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With the release of the Intel Pentium II 350 and 400 MHz processors in 1998 we saw the introduction of the 100 MHz bus. To achieve this Intel introduced its BX chipset which took over from the LX chipset as offering the highest levels of performance. With this new PC performance chipset release all the motherboard manufacturers scrambled to release 100 MHz bus compatible motherboards. The PC has really been spoiled for choice with what is on offer as there are a plethora of extremely fine boards based around the BX chipset. One of the finest in our opinion is the ABIT BH6. BH6, the featuresThe ABIT BH6 supports all of the Slot 1 Intel processor family currently available, ranging from the Pentium II 233 through to the new Pentium III and Celeron processors. All are accomodated within the boards BIOS settings, although owners of older boards (manufactured before Feburary/March 99) will need a BIOS upgrade in order to run Pentium III and Celeron 433 MHz chips. The BH6 offers very good expansion capability with its slot arrangement. It offers 1 AGP, 5 PCI and 2 ISA which is fast becoming the industry standard configuration for motherboards. This is ideal now that we are seeing a huge growth in PCI peripherals such as modems and sound cards which used to be previously PCI devices. The provision of 2 ISA slots means that those wishing to re-use older ISA cards are not left out. As with all Slot 1 motherboards there is no provision for cache memory as this is handled aboard the processor module, thus lessen the risk of faults on the motherboard as there are no cache RAM problems to worry about. Provision for system memory is up to 348 Mb which is good for a home system, although this may be tight for server/workstation functions (for this users should look to Abit's BX6). Memory is housed in 3 DIMM sockets located on the right of the motherboard. The BH6 offers users a feature rich package which includes support for LS-120 disk drives, IrDA connectiors, USB, PC97/98 compliance, hardware monitoring and the excellent Softmenu II. We were particularly impressed with the Softmenu II functions for setting up the CPU. Softmenu II dispenses with the need to set up the CPU by setting a number of jumpers/dip switches on the board itself. Instead the user boots the system and enters the BIOS where there are a number of settings available which include all of the current Intel processors, the user then chooses which chip they are running, pure simplicity. The BH6 also offers the user a number of bus speed settings which include 66, 75, 83, 100, 104, 112, 124 and 133 MHz. Most of these (except 66 & 100) will only be of interest to those in the overclocking community.
To find out what Baznet Solutions thinks of this board, read on........
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