21 Slot-1 Motherboards using VIA Chipsets

TMC TI6VG4

Board Revision: 1.20

BIOS Version: 1202B3 (December 2, 1999)

The TMC motherboard makes use of the 694X chipset as well as the 686A South Bridge. That's the reason for the long list of features: Five PCI slots, one ISA slot, AGP 4x, AMR slot, three DIMM sockets (max. 1.5 GByte SDRAM) with ECC support, two serial ports, one parallel, AC97 sound, UltraDMA/66 controller, IR port, 2+2 USB ports and the wake up stuff. Beginners will be happy about the detailed manual. It's just missing some installation instructions.

As the board supports bus speeds up to 150 MHz, it's quite suited for all who want to overclock their CPU. Only two jumpers have to be set to define the FSB speed. All other settings (overclocked bus speeds and multiplier setting) can be done in the CPU Speed Setting Section of the Award BIOS. The only missing item is the option to alter the CPU voltage.

DRAM Clock can also be altered within Chipset Features Setup: You may raise or lower the memory clock speed by 33 MHz each. Thus you will be able to use older PC100 SDRAM while running a CPU at 133 MHz or vice versa. TMC did very well when they designed this motherboard. Besides the CPU fan header, there are two additional ones to ensure proper system cooling. Connectors have been placed quite smartly, so that no cable will cross heat-sensitive components. Last but not least, all expansion slots can be easily equipped with full size cards.

This board's performance matched my expectations. It was fast, stable and very easy to test. That's what we want to see!