The Best For Freaks: 10 Motherboards using the BX-Chipset

Why Are Some Boards From Other Brands Missing?

Generally we would like to review every product available. But sometimes we just don't get test samples in time. That might either be due to shortages or because of special events like e.g. exhibitions. Some weeks before and after those events, most companies simply do not have enough free resources left to take care of shipments. If you are missing a product, please contact us as well as the manufacturer. Usually we are pretty well aware of most motherboards and graphics card. Nevertheless we always appreciate suggestions for future reviews.

Conclusion

It's practically impossible to spot a winner among those BX boards, as the differences regarding performance are minor, while all boards can be differentiated by lots of features. Asus, Epox, Gigabyte and MSI come with a bunch of functions and add-ons: Epox features an IDE-RAID controller, whereas the boards from Gigabyte and MSI have been equipped with a backup BIOS chip.

You can find an ATA66 chip on the boards from ABit (BE6-II), Asus, Azza (DIBX4), Epox, Gigabyte, MSI and Soyo. In contrast, ABit (BF6), QDI and Lucky Star offer much plainer products. QDI ist the only brand offering three ISA slots. Both Azza boards come with both Socket 370 and Slot-1, giving you the best CPU-flexibility.

The best overclocking boards come from ABit, Asus, Epox and MSI. But the Asus actually has some trouble when overclocking the new Celeron at a higher voltage.

As you can see, every board has several pro and contra arguments. Highly equipped boards are of course clearly more expensive than plain ones. All candidates ran absolutely stable, which is still not commonplace today.

This review proves that the manufacturers still believe in the good old BX chipset. The boards from Epox, Gigabyte and MSI are much better featured than most boards with other chipsets. Suprisingly it is particularly hard to find those kind of feature-rich motherboards based on VIA chipsets.