-- Singapore Hardware Zone -- Reviews -- Motherboards -- Elitegroup P6BAT-A+ v2.0

Introduction

I have always advised my friends to purchase things (or hardware in this case) that they need. I do know of people who tend to spend too much on hardware that's over-functional, so much so that they hardly ever use them. One classic example is the purchase of a Sound Blaster Live sound card for a server system. That must have been one of the dumbest setup I have ever seen since people hardly ever use the sound function on a truly dedicated server system. Configurations like these can sometimes cost you a bomb, but you must admit that such "over" specifications are pretty impressive to start with.

This next motherboard that landed in the Hardware Zone labs is one of those boards that will get you what you want. I find that it is good enough to get your system going, but it doesn't really make your system fly. This is one of those budget motherboards with a set of good specifications that's stable enough to keep you happy.

Firstly, before we begin to talk about the motherboard, let me get your mind clear on the VIA chipset that ECS use in this board. The northbridge uses the VT82C693A Apollo Pro 133 chip which offers you up to 133MHz FSB with 2x AGP support. As of now, there are only a few motherboards in the market that offers 4x AGP support. The Southbridge controller, on the other hand, offers you UDMA/66 support. The chipset used here is the VT82C596B, instead of the more popular VT82C686A used in other motherboards. A quick check with VIA's support site revealed very little difference between the two southbridges. The VT82C686A is a much more highly integrated chipset with built-in I/O controllers, AC97 digital audio controller and a hardware monitoring controller. However, the VT82C596B is able to do the job just as well on the P6BAT-A+ as it uses other components such as the Winbond W83977EF as its I/O controller, the Elite CMI 8738 as the on-board audio, and the GL520SM for hardware monitoring. The construction of the board looks just like the previous P6BXT-A+ with its Gemini architecture. You don't have to worry about buying a slotket (slotkey or slocket or whatever!) since it accepts both Socket 370 and Slot-1 chips. Note that the current Coppermine Pentium III in FC-PGA packaging will not work on the Socket 370 as there are principal differences in the pin assignment.

The engineering board that we received was marked as version 2.0. There are already P6BAT-A+ boards currently sold in the market, but the PCB version may be different. The older versions use other chipsets, so do take note before you purchase this board.

The package comes with all the basic stuff that will help get you started. It includes the manual, CD-ROM with drivers, FDD cable and HDD cable. I find it strange that ECS did not bundle an 80-conductor IDE cable since the board was made to support most of the current UDMA/66 disk drives. I hope ECS will consider shipping an extra 80-conductor IDE cable.

The Good

As with most Elitegroup board with the Gemini architecture, you need not worry about purchasing a Slotket for your Socket370 Celeron. The good thing about the board is that when you're bored with your Celeron and decide to upgrade to something more serious, you can always switch to a Slot-1 processor without fear.

The chipsets also support the latest range of hard disk drives using the UDMA/66 interface. All you need to do is purchase any hard disk that's currently in the market (most hard disks are UDMA/66 by now), and connect it to the motherboard using an 80-conductor IDE cable. Do make sure you download the latest VIA drivers from http://www.via.com.tw/.

The board also features on-board sound for system integrators that want a quick solution for their customers. The on-board sound chipset utilises the Elite CMI 8738 which offers 4-speaker configurations for 3D realism in sound. It supports Microsoft's DirectSound 3D and the Aureal A3D interface.

Besides all the standard features, this board also allows you to overclock your processor. Although the range of FSBs to select are quite limited, the voltage adjustment is one of the most flexible around as it does not limit the voltage you can set. Thus, for those who still believe in reducing the core voltage to make their overclocking successful, this is the board to get.

Another item that caught my attention was the addition of CIH virus protection in the BIOS. You can choose to enable this feature in the BIOS to prevent your motherboard from getting busted by the CIH virus. A good feature for those who feel uneasy about the CIH virus.

I tested the motherboard with my PII-350 (overclockable to 133MHz) and my recently acquired gem, the P!!!-450 (which is overclockable to 600MHz at 133MHz FSB). The results obtained were compared with AOpen's AX6BC Pro.

Benchmark	P6BAT-A+			AX6BC Pro
Benchmark	PII-466 (3.5x133) RAM@133MHz	PIII-600 (4.5x133) RAM@100MHz	PIII-600 (4.5x133) RAM@133MHz	PII-466 (3.5x133)	PIII-600 (4.5x133)
CPU mark 99	35.6	43.5	44.4	36.6	46.2
FPU Winmark	2400	3060	3060	2400	3070
Business Winstone 99	23.5	25.8	26.2	24.2	27.2

The P6BAT-A+ performed fairly well in this round of benchmarks. You will notice that the performance of the P6BAT-A+ is slightly poorer than the AX6BC Pro. This shows that the VIA Apollo Pro 133 chipset still have a bit more to go before they can beat the current 440BX chipset. However, do note that the 440BX is not designed for 133MHz operation. In the P!!!-600 tests, I was able to set the RAM to operate at 100MHz in the BIOS. This feature was to enable users to use their older PC100 RAM on newer 133MHz FSB processors. You can see that performance in CPU Mark and Winstone suffered because of slower RAM timings. Pushing my RAM to the 133MHz limit, the performance was a little better.

Wintune 98 1.0.40 Benchmarks (Windows 98)

Benchmark	P6BAT-A+		AX6BC Pro
Benchmark	PII-466 (3.5x133) RAM@133MHz	PIII-600 (4.5x133) RAM@133MHz	PII-466 (3.5x133)	PIII-600 (4.5x133)
CPU Integer	1355.9	1753.8	1360	1759.7
CPU Floating Point	535.3	688.8	536.7	690.6
Video 2D	81.1	84.8	134.4	150.7
Direct 3D	168.8	168.9	168.4	168.9
Open GL	75	79.5	75.5	81.7
Memory	794.1	1001.6	801.5	1015.9

Once again, the AX6BC Pro is faster than the P6BAT-A+ although the difference is not that much. The AX6BC Pro only scored a little higher in all tests, except the Video 2D benchmark. The extraordinary scores in the Video 2D benchmark is something quite puzzling which is probably exaggerated by the increased AGP bus speed in the AX6BC Pro when the FSB is overclocked to 133MHz. However, when I checked the results of the AX6BC Pro at 100MHz FSB, the 2D Video scores were still higher. Looks like VIA has more things to sort out in their chipset.

3D Mark 99 Max @ 800x600

Benchmark	P6BAT-A+		AX6BC Pro
Benchmark	PII-466 (3.5x133) RAM@133MHz	PIII-600 (4.5x133) RAM@133MHz	PII-466 (3.5x133)	PIII-600 (4.5x133)
3D Mark Results	3121	3953	4141	5766
Synthetic CPU 3D	4387	8860	4644	9241
Rasterizer Score	1981	1984	1985	1992
Fill Rate	131	131.2	131	131.3
Fill Rate w/ Multi-Texturing	249	249.6	249.1	249.8

As we expected, the P6BAT-A+ is still slower than the AX6BC Pro in all the 3D Mark 99 Max benchmarks. In fact, the overall 3D Mark results differ by more than 1000. However, the synthetic CPU 3D (which measures the raw CPU performance) is not that far off. One thing we should note about the results is that the AGP bus was overclocked in the AX6BC Pro tests since the BX chipset was only capable of a 2/3 divider at 133MHz. This may explain the extraordinary scores in 3D Mark. Still, it does seem that the VIA chipset implementation of the AGP port may not be as matured as Intel's 440BX.

Ziff-Davis Winbench 99 and Winstone 99 v1.1 Results (Windows NT 4.0)

Benchmark	P6BAT-A+		AX6BC Pro
Benchmark	PIII-600 (4.5x133) RAM@100MHz	PIII-600 (4.5x133) RAM@133MHz	PIII-600 (4.5x133)
CPU mark 99	43.8	44.7	46.4
FPU Winmark	3070	3070	3070
Business Winstone 99	34.1	34.7	36.7
High-End Winstone 99	35.2	36.1	37.7

In Windows NT 4.0, the situation was the same. Again, the P6BAT-A+ was slightly slower than the AX6BC Pro. Running the same benchmark in two different operating systems don't lie, and I suppose the numbers speak for themselves.

Wintune 98 1.0.40 Benchmarks (Windows NT 4.0)

Benchmark	P6BAT-A+		AX6BC Pro
Benchmark	PIII-600 (4.5x133) RAM@100MHz	PIII-600 (4.5x133) RAM@133MHz	PIII-600 (4.5x133)
CPU Integer	1758.7	1758.8	1763
CPU Floating Point	696.8	696.3	698.9
Video 2D	63	64.3	111.4
Direct 3D	65.6	72.1	93.9
Open GL	50.2	50.4	51.3
Memory	1026.6	1028.8	1045.1

In the Wintune benchmarks, the AX6BC Pro is again the champ. Although most scores were just a few numbers away, the Video 2D and Direct 3D scores soared above the P6BAT-A+. Again, you have to consider the overclocked AGP bus since that may have affected the score.

Motherboard Specifications
Processor	Intel Celeron^®Processor 266MHz-500MHz (66MHz). Intel Pentium^®II Processor 233MHz-333MHz (66MHz). Intel Pentium^®II Processor 350MHz-450MHz (100MHz). Intel Pentium^®III Processor 450MHz-700MHz (100MHz). Intel Pentium^®III Processor 533MHz-733MHz (133MHz). Supports 66/75/83/100/103/112/133 MHz System Clock Speed Setting Supports 3.0-8.0 Multiplier Setting Core voltage adjustment
Chipset	VIA 82C693A (Northbridge) VIA 82C596B (Southbridge) - supports UDMA/66
Cache memory	CPU Built-in 128KB/256KB/512KB L2 cache for Celeron/Pentium II/III Processor
System Memory	3 x 168-pin 3.3v PC100 SDRAM DIMM support Supports 8/16/32/64/128/256 MB DIMM Module Supports 168-pin unbuffered PC100/PC133 SDRAM (Supports ECC, 1-bit Error Code Correct function) Supports up to 768MB of memory size
PCI IDE	2 X PCI Bus Master UDMA/66 IDE ports (up to 4 ATAPI Devices) Support for PIO Mode 0-4, UDMA/33, UDMA/66 IDE & ATAPI CD-ROM
I/O Interface	1x floppy port (360KB-2.88MB) 2x serial ports (16C550 Fast UART Compatible) 1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP) PS/2 Keyboard PS/2 Mouse 2x Standard USB connectors 1 IrDA ASKIR header Audio ports (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in, CD-in and Game port)
Expansion slot	4 x PCI 32-bit slots, PCI 2.2 compliant (one PCI/ISA shared) Supports 3.3V/5V PCI bus interface 2 x ISA 16-bit slots 1x AGP (1x & 2x Mode, 66/133MHz) slot (3.3v device support)
Power Management	Power On by LAN, Modem, Keyboard & Soft-Power Switch Power Off by Windows^®95/98 Shut down & Soft-Power Switch ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) feature
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor : 30.5cm(L) x 22cm(W) ATX Connector on Board
BIOS	2 Mbit (256KB) FLASH memory Award PCI BIOS with Green, PnP, ACPI, APM and DMI support LS120, ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, LAN, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4 bootable

Test Configuration

Processor(s):	Intel Pentium II 350 (SL3J2) Intel Pentium III 450 (SL37C)
RAM:	1 x 128MB Mitsubishi PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s):	Quantum Fireball KX Plus 27.3GB
Video Card(s):	3dfx Voodoo3 2000 16MB
Bus Master Drivers:	Windows Generic Bus Master Drivers (AX6BC Pro) VIA IDE Driver 2.1.43 (P6BAT-A+)
Video Drivers:	3dfx Voodoo3 drivers 1.02.13
DirectX version:	v.6.1a (Win98)
Operating System(s):	Windows 98 Second Edition (build 4.10.2222A) Windows NT 4.0 Workstation (SP 6)

Overall Rating (Out of a maximum of 5 Star)
Installation	********
Performance	*******
Price	********
Overclockability	*******
Material Quality	********
Stability	********
Overall Rating	***½

Introduction

The Good

The Test

Conclusion