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Originally published at Internet.com 
Review Map Features Installation Overclocking Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------- When Intel first introduced the cacheless Celeron line of processors last year as their solution to the sub $1,000 PC market, many people complained about its poor business application performance. Then Intel introduced the 300A which boasted 128k of cache running at the processor's speed. At this point the Celeron became a much affordable alternative to its Big Brother the Pentium II without sacrificing performance for the average user. Utilizing the Celeron PPGA line of processors, Abit has created a fully featured motherboard with excellent configurability options via their CPU Soft Menu II. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Features
CPUs Supported Socket370 Celeron 300-433 MHz Clock Multipliers 2 to 8 (.5 increments) Bus Speeds 66, 75, 83, 100, 103-(100Mhz turbo), 105, 110, 112, 115, 120, 124, 133 MHz CPU voltage settings 1.30-2.1v in .5v increments, 2.2v, and 2.3v System Memory Three 168-pin DIMM sockets supporting SDRAM, 8 MB min. to 768 MB max. (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 MB modules supported) Expansion Slots 1 AGP, 5 PCI, 2 ISA (all full-length) Internal/External I/O * Floppy port supports up to 2.88MB and mode 3 floppies * Ultra DMA/33 IDE supports up to 4 devices (Including LS-120) * Two USB connectors * Two 16550 fast UART serial ports * Built-in Standard/ECP/EPP parallel port * PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors * IrDA Infrared port header (not external) * Wake Up on LAN, Ring, keyboard, or mouse * SB-Link Header Form Factor ATX (size: 305x210mm) Miscellaneous * Intel 440BX chipset * CPU SOFT MENU II * Award BIOS * Supports ACPI and Soft-OFF functions * CPU fan speed, Voltage settings, CPU and system environment temperature * Y2k compliant Boot Options A, C, SCSI C, A, SCSI C, CD-ROM, A CD-ROM, C, A D, A, SCSI (At least 2 IDE HDD can be used) E, A, SCSI (At least 2 IDE HDD can be used) F, A, SCSI (At least 2 IDE HDD can be used) SCSI, A, C SCSI, C, A
Summary ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Price Street $100 + * Jumperless Softmenu II Setup * CPU/System temp monitoring * Temperature warning
- * No FSB setting between 83-100MHz * No 2.15v or 2.25v settings * ATX power connector position
Overall A low cost Socket 370 motherboard that has all the "bells and whistles". ----------------------------------------------------------------- Setup as tested:
Celeron 400 128MB PC100 SDRAM Real Starfighter 3D 2.0GB Maxtor HD from PC Nut 40x CD-ROM
So what came with it?
The BM6 I received came with a CD that had drivers and a few programs, a well documented manual, 2 IDE cables, and a pamplet about Abit and their CPU Soft Menu. Located on the CD were the Users Manual, Drivers, Acrobat Reader, DynaDoc Reader, HighPoint XStore Pro, and Winbond Hardware Doctor.
The Winbond Hardware Doctor is a great Windows program that monitors the voltages, CPU fan speed, and temperatures, and allows you to set the low and high limits of these settings. If at any time your system passes the limits set, a window will pop up to warn you and will ask if you want to ignore, diable, or shutdown your computer. This is one program any cautious person or overclocker shouldn't live without (especially on those hot summer days).
Installation
Installation of the motherboard was a breeze except for one little annoyance I noticed as soon as I removed the board froom the box. The location of the ATX power supply connector is inbetween the parallel/serial ports and the Socket 370. Although it frees up space having the connector in this position (rather than to the left of the Socket 370 where my IDE cables are), I was forced to wrap my ATX power supply cables around the heatsink and fan as to not block the air flow to the fan. Other than that, everything went smoothly with no problems.
I got out the thermal paste and applied a thin
Stability and Overclockability
A 400Mhz Celeron was used for all the testing. I booted up the system at 400Mhz and played Quake II for an hour or so without any crashes or problems with the CPU running at a cool 29 degrees Celcius. Then I decided to see how far I could push the 400MHz and was quite disappointed with the results as far as the processor is concerned. The highest setting I could reach was a stable 450MHz (75x6) at the standard 2.0 core voltage. I did get the system to post at 500MHz (83x6) AND 600MHz (100x6), but in each of the situations the system froze while booting up Windows 98. I tried bumping the voltage up all the way to 2.3v to no avail. I even tried diabling the L1 and L2 caches, nothing. In order to test those nice 100MHz + settings like 105 or 110, I'll have to get my hands on a 300A.
Good Stuff
The configurability of this motherboard is amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if Abit's next generation of motherboards have FSB speed settings in 1Mhz increments ;). The plethora of voltage and FSB speed settings allow an overclocker to squeeze the maximum performance out of their processor.
Hardware monitoring is absolutely a must if you're going to push your CPU beyond its intended limits and specifications. Programs like the Winbond Hardware Doctor is an excellent tool to help you protect the investment you've made into your computer.
Bad Stuff
There are a few complaints I have about the BM6. The first being that there are no FSB settings between 83-100MHz. A 90 or 95MHz setting would be a nice addition in the case of some 300A's that make it to 450MHz but are slightly unstable. Also, there are voltage settings in .5v increments from 1.3-2.1, but no 2.15v or 2.25v settings. Lastly, the 75MHz FSB setting in the CPU Soft Menu II has a PCI divider of 3 which underclocks the PCI bus to 25MHz. I don't understand why as I've never had any problems with with PCI devices running at 75 / 2 or 37.5MHz.
Conclusion
Configurability, options and price. Those three elements of the BM6 make it a great buy if you are looking to upgrade to the Celeron PPGA line of processors. I wasn't able to test any FSB settings above 75MHz due to the multiplier lock of x6 on the 400MHz Celeron, but I'm fairly certain that it is stable up to the maximum setting of 133MHz like the BX6 II. What's great about the current Celeron line is that you can still use your old PC66 RAM making this motherboard coupled with a Celeron a very low cost solution vs. the Pentium II & III which don't have nearly the price/performance point as of yet.
Special thanks goes out to PCNut
Author: Scott Mahaney
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