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Originally published at Internet.com Abit BE6 II motherboard - Review Date: March 8, 2000 Reviewer: Pat Kennedy ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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The overclockers' dream board Abit is among the world's best manufacturers of motherboards. In past years, the Taiwanese company has built an extensive portfolio of boards that cater to the overclocking populous. The BE6-II is no exception. The BE6 II, as the name implies, is the second-generation board to carry the BE6 label and it's worthy of it. Like the original, the BE6 II utilizes the trusted BX chipset. For overclockers the 13 FSB speeds have been replaced with a mind blowing 120, which is way more than anyone will ever use. The quantity allows overclockers to be more precise in finding their systems' limits. If you had to run at 112MHz FSB on board X because your CPU could not handle the next higher 124MHz setting, you are probably not realizing your configuration's full potential. If the aforementioned system could run at the 122MHz FSB it would be losing a potential of 40+MHz in CPU speed. The BE6 II is a totally different animal than its predecessor.
BE6 II specifications CPUs supported Intel Pentium III 450-800 Intel Pentium II 233-450 Intel Celeron 266-533 RAM supported 3 168-pin DIMM SDRAM Max 768MB (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256MB) Supports ECC Form factor ATX (30.5cm x 20.0cm) Chipset Intel 440BX (82443BX and 82371EB) Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI) Supports AGP 1x/2x (Sideband) 3.3v device High Point HPT366 chipset supports Ultra DMA 66 1/1 and 2/3 AGP clock dividers 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 PCI clock dividers Expansion slots 1 AGP 5 PCI 1 ISA Peripheral interfaces 2 IDE, up to 4 Ultra DMA33/66 PS/2 keyboard and mouse 1 floppy (up to 2.88MB) 1 parallel (EPP/ECP) 2 serial 2 USB PC99 color connectors BIOS Award Plug and Play 6.0 Clock multipliers .5x increments between 2x and 8x FSB options 66MHz, 75MHz, 83-200MHz (in 1 MHz increments) Miscellaneous SOFT MENU III or DIP switches to set CPU parameters Write-Prottect Anti-Virus (BIOS) Year 2000 Compliant Hardware monitoring Keyboard/Mouse/Password and Hot Key multifunction Power On Wake on LAN/Wake on Ring header IrDA TX/RX header One thermal sensor cable
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Summary --------------------------------------------------------------------- Price: Street: $119 + 1MHz FSB increments Outstanding stability DIP and BIOS setups - Single ISA slot
Overall The BE6 II is the hot ticket for serious Pentium II and Pentium III overclockers with its unbelievable selection of FSB settings and no major drawbacks. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Setup as tested: Celeron 366 @506MHz (92x5.5) Pentium III 500 @610MHz 128MB PC100 SDRAM Sony 5x DVD drive 20.4GB Maxtor ATA/66 7200rpm hard drive Diamond MX300 sound card Linksys 10/100 NIC Creative Labs 3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra (32MB) Inside the Abit Box
The rather inconspicuous blue Abit box holds no less than what one might expect from Abit. First are a thermal sensor and tape to complement the onboard hardware monitoring. CPU supports come in a small bag with installation instructions printed directly on the bag. The standard IDE and floppy cables are joined by an ATA/66 cable. A 3.5" floppy is included with the ATA/66 driver. The other drivers come on a CD that also holds the manual, drivers, and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Also included is Hardware Doctor, a utility that uses the Winbond chipset to provide hardware monitoring. Highpoint Xstore Pro is a utility that caches hard drive reads in RAM. The board
Color coded back plate connectors are standard now. Between these connectors and the Slot 1 connector are 19 low height capacitors and the ATX power connector. The location of the power connector is excellent, providing there are no large CPU backside coolers, which may hit the power connector. Smaller ones will make detaching the cable slightly more difficult. On the other side of the Slot 1 connector is a different story. There is plenty of real estate to prevent interference with the cooler. Two three pin fan power connectors are conveniently provided for users with dual fan CPU coolers.
The close proximity of the drive connectors and the third DIMM slot can make drive installation a bit challenging if the third DIMM slot is occupied. Two ATA/66 connectors augment the standard black ATA/33 and floppy connectors, a feature found on new Abit motherboards such as the BP6. Just beneath the white ATA/66 connectors is the HighPoint HPT366 ATA/66 controller chip. The upper right hand corner of the board holds a nice surprise: DIP switches for those users and OEMs not wishing to use the BIOS for configuration. The 1 AGP-5 PCI-1 ISA slot configuration does not have a shared PCI/ISA slot, leaving open space between the ISA and last PCI slots. The third 3-pin fan power connector is in the lower right hand corner to feed a secondary case fan or video chip cooler.
Installation
Installation of the BE6-II was a breeze. The Abit manual documented every facet of installation from screwing the board in place to setting up the processor. There was plenty of room to install processors with large front and back coolers. First, it is recommended that the DIP switches be set properly before the board is placed in the case. The switches are very small and can be a pain to set in cramped quarters. Next, one should install the processor, thermal sensor, and the CPU fan power cords before the first DIMM because they are in fairly close proximity and bigger fingers may have problems reaching between the CPU cooler and the first DIMM slot. The IDE and floppy cables should also be installed before the memory because they are in close quarters with the DIMM slots and one another. After these items are complete, install the SDRAM. Then, install the expansion cards in this order: ISA, PCI, and AGP. Last, the ATX power cord should be seated after installing any miscellaneous items like the reset button, power LEDs, secondary case fans, etc.
If the DIP switches are not going to be used for the CPU setup, one must go into the Abit Award BIOS and set the processor up using the SoftMenu III. The manual explains in depth how to set up the processor, hard drive, and other BIOS features. Overclocking
This board offers so many FSB settings that it is a good choice for most Celeron, PII, or PIII (100MHz FSB) users. Socket 370 to Slot 1 risers are fairly common now, so even Socket 370 processors can be used with ease. The board is not an ideal choice for 400+ MHz Celeron overclockers because of the lack of bus speeds under 83MHz. However, 100MHz FSB PII and PIII users will enjoy unparalleled overclocking with the BE6-II.
A PIII 500 used in testing the board was unstable at the common 124MHz FSB speed (620MHz). On many boards without a selectable 117MHz bus this leads to a maximum stable overclock of 560MHz (5x112). On the BE6-II the stable overclock limit was found at 610MHz (5x122). That is an improvement of over 83 percent! The settings above 133MHz will incur significant resistance from other peripherals, which render them almost useless. Where the board really shines is in the FSB range from 83MHz to 133MHz.
Comments
A sixth PCI slot shared with the single ISA slot would have been a nice addition to the board. Also, the lack of greater PCI and AGP dividers holds the BE6 II back from being the greatest overclocker's board of all time. Abit's decision to use the 440BX chipset instead of the new i820 chipset was wise. With RDRAM prices almost 5 times PC133 SDRAM, most users with that much to spend will probably build systems with multiple processors, for which the BE6 II is not equipped. i820 boards with memory translator hubs (MTH), which allow PC133 SDRAM to be used, have been plagued with performance hits that bring the speed to a level below that of similar BX boards. Conclusion
The Abit BE6 II is a worthy successor to the original BE6. Its vast pool of FSB settings and rock solid stability is a reminder of Abit's continuing commitment to the overclocking community. Although excessive overclocking and OS flaws can bring the board down, at rated and slight to moderate overclock speeds, the BE6 II is difficult to crash. The board's stability is a testament to Abit's excellent engineering. The choice to support standard SDRAM shows a clear concern for their customers' bank accounts. The major downsides are the lack of PCI/AGP dividers to use the higher bus speeds, 5 instead of 6 PCI slots, and 3 instead of 4 DIMM slots. Anyone in the market for an SDRAM based motherboard should definitely look at the BE6 II.
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Author: Pat Kennedy
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