Close, but no cigar
Written: Jan 31 '01 (Updated Jan 31 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Dual Slot 1; proven 440BX chipset; ISA legacy support
Cons: 100MHz FSB; UDMA/33
The Bottom Line: An average product, for a good price. But if you want to keep your frustration level down, look elsewhere.
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| palindrome's Full Review: Tekram P6B40D-A5 |
Being the computer fanatic that I am, I've always wanted to have the power of a dual processor system available at my beck and call, but until the advent of the Pentium II, that was a costly proposition. Even then, it wasn't until not too long ago that the motherboards that would support dual processors dropped in price to become a reality for use in a home PC. Well, having finally started working, I finally found myself with the funds to go about putting together a new PC, and of course, I just _had_ to have that dual processor system I'd always wanted.
Well, after some research and web surfing, I came across this little number from Tekram. I hadn't heard much about the company, but they were offering what was the cheapest dual processor motherboard at the time. Around $145 or so. It had all the features I needed, including a legacy ISA slot that I wanted for an old SCSI card of mine. It was ordered, and when all the parts I needed were in hand, I set about setting up the system.
Talk about frustration. First, the video card would not be detected. Then the SCSI card wouldn't work. And last, but not least, then sound card was flaky. I know it wasn't the peripherals, because each one worked individually in the PC, or in pairs. But as soon as all three were in the PC, all hell broke loose. After much tweaking, hair pulling, and general griping, I discovered that it was becuase I was trying to use one of the ISA slots. Now, what is the point of having ISA slots if they aren't going to work? With the purchase of a new PCI SCSI card, things were good, and all were happy.
Then, after a while, I felt the itch to upgrade again, and decided to up my processors to get that little extra bit of speed. So off for more research, and soon I had gone from dual PII 450s to dual PIII 800s. Suffice it to say, immediately after installing the new processors, I began to experience stability problems. After much more frustration, and many attepts at tweaking, I concluded that it must be the processors. Sure enough, Tekram claims that the board supports these processors, but not in my experience - it's not the processors, becuase they are now living happily in a new Tyan motherboard.
Of course, not everything about the experience was bad. The board offered great performance at a cost not much higher than comparable motherboards, and it can be run in either a single or dual processor configuration. It was a dream when it came to doing multiple tasks. Rendering or ripping mp3s in the background while surfing the web saw hardly any performance drops. Overall, the board, when working, works well, but beware - it takes much time and tweaking to get working properly.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 145
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Epinions.com ID:
palindrome
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Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 0 members
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