Tyan S1846 "Tsunami"
- BIOS Version: 1.12 (July 15, 1998)
- Board Revision: B
- External clock speeds: 66, 75, 83, 100, 103, 112, 124, 133 MHz
- Slots: 5x full size PCI, 2x full size ISA, full size AGP
- Memory: 4x DIMM
There's not much new to tell since Tom reviewed this board half a year ago. Only the performance seems to have decreased compared to the last last time. But of course this is not true, only the competition has become bigger and faster. I'm sorry to say, but the game and Highend Winstone results are located at the bottom of the benchmark charts.
Nevertheless that's still no disaster, of course. More weightily is that Tyan still uses the AMI Winbios with Revision B of the S1846. Getting a system with a lot of hardware running can take a whole weekend; I luckily have to say that there were no unusual troubles this time. The only flaw is the limited ability of this board to work with really large memory modules: With two 256 MB SDRAM modules installed, the board did only recognize 384 MB. But the Tyan is not the only board with this deficit.
If you take a look at the board you will notice that Tyan still uses jumpers. I hope future boards will also have a CPU menu in the BIOS, since it is a cheap and elegant solution. What I really like is the way Tyan arranges the connectors for reset, LED etc. By snapping them by 90 degrees you can plug in the cables from the side of the board (from where the cables do come from) and it's really difficult to mix them. Oh, by the way: this time, the LED is yellow...
Zida 6ABX "Tomato Board"
- BIOS Version: unknown
- Board Revision: 1.00
- External clock speeds: 66, 100 MHz
- Slots: 5x full size PCI, 2x full size ISA, full size AGP
- Memory: 3x DIMM
Some of you may have played with the though to get the Tomato board; first it has five PCI slots and second the price should be interesting. But the problems Tom had in the last BX board review are still present. From the compatibility point of view this in one of the most dangerous boards in this test. It performs average and it not suited at all for overclockers (66 or 100 MHz, other speeds are not available).
The memory hurdle was not taken too god: Both the 32 chip memory module and the 256 MB types didn't run at all. At least it is possible to free the USB IRQ to use it with other hardware. I'm sorry to say, but this board is quite far away from getting a recommendation.
