Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/242

ABIT BM6 BX Socket-370

by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 2, 1999 8:58 PM EST


The sole reason for ABIT's presence in the mainboard manufacturing industry recently has been to tailor to the needs of the overclocking population, while the company used to be known for their unique SoftMenu jumperless CPU setup, virtually all other manufacturers have experimented with the jumperless route leaving ABIT's only remaining personal trait as their overclocking ability.

The unfortunate truth is that the ability to overclock is no longer a sought after feature when dealing with a new system, simply because the possibility that a newly purchased Intel CPU will overclock to any noticeable degree (with the death of the Celeron 300A on the horizon) is next to nothing, and wasting your time overclocking to achieve another 5% performance increase isn't really worth the effort anymore.

Case in point would be the situation involving the PPGA Socket-370 Celeron processors from Intel, which refuse to break their physical limitation of 500MHz on the whole. Although some processors will be it up to 550MHz, the majority of them will fail at speeds greater than 500MHz, a level to which any decently manufactured motherboard can take you. This obviously presents a problem for ABIT, if everyone else can do what they've been claiming sole rights to for the past couple of years, then ABIT suddenly loses their footing on the overclocked pedestal above the competition. This is unless ABIT can construct a motherboard that is both stable, and of a high enough quality that non-overclockers will be attracted to it as well.

We've already determined that there are in fact alternative options in the Slot-1 motherboard market that do offer greater stability in comparison to ABIT's boards, but what happens in the Socket-370 arena? Let's find out as AnandTech takes a look at the newly released ABIT BM6.


New Anand Tech Report Card Rating
88/B+
Do not compare newer ratings to older ones, the newer ratings are much more aggressive

Motherboard Specifications

CPU Interface Socket-370
Chipset Intel 440BX
L2 Cache N/A (on-chip)
Form Factor ATX
Bus Speeds 66 / 68 / 75 / 83
100 / 103 / 105 / 110 / 112 / 115 / 120 / 124
133
Clock Multipliers 1.5x - 8.0x
Voltages Supported 1.30v - 2.30v (0.05v increments)
Memory Slots 3 168pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots 1 AGP Slot
5 PCI Slots (5 Full Length)
2 ISA Slots (1 Shared / 2 Full Length)
BIOS Award BIOS

The Good

Take ABIT's BH6, remove the slot-1 connector, and position the 443BX controller chip and a Socket-370 interface next to each other in the empty space and you have the ABIT BM6.  The BM6 features ABIT's standard 5/2/1 expansion slot configuration (PCI/ISA/AGP) and combines the peripheral expansion capabilities with 3 SDRAM DIMM slots accepting up to 768MB of RAM as documented by ABIT in the specifications sheet.  An Overclocking Wonder?
For testing purposes, AnandTech installed three 128MB SDRAM DIMMs without any detection problems, however registered 256MB DIMMs were not available at the time of testing for confirmation of ABIT's claims.

The board design is quite clean cut and makes efficient use of the space allocated, primarily because the PCB is identical to that of the BH6, which was originally intended for use with a much larger slot-1 Celeron/Pentium II processor.   Since the CPU socket on the BM6 requires so little space to make itself comfortable in, ABIT could put the rest of the BM6 to good use with a generous population of electrolytic capacitors and toroidal inductors to help insure stable operation.    

The argument has been made that bigger capacitors in greater quantities on a motherboard is not necessarily better, and the truth of the matter is, that it is not. The entire trend of assuming that bigger is better was actually brought about by an editorial written a few years back about a well-known motherboard manufacturer in which the company was praised for having such highly rated and stable products. In response to the question why their boards were so stable, the classic response from the company was "well, we have bigger capacitors." A statement that was backed up by the use of larger capacitors on their motherboards, a trait that continues to be seen on their products to date. In reality, the "praising" editorial was nothing more than an attempt to appease the motherboard manufacturer in question, and the stability issues were overly exaggerated, the truth of the matter was that the motherboard manufacturer produced well made boards, and that was that.

What is this brief story getting at? The key to the effective use of capacitors on a motherboard isn't the size nor the population, rather the location of the capacitors. The general rule of thumb is that so long as the signal present between any frequently "trafficked" components on a motherboard (those that are sensitive to fluctuations in voltage, etc...) retains its original strength, the operation of the board has a greater chance of being stable. In order to ensure this, motherboard manufacturers place capacitors to keep the signal between two points on a motherboard both clean and strong, improving the stability and reliability of the motherboard, and thus explaining any issues that come up during the tests that could possibly be capacitance related. ABIT's effective use of capacitors around the ATX power supply connector, Socket-370 interface, 443BX controller chip, memory banks and AGP slot explain the results AnandTech's BM6 sample exhibited during the stability tests. Comparatively speaking, when pitted against the other Socket-370 based motherboards AnandTech has reviewed thus far, the ABIT BM6 is on par with Microstar's MS-6153, as it crashed but once during the stability tests.

The rest of the motherboard's features are fairly standard to ABIT motherboards, for those of you that aren't familiar, the description of the board's SoftMenu II Jumperless CPU Setup and it's other features have been taken from the AnandTech BX6 Revision 2 Review:

As we have all come to expect from ABIT, the BM6 features the latest and greatest version of their SoftMenu II Jumperless CPU setup. With the BH6, ABIT introduced the ability to modify the SEL66/100# setting, enabling the user to effectively unlock the clock lock on 100MHz FSB processors running at the 100MHz FSB. For example, the original Pentium II 350 only allowed a 3.5x clock multiplier when using the 100MHz FSB, making 400MHz impossible, and anything greater than 350MHz impossible without the use of a higher FSB setting (i.e. 112MHz). Setting the SEL66/100# setting to "Low" allowed for the removal of this lock, giving many users the ability to run their 350MHz Pentium II processors at 100MHz x 4.0 or 100MHz x 4.5, and their 400MHz Pentium II's at 100 x 4.5. The SEL66/100# feature has made its way into the SoftMenu II setup of the BM6, however with a Celeron CPU, the usefulness is absolutely nothing as there won't be a 100MHz FSB Celeron processor for quite some time.

The BM6 would have little to offer over the competition if it weren't for a few more modifications to SoftMenu II, ABIT's sole reason for existence right now in the overclocking market. The BM6's SoftMenu II brings a few new settings, such as the inclusion of the new higher frequency FSB settings (138MHz, 143MHz, 148MHz, 153MHz) as well as "in-between" settings such as the 110MHz and 120MHz options for those users that just can't seem to hit 112MHz or 124MHz with their systems. The board also supports the 1/4 PCI clock divider with all > 100MHz FSB settings to keep the PCI frequency as close to the specified 33MHz setting as possible, for those with extremely tolerant PCI peripherals.

The AGP clock is also derived from the FSB frequency, and the BM6's SoftMenu II does offer the ability to select from a 1:1 or a 2:3 FSB ratio for the derivation of the AGP frequency, keeping the clock as close to the rated 66MHz frequency as possible. Complaining about ABIT not including any other AGP ratios is quite futile as the motherboard has nothing to do with the AGP frequency, which is actually stored in the chipset itself and only selected through the motherboard, leaving the 1:1 and 2:3 ratios as the only two options with the BX chipset. It looks like we'll have to wait for Intel's 440JX (Camino) chipset before we can see any other AGP clock ratios.

ABIT's highly regarded User's Manual makes its presence felt in the box of the BM6 giving users a step-by-step installation and a configuration guide for their system. The ABIT manual includes a fairly easy to read and useful explanation of the BIOS and CPU setup, and makes the overall experience with the new BM6 (especially for first time system builders) a pleasant one.

The BM6, as expected, also features ABIT's core voltage manipulation option which allows the user to select core voltage settings ranging from 1.30v to 2.30v in 0.5v increments, meaning the board will also support any upcoming Celeron processors based on the Katmai (Pentium III) core. Don't worry, those won't be around for quite some time however. Unfortunately, the overclockability of Celeron processors makes the usefulness of the 100MHz+ FSB settings on the BM6 pretty useless, as there isn't a single Socket-370 Celeron processor (with the exception of the 300A) that even remotely has a chance of using the 100MHz FSB due to its locked clock multiplier, much less anything faster than 100MHz.

If it weren't for the fact that the BM6 exhibited top notch stability (in comparison to other Socket-370 boards), ABIT would have been in a very bad position, with an overclocker's board, yet with nothing to overclock. Luckily, the BM6 is quite stable, and it's easy to setup nature makes it the ideal Socket-370 board provided that you are in the market for one.



The Bad

As a reader of AnandTech pointed out (thanks Andrew), the BM6, in spite of the specifications listed on ABIT's website and in ABIT's manual, is missing a second surface mounted thermistor for measuring ambient case temperature.  Depending on the type of user you are, its absence may or may not be of any value to you, but do note that it was absent from the sample AnandTech tested.

The only other down-side to the BM6 isn't a fault of the motherboard, rather the processor, as the Socket-370 Celeron, at the time of AnandTech's review of the BM6, is still positioned at a higher price point than the Slot-1 version.  With the price of the BM6 still being a tad bit higher than that of ABIT's older Slot-1, BH6, the overall cost of a Socket-370 system will still cost more than a Slot-1 system, defeating the entire purpose for Socket-370.  In the future, when the production of Socket-370 processors increases, things may change, however for now, there is no point in even considering a Socket-370 based system.  If you do happen to stroll down the path of the PPGA Socket-370 Celeron, then the BM6 does make for one fine choice in a motherboard though.


USB Compatibility

  • Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

  • Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

  • USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

  • USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes


Recommended SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.mushkin.com


The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

How I Tested

  • Each benchmark was run a minimum of 2 times and a maximum of 5 times, if the motherboard failed to complete a single test within the 5 allocated test runs the OS/Software was re-installed on a freshly formatted Hard Drive and the BIOS settings were adjusted to prevent the test from failing again.  All such encounters were noted at the exact time of their occurrence.

  • Business Winstone 98 & 3D Winbench 98 was run at each individually tested clock speed, if reliable scores were achieved with the first two test runs of the suite an average of the two was taken and recorded as the final score at that clock speed.  If the test system displayed erratic behavior while the tests were running or the results were incredibly low/high the tests were re-run up to 5 times and an average of all the test runs was taken and recorded at the final score at that clock speed

  • All video tests were conducted using an AGP video accelerator

  • No foreign drivers were present in the test system other than those required for the system to function to the best of its ability

  • All foreign installation files were moved to a separate partition during the test as to prevent them from effecting the test results

  • All tests were conducted at 1024 x 768 x 16-bit color

  • Quake 2 tests were conducted at 800 x 600 x 16-bit color in Software Rendering Mode



Test Configuration

Processor(s): Intel Celeron 366
RAM: 1 - 64MB Memory Man PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Caviar AC35100 - UltraATA
Video Card(s): Matrox Millennium G200 (8MB SGRAM - AGP)
Bus Master Drivers: Microsoft Win98 DMA Drivers
Video Drivers: MGA Millennium G200 Release 1677-411
Operation System(s): Windows 98
Motherboard Revision: ABIT BM6 Revision 1.02

 

Windows 98 Performance

  Winstone Quake 2
Business 98 Business 99 Quake 2 demo1.dm2 crusher.dm2
Intel Celeron 366 (66MHz x 5.5) 26.0 18.1 15.1 11.0

The Final Decision

In a close call between the Microstar MS-6153 and the ABIT BM6, the award goes to Microstar for the best bundle, however the gold goes to ABIT for the easiest and most user friendly setup, including the best User's Manual.   First time system builders will simply fall in love with ABIT's SoftMenu II and coupled with the excellent documentation, about the only danger the BM6 poses is bending one of the pins on the Celeron before you plug it into the motherboard. 

On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be too great of a reason to opt for a Socket-370 system as of now...so it looks like ABIT may have concentrated their efforts on the wrong market, for now at least...


How it Rates

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

  Business
Performance 83%
Price 84%
Ease of Use 94%
Overclocked Stability 88%
General Stability 88%
Quality 88%
Documentation 95%
Reliability 85%
Overall Rating 88%

The New Rating System
Each motherboard is rated in 8 areas, Performance, Price, Ease of Use, Overclocked Stability, Stability, Quality, Documentation, and Reliability.

Do not compare newer scores to older ones, the newer scores are much more aggressive

  • Performance - How well the motherboard compares to others in its class

  • Price - How competitive the price of the motherboard is when compared to others in its class

  • Ease of Use - How easy it is to setup the motherboard, jumper settings, jumperless configuration etc...

  • Overclocked Stability - How stable the motherboard is at overclocked CPU/Bus speeds

  • Stability - How stable the motherboard is at normal CPU/Bus speeds

  • Quality - How much effort went into producing the motherboard

  • Documentation - How helpful is the manual and bundled support manuals

  • Reliability - How long will this motherboard last, will it fail? Deals with quantity/size of capacitors, known bugs, etc...

  • Overall Rating - an average of the eight above areas

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