BH6 vs P2B/P3B
Written: Jul 13 '02 (Updated Jul 18 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Soft Jumpers/Switches
Cons: Unable to overclock, does not shut down properly
The Bottom Line: Although Abit is well known for stable and overclockable motherboards, the BH6 is not one of them. (Corrected - please read update)
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| nad_masters's Full Review: Abit BH6 |
When you go pick up a motherboard, what goes on in your mind? Price? Reliability? Features? The ability to overclock?
Back in the day of PC100 PCs, where Intel's Pentium IIs ran under most hoods, it was well known that the Intel BX chipset was the one to get. It had the most complete feature set (at the time), was proven to be the best performer (actually, for the longest time, there was no competition), and it was stable... even overclocked. Of course, that's the chipset. As with all chipsets (and even GPUs), it is up to the manufacturer of the final product that will make or break the... well... actual final product, no matter what technology or chip it was based on.
Case in point? The BH6. While during this era of PC100 boards, the Asus P2B motherboard was hearld as the best to get, as it was rock solid, even overclocked, as well as full featured. The Abit BH6 was definately trying to compete for the P2B's market share.
The features are very similar, since they were based on the same chipset. The P2B, however, was benchmarked by many magazines (electronic and paper) to be faster, and better suited for overclocking. The BH6 was the next best thing.
The Soft Jumpers/Switches was a relatively new thing during this era, and Abit jumped (no pun intended) on it. The BH6 included this feature. Instead of relying on physical jumpers and switches to set the FSB and clock multiplier, the BH6 allows the user to do so in it's BIOS. If you happen to overclock the CPU to the point where it will not even POST, you will have to jump a "reset" jumper to clear the settings (and everything goes back to default).
Unfortunately, default settings are for a Pentium II 233 witha 66 MHz FSB. Autodetection works for the most part, but sometimes the BH6 can really mess this up and go with the defaults.
If you purchased this board to overclock, you will be disapointed. The FSB jumps too high from 100 MHz, and will get unstable at 112 MHz. Also, the BIOS keeps complaining (and will reset to defaut on next boot-up) if your FSB or multiplier deviates any way from the offical settings for a particular CPU. So much for overclocking.
The other problem with this motherboard I have encountered in its many years of use is that it shut downs improperly. Perhaps due to power management, but Windows 95 and up (including the newest OSes like XP) that are suppose to be able to shut down the PC via the Start menu simply either hangs on "Waiting to Shutdown" or "Your PC is ready to Shutdown" screen.
Also, if you try to turn off the power by pushing the power button, get ready to be disapointed. Pushing and releasing like normal won't do the trick. You must hold it in for 4 seconds for it to shut off. No matter what the setting is in the BIOS, this cannot be corrected. Also, once you hold the button and the machine shuts off, if you release it, the PC comes RIGHT BACK ON. Unacceptable! There are many times in which I had to switch the PC off from the back (thanks to the ATX power supply).
Periodically, the machine won't boot/POST. I've tried pin-pointing the problem by having bare minimum peripherials installed (video card only, and even tried different ones), different RAM, etc, but to no avail. Perhaps I have a lemon?
In either case, I was completely spoiled by the Asus P2B-LS I have in my other PC case, that this motherboard was chucked into my brother's PC.
Performance was on par with the P2B for the most part when it is up and running. We are currently running a P-II 450 MHz CPU, with 256 MB of PC133 RAM, a GeForce 2 MX400 32 MB, and a Crystal chipset-based PCI sound card. Cheap, but it definately works with modern games such as WarCraft 3 and Unreal.
I definately do not recomend the BH6, as for the same price, you can always pick up a P2B or even its sucessor, the P3B from Asus.
Of course, the point is moot, since you will probably be looking for a board designed for use in a Athlon or P4 enviroment this era. :)
Update July 18, 2002:
I am such a dork! After following nc10's advice (disable the Speed Error Hold in the BIOS), the BIOS does not complain of the overclocked speed. It is definately running at 112 MHz FSB, which is giving my PII-450 a final rating of a PII-504.
After testing it with several 3D-intensive games (WC3, Quake 3, and even 3DMark), it is still rock solid, but runs a bit hotter.
I cannnot believe I was running at the "stock" 100 MHz FSB for all these years until now. :) Special thanks to nc10.
However, I am still having problems with shutting down, where the motherboard will not shut off after using ther "Show Down" command in the Start Menu of Windows 2000. The same where if you push the power button, nothing happens. You must hold it in for about 4 seconds for it to shut off, but then once you release the button, the machine powers back on. It is necessary to shut it off using the power swich in the back were the power supply is at. THIS IS NOT IN THE BIOS (as far as I know, unless nc10 proves me wrong yet again. :) )
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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