Abit BH6 - An old friend.
Written: May 17 '00 (Updated May 17 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Reliable, durable, flexable
Cons: Older board, not as many options as the newer BX and VIA boards.
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| lpmiller's Full Review: Abit BH6 |
Ok, a motherboard isn't really your friend. It wont pick you up after your car up and dies, it wont fend off the evil hordes attacking your castle, it can't even cook Mac and Cheese when you have the munchies.
But without a good one, your PC is a beige paper weight.
Abit's BH6 isn't the best motherboard on the planet; it ain't even the best BX based board. It wasn't the first BX board out of the gate for Abit, that was the BX6. Other boards are slicker, with more options, more bells and whistles. Sadly, not one of 'em makes coffee. But the BH6 certainly is one of the more reliable boards out there.
The BH6 was the cheaper successor to the BX6, adding an extra PCI slot, but killing a DIMM and ISA slot in the process - good for my needs these past few years. It also, if only for a few months, was considered King of the Overclockers, with plenty of voltage tweaks and FSB settings to make a grown warranty cry. For many, the combo of a Celeron 300A and a BH6 was a unstoppable match; 450 MHz of overclocked computing power for a budget minded geek.
Ahem! You can stop looking at me now, I traded out the horned rimmed glasses and burned the pocket protector ages back!
Abit really thought out the design of the board, conserving space wherever possible. This board easily fits the ATX case standard, with plenty of room to spare. Of course, that kind of conservation is not without cost - the power connector is irritatingly located behind the processor slot, and AGP card owners will have to wiggle a bit to install ram in any of the 3 slots. 2 Fan connectors are provided, but I burned mine out a long time ago (Mental note: you can have too many cooling fans). 5 PCI slots are plenty for most folks (though the first one shares an IRQ with the second of two ISA slots, so watch those conflicts!), and the AGP slot is 2x capable. Mine more then handles a Geforce card - no power problems here, as Abit knows how to follow spec sheets. *cough - FIC - cough* 3 DIMM slots are available; not the most you can get, but good enough for Average Joe.
The board supports an ungodly amount of processors, from the lowly Pentium II 233 up to the overclocker friendly 'E" class of Pentium III's. You can run an "EB" class processor, but the board doesn't 'officially' support the 133 front side bus speed, and the AGP slot doesn't have a proper divider that high up, so I really don't recommend it. Currently, I run a Pentium III 550E at 616, using the 112 front side bus setting. Much more then that and my Geforce locks up, but if you still use a PCI based video card and your memory is PC133 compliant, there is no reason you couldn't run the same processor at 733.
Note: even if the spec sheets don't list it, as long as it is a slot 1 Intel processor, this board will run it - clock settings are set by the processor, you just need to be sure you have the available front side bus setting before you spend the bucks. End of public service announcement.
Personally, I'm saving up for a Via 133A class motherboard, and the overclocking potential of true 133 front side bus action. For the power builder, well, this board isn't what you need. But for building a back up PC, or for a family/friend build, this board is a good choice - after all, Grandma doesn't need a 1 gigahertz monster for online gaming (um, if she does, I want her on my team). Putting a reliable board into the PC of a techno illiterate is the first step in preventing you from becoming Tech Support at family gatherings.
Of course, if they believe the CD tray is a cup holder, I recommend a cardboard box and some magic markers for THAT particular build.
Well heck. Right here, in this very spot, was a kind hearted Rant(hey, all my rants are kind hearted...ahem)concerning the lack of Soyo motherboard representation. I get home - boom, an email by Brian White, the Games CM here at EP, who said "Bubba, I'm a'working on it!" Ok, he used other words, but you get the point. Apparently it is an expanding section, and I'm both impressed by the effort of Brian to make the motherboard section comprehensive, and by his asking lil' ole me for my opinion...blush. Look forward, fellow geeks, to a larger selection for both review, and to help the buying decision. Kinda cool, if'n you're asking.
Abit's BH6 opened up a whole new world in overclocking, helped spur on the explosion of overclocking websites, and made it cool to be a geek. Um, ok, maybe not cool, but more socially acceptable. This is a board with historical significance to a world quickly outpaced by Moore's Law, has proven reliability in it's 2 years on the market, and is made by a company that loves the overclocker with obvious passion. If you have a simple build coming up that doesn't need to be the end all to beat all, this board should be at the top of list of choices.
Recommended:
Yes
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lpmiller
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Location: Plymouth, MN
Reviews written: 100
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