Azza PT-6VAX2
Board Revision: 2.1
BIOS Version: January 14, 2000
You can clearly see on the picture that this board did originally host Slot-1 and Socket 370. As Intel introduced differing specs for their FCPGA CPUs, Azza decided to remove the Socket 370. I think this decision was right, so nobody can try to run a FCPGA processor on the Socket 370 in vain. However, this company seems to have specifically focused on dual-architecture motherboards. If this sounds interesting to you, take a look at their website .
Our test sample makes use of the older 693A chipset, even though Azza is also offering a 694X motherboard, the 694TX. Three DIMM sockets will host up to 384 MByte RAM supporting ECC. The manual wants you to start plugging in your memory at DIMM socket 2, but it also worked without any difference in socket 1. Four PCI and one ISA slots have to be enough in case you plan to get this board.
Configuration has to be done via jumpers (FSB) and DIPswitches (multiplier). The BIOS item is only interesting in case you want to overclock your system. For this purpose, you may rise the bus speed up to 140 MHz which worked fine.
It seems as though we got the most simple test sample, since there are jumpers to enable or disable a sound chip, which was not present. Instead of it, you will get the standard features: Wake functions, IQ port, I/O connectors and merely one header for additional fans.
This all wouldn't be very tragic, but as a matter of fact the board is one of the slowest in this comparison, even though all important BIOS settings were enabled. I cannot dissuade anyone from buying this board since testing it was pretty painless and all features are standard (except the non-present Socket 370). There were no instability issues at all and the board may be basically fine, but some more performance is definitely needed to sell large amounts of this board.
