440BX Motherboard Review - Fall 1998

DFI P2XBL

• BIOS Version: dated August 5, 1998
• Board Revision: A
• External clock speeds: 50, 66, 75, 83, 100, 103, 112, 133 MHz
• Slots: 4x full size PCI, 3x full size ISA, full size AGP
• Memory: 3x DIMM

You may still remember the DFI board from Tom's last BX board review. It is also sold by Yakumo as Y686BX. The basic facts are still valid: The multiplier has to be set by dip dwitches, the bus speed can be selected independently from your CPU in the BIOS. Keeping this setting on "default" will use the correct FSB. DFI equipped the board with three fan connectors which makes it possible to use two additional fans inside your case easily.

It's good to see that DFI included the option to disable the IRQ for the Universal Serial bus controller, IRQs are extremely valuable... All connectors for reset, speaker, LEDs etc. are labeled clearly and are far away enough from each other to avoid being wrong. As with many other boards, my 32 chip PC-66 memory didn't run at 100 MHz, all other memory ran perfectly at all clock speeds except 133 MHz. All in all this board is reliable and fast and doesn't force you to come to any compromises, so it is a good choice.

Elitegroup P6BX-A+

• BIOS Version: 2.4e (August 3, 1998)
• Board Revision: 1.1A
• External clock speeds: 66, 68, 75, 83, 100, 103, 112, 133
• Slots: 5x full size PCI, 2x full size ISA, full size AGP
• Memory: 3x DIMM

This board is the only one with special locks for the IDE and floppy cables. If they are plugged in properly it's not possible that they fall out during transport. The connectors for the LEDs, reset, power switch etc. are labeled so that you shouldn't take the wrong connector by mistake. Elitegroup provides three fan connectors for all who need additional fans. Power or high end users could easily reach the board's limits: our 256 MB memory modules did not run at all, also the low end PC-66 module with 32 chips.

The customer gets lots of settings to optimize the memory performance, but I had to chose slow timings to have the system run stable. A CPU menu in the BIOS makes the setup procedure very easy, but you can only chose clocks between 66 and 83 MHz for 66 MHz FSB CPUs. In case you are using a 100 MHz type, you can go up to 133 MHz if you want. But the only way of getting a 66 MHz CPU running at 100 MHz or more is by the pin "B21". I also noticed two special items: It's possible to enable a BIOS write protection for the hard disks and/or the floppy drive. Of course there is also the option to disable the IRQ assignment to the USB.

Everybody who uses high end software easily needs hundreds of megaBytes main memory, and often 256 MB DIMMs are the only way for further memory increase. The problems Tom had in the last BX review have now gone; but since the large memory modules don't run I've found a new one. Such deficits like the inability of getting along with 256 MB SDRAM modules prevent basically good boards from getting a recommendation. In this case, the Elitegroup board missed it the second time now.