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

DFI P2BXL/S

The brother of the P2BXL is called P2BXL/S and comes with an additional onboard ultra 2 wide SCSI host adapter, offering one U2W, one UW and one U-narrow port. The chip used is Adaptec's new 7890AB.

The features apart form the SCSI adapter are identical to the P2BXL, you are adjusting the CPU settings via a mixed dip switch/BIOS setup solution. The dip switches are responsible for the multiplier, the BIOS setup menu gives you the option to choose between 'default', which detects the FSB automatically or from FSB clocks between 66 and 133 MHz.

Unfortunately there was a slight compatibility problem due to the IRQ grabbed by the 7890 chip. You should avoid using PCI slot #3 for a card that requires an IRQ. Voodoo2 cards or other devices which either don't require an IRQ or which can share it can still be used in this slot.

The P2BXL/S is a good motherboard and the onboard U2W SCSI adapter makes it even more attractive. Without the compatibility problem the board would certainly have made the recommendations list.