Gigabyte
Gigabyte GA-586TX3
Gigabyte has three TX chipset based socket 7 boards: GA-586 TX, 586 TX2 and 586 TX3 (3 DIMM sockets). Performance does not diverge very much from each other, so I took the TX3 board for benchmarking our complete 'suite'. Performance is okay, but I can't understand why Gigabyte does not back bus clock speeds beyond 66 MHz. You will never be able to run the 6x86MX PR233, which runs at 187,5 MHz (75 MHz bus x 2.5) nor the 6x86 P200+ (75 MHz x 2). The few tests that were left showed nothing abnormal, everything ran satisfactory and at very good performance. Worth mentioning is the board design and quality, as well as the usage of dip switches for clock and voltage selection. The latest Gigabyte boards now feature voltage auto detection, what makes the manual setting absolete.
AT format; AT power supply; Intel 430TX; 4x ISA, 4x PCI; 2x SIMM, 3x DIMM; Award flash BIOS; 512 kB PB-Cache (6 ns); external frequencies: 60, 66 MHz; BF2 function integrated, I/O chip: ITE; busmaster Ultra DMA 2 or PIO 4 onboard; FDC onboard; 2x serial 16550; 1x EPP/ECP parallel; 1x PS/2 mouse; 2x USB; IrDA support; core voltages: 3.5V, 3.4V, 3.3V, 3.2V, 3.1V. 3.0V, 2.9V, 2.8V, 2.7V, 2.6V, 2.5V, 2.4V, 2.3V, 2.2V, 2.1V, 2.0V. This board meets PC 97 specifications; SDMS support ver. 3.07.
Gigabyte GA-586TX2
The TX2 board has the same features as the TX3. A bad difference is that performance of the TX3 is always better. The lacks of the 430TX chipset: 64 MB cacheable area, no ECC support. Also the lacks of Gigabyte: No more than 66 MHz. Configuration is easy thanks CPU voltage auto detection.
AT format; AT power supply; Intel 430TX; 4x ISA, 4x PCI; 4x SIMM, 2x DIMM; Award flash BIOS; 512 kB PB-Cache (6 ns); external frequencies: 60, 66 MHz; BF2 function integrated, I/O chip: Winbond; busmaster Ultra DMA 2 or PIO 4 onboard; FDC onboard; 2x serial 16550; 1x EPP/ECP parallel; 1x PS/2 mouse; 2x USB; IrDA support; core voltages: 3.5V, 3.4V, 3.3V, 3.2V, 3.1V. 3.0V, 2.9V, 2.8V, 2.7V, 2.6V, 2.5V, 2.4V, 2.3V, 2.2V, 2.1V, 2.0V. This board meets PC 97 specifications; SDMS support ver. 3.07.
