can be with an increased VCore.

Back to top


Conclusion

In my personally opinion, I feel that the Chaintech 6BTM is a winner in almost all areas except losing out to the Abit BX6 in teams of overclocking capability. The most attractive being the price and it's availability of updated bios.


MOTHERBOARD RATING

Overall Rating (Out of a maximum of 5 Star)

Installation ****
Performance ****
Price *****
Overclockability ****
Material Quality *****
Stability *****
Overall Rating ****1/2

Back to top


This Product is provided courtesy by,
Singapore Hardware Zone

Copyright © 1998 by Singapore Hardware Zone. All rights reserved.

None of the above shall be reproduced, copied and/or
modified without the permission of the WebMaster.