Review of Slot 1 Motherboards with Intel 440BX Chipset - Spring 1998

Supermicro P6SBA

The P6SBA is some kind of 'low end' version for a product with the name 'Supermicro' on it. Only 3 DIMM slots and no special onboard components make it look like it's a starved brother of the P6DBS.

While the board shares all the compatibility problems with its brother P6DBS, the SDRAM test showed that the P6SBA is a lot more stable. It ran fine with all memories I used for testing.

Let me again mention the pain I had to go through when doing the compatibility testing. The '5 card test' was a nightmare and the ISA PnP network card wouldn't do as it should as well.

Performance wise the P6SBA was one of the fastest boards in the test, but it doesn't offer any chance for overclocking. The FSB is adjusted automatically between 66 and 100 MHz.

Overall the P6SBA is a board with too many problems whilst offering too few advantages. Thus you won't be able finding it on any of the recommendations lists.