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

Zida Tomato 6ABX

I can't remember when I stumbled across the name 'Tomato Board' for the first time, but I think it was my ctcm motherboard survey some two years back. Zida is still building motherboards with this funny name and the boards aren't as strange as the name would make you think.

The 6ABX is the only motherboard in this test using AMI's normal good old text BIOS, which I prefer a lot over this fancy WinBIOS stuff. However, AMI is still a warrant for trouble regardless if text or windows BIOS. The compatibility test was another painful experience, pretty similar to my experiences with AMI WinBIOS. Please refer to the compatibility report for more details.

The stability of the Tomato board was good with all the SDRAMs I tested.

Overclocking is not the field of the 6ABX, FSB is adjusted automatically between 66 and 100 MHz, any higher FSB clocks are unavailable.

The performance of the 6ABX was low average and thus another reason for not getting into a recommendations list.