Abit BP6 Review San Antonio TX

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Originally published at Internet.com

First off, I must know - do you believe in love at first sight? I don't. But the BP6 did all it could to make me a believer. It comes with a feature set and price that are simply fantastic for those that that are into Celeron overclocking or dual Celeron action.

Abit has had a deep history listening to needs and wants of the PC enthusiast and overclocker communities. From the AX5 to the BX6, BH6, and most recently, the BX6 II, they've constantly pushed the envelope for the hard-core user. With the BP6, they must've had their ear to the floor on this one. It's so close to being the dream motherboard for any Celeron user, it's incredible.

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Features

Top MHz supported: 1024 MHz (133*8) Clock Multipliers 2x to 8x (.5x increments) Bus Speeds CPU voltage settings 1.30-2.10 (.05v increments), 2.2v, 2.3v System Memory 3 168-pin DIMM sockets supporting SDRAM, 768MB max. (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 MB) - ECC also supported Expansion Slots 1 AGP 2x, 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 * On Board HPT366 ATA/66 Controller for up to 4 ATA/66 devices. * 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-On-LAN header * Wake-On-Ring header * SB-Link Header Form Factor ATX: 305mm x 240mm (12" x 9.4") Miscellaneous * Intel BX chipset * Award BIOS * Supports ACPI and Soft-OFF functions * Keyboard and/or Mouse Power-on * Motherboard temp, CPU temp, system and CPU fan speed, and voltages monitoring Boot Options A, C, EXT* C, A, EXT C, CD-ROM, A CD-ROM, C, A D, A, EXT (At least 2 IDE HDD can be used) E, A, EXT (At least 2 IDE HDD can be used) F, A, EXT (At least 2 IDE HDD can be used) EXT, A, C EXT, C, A LS/ZIP, C

Summary ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Price Street $135 + FSB options (sweet!!!) Stability Individual CPU voltage adjustment 1/5/2 slot layout - PCI divider set to a high FSB, no user control

Overall The best Socket370 board out there, and not much more than a BE6, which has basically the same feature set, except the Slot 1 is traded for 2 Socket370s. Dual Celerons hit the bigtime. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Setup as tested: 64MB PC100 SDRAM Diamond Stealth II G460 8MB AGP 500 MB IDE HD 8x IDE CD-ROM 100Mbps Generic NIC 17" CTX VL710S Caldera 2.2 Linux (2.2.10)

So what came with it?

After I recovered from the initial euphoria of receiving what I knew to be a BP6 (hey, it'll do it to you), I opened the box and was greeted by the motherboard, a manual as good as any that Abit has put out (which is really, really good if you didn't already know), a dual IDE cable, a dual floppy cable, a dual ATA/66 cable, a driver/utility CD, and a driver disk for the HPT366 ATA/66 controller.

It also came with a TON of bus speed settings, as noted below:

Stability and Overclockability

I have had no problems whatsoever with stability at the default speed. It's rock solid and I can't crash it at all. While many would attribute this to the stability of Linux, I believe that the OS and the system work hand in hand for general system stability. I hit it pretty hard with RC5 + VNC web-browsing sessions along with concurrent apps open. Nothing I tried brought it down at all.

When I tried overclocking, I put the FSB up to the first 1/3 multiplier FSB, which happens to be 92 MHz. This works out to 506 MHz, something I already knew these CPUs could take (they both had already POSTed at 550, but couldn't boot NT). It was completely stable and worked great. I steadily worked it up the charts to 96 MHz, giving me 528 MHz. Occassionally, Linux would freeze up after running the RC5 client for a while. So, I bumped both CPUs' voltages up a tad to 2.1v and the freezes went away.

After running it for a day or so at 528 MHz @ 2.1v with the rc5des client running full throttle, I rebooted and checked out the temperature on those CPUs - both of them were around 55C. (Note: I had to check the temp in BIOS because I know of no Linux Hardware monitoring programs. If you know of any that will work with the Abit family of boards, email me. Thanks) This was more than I am comfortable with, so I backed off the voltage and bus speed back down to 523 @ 2v. This still puts the CPU tem at about 50C, but it is more acceptable. The problem with the temperature actually lies with this case design. The fan on the power supply is pointing out toward the side of the case, rather than pointing in toward the CPUs. I'll soon install a fan blowing across the CPU heatsinks and out the case which should help significantly.

Good Stuff

It's a dual Socket370 board and it supports 4 ATA/66 devices added on to the already-existing 2 ATA/33 channels (4 more devices) for a total of 8 IDE device. It also has more FSB settings than the normal human can keep track of. What's not to like? It uses the same tried and true 1/5/2 slot layout as so many other boards. It also allows each CPU's voltage to be manipulated independantly for total overclocking control.

Bad Stuff

Well, the 1/3 PCI divider could be set to a bit slower speed than 91 MHz. Since the PCI bus will be running at 45MHz, that is a 36% overclock of the PCI spec which is set at 33MHz. It'd be a bit nicer if they put it down to 85 or 86 so those FSB settings could be manageable for more people. Of course, the best way possible is to allow the user to adjust it to what they want and to what their system can handle. Hopefully, in future FSB galore motherboards (there will be more of these, right?), Abit will allow the user to determine the PCI divider, rather than hard coding in the divider.

One other possible problem with this board, as with any other Socket370 board, is the upgrade path. For better or worse, you will be stuck with using Celerons until you get a different motherboard. Now, there is a chance that Intel will release their Coppermine chip in a Socketed format, but we don't know if it will be Socket370 or if current Socket370 boards will be able to run it. So, you'll be taking a bit of a chance with that.

Conclusion

I've never been to Heaven, but this board nearly took me there. It's the best Socket370 board I've ever had the pleasure of using, and for $140, it should be. This board isn't for the simple system owner. It has two main purposes: If you have a Socket370 Celeron and you want what is simply the best overclocking board right now, get this one. It doesn't even matter if you want to run duual CPU. You will maximize your MHz with this board, especially if you have a 366 or above that have a hard time getting to or much past the 100 MHz FSB.

And the other group is the dual Celeron crowd, regardless of whether they are into overclocking. This board simply rocks and is the cheapest board in it's class. No more dealing with Slotkets and overpriced dual Slot1 motherboards. Now there's a motherboard built for you with the price advantages to boot.

If you happen to be among those that do both overclocking and the dual Celeron setup, there is simply no better board you can buy. It's too sweet for words. And when you get one, open it while you are sitting down. ---------------------------------------------------------------------