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ABIT BX6 Rev 2.0 and PC133SDRAM - WARNING!!!

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  • #1

    ABIT BX6 Rev 2.0 and PC133SDRAM - WARNING!!!

    Well, I hate to tell you all this, but.... here goes.

    I'd set my hopes to bring my system up to 600Mhz - I could run @ 600 - but not very stable with my older 64MB PC100 6ns SDRAMS. So I ordered some HSDRAM from Mushkin (made by the folks @ pc133memory.com - thanks Erich!)..

    I received the memory and proceeded to install it in good order. Booted up and switched the system to 133FSB... Rebooted and - Nothing! Nada! Zilch! Zippo! Laim! Dead! Bang it's done.

    I did some searching and hollering - sent e-mails to the manufacturer and the reseller - and here's what I found out...

    The ABIT BX6 Rev 2 has a problem with it's buffer chips when attempting to use memory at or above 133Mhz.... The problem has been addressed in the ABIT BE6 - but not the BX6 Rev 2.

    So - back goes the memory, and back comes the money, and down goes my joyfull afternoon!!

    To put it in those most famous of words...

    This Sucks!!! - he-he - change it! He-he!

    ----
    One seriously depressed O'Cer - was wishing for a nice speedy home for my G400Max - if it ever get's here....

    ------------------
    Running an ABIT BX6 R2, PIII-450 @ 581Mhz, 128MB (64x2) PC100SDRAM (running @ 129), Matrox Mystique G200 8MB, SBLive! Value, Adaptec AHA-2940UW (Dual Channel)
    All kinds of other SCSI and ATAPI goodies....
    -------------
    Waiting for my G400Max Impatiently, increasing system performance to give it a good home.....
    Gaming Rig.

    - Gigabyte GA-7N400-Pro
    - AMD Athlon 3200+ XP
    - 1.5GB Dual Channel DDR 433Mhz SDRAM
    - 6.1 Digital Audio
    - Gigabit Lan (Linksys 1032)
    - 4 x 120GB SATA Drives, RAID 0+1 (Striped/Mirrored)
    - Sony DRU-500A DVD/+/-/R/RW
    - Creative 8x DVD-ROM
    - LS120 IDE Floppy
    - Zip 100 IDE
    - PNY Ultra 5900 (256MB)
    - NEC FE950
    - DTT2500 Cambridge Soundworks
    Tags: None
  • #2
    That's why you need an ASUS motherboard. I am picking up an ASUS P3B-F tomorrow. Slot 1, 4 DIMMs (1 GB max mem), 6 PCI with or without an ISA slot, AND JUMPERLESS!!!!!. They just barely hit the shelves here in the USA and I got one. I am such a nut.

    Jammrock

    ------------------
    PIII 504 (112 MHz x 4.5 - 504), 256 MB PC133 SDRAM, 18 GB WD Expert HDD, Encore 6x DVD w/ Dxr3 decoder, (TEMPORARY!!!) Voodoo 3 2000 @ 175 MHz which will be replaced by a Matrox G400 MAX, Sound Blaster Live! full retail, MAG DX715T 17". A nice little toy don't ya think?

    “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
    –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

    Comment

    • #3
      In the words of Obe Wan -
      NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      (I have an abit bx6r2.2 - is it fixed in this one?)

      ------------------
      Yeah, you know the score...
      (ICQ: 29468849)

      Comment

      • #4
        I've got e-mails into ABIT and the Vendor that I bought the mobo from trying to get an answer. When I know - you'll all know...

        I've done some additional reading - and it appears that it's the Intel design recommendation of using the 6 buffer chips that is slowing down / screwing up the access times for the HSDRAM @ 133 or higher. It does not run stable @ 129. The fastest the reviewer site could get was 124... Guess I'm staying with my older PC100 mem for now!!!


        ----

        This sucks - Hhe-Hhe - Change it!!


        ------------------
        Running an ABIT BX6 R2, PIII-450 @ 581Mhz, 128MB (64x2) PC100SDRAM (running @ 129), Matrox Mystique G200 8MB, SBLive! Value, Adaptec AHA-2940UW (Dual Channel)
        All kinds of other SCSI and ATAPI goodies....
        -------------
        Waiting for my G400Max Impatiently, increasing system performance to give it a good home.....

        [This message has been edited by Guyver (edited 07-16-99).]
        Gaming Rig.

        - Gigabyte GA-7N400-Pro
        - AMD Athlon 3200+ XP
        - 1.5GB Dual Channel DDR 433Mhz SDRAM
        - 6.1 Digital Audio
        - Gigabit Lan (Linksys 1032)
        - 4 x 120GB SATA Drives, RAID 0+1 (Striped/Mirrored)
        - Sony DRU-500A DVD/+/-/R/RW
        - Creative 8x DVD-ROM
        - LS120 IDE Floppy
        - Zip 100 IDE
        - PNY Ultra 5900 (256MB)
        - NEC FE950
        - DTT2500 Cambridge Soundworks

        Comment

        • #5
          I've emailed Abit too.... This does suck!

          ------------------
          Yeah, you know the score...
          (ICQ: 29468849)

          Comment

          • #6
            HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... That's what you get for sacrificing compatability and stability for a few overclocking options. ASUS FOREVER!!!!!

            Jammrock

            ------------------
            PIII 504 (112 MHz x 4.5 - 504), 256 MB PC133 SDRAM, 18 GB WD Expert HDD, Encore 6x DVD w/ Dxr3 decoder, (TEMPORARY!!!) Voodoo 3 2000 @ 175 MHz which will be replaced by a Matrox G400 MAX, Sound Blaster Live! full retail, MAG DX715T 17". A nice little toy don't ya think?

            “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
            –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

            Comment

            • #7
              Well, I guess we'll see if the BE6 is compatible or not.

              I contacted the vendor I purchased my BX6 from and they are exchanging it for a BE6 - they are advance shipping the BE6 .

              The ABIT boards have had the "JumperLess" (it's called "SoftMenu II") design for quite some time (BH6, BX6, BX6R2, BE6 to name a few) - and you don't even have to set dip switches to enable it! - But I don't want to get into an argument over which A is better ASUS - ABIT - each has it's own options/pros/cons. I like the ABIT as it's been rock solid at normal ( 129Mhz ) operations and under voltage (1.9V with a PIII-450).

              The ASUS P3B-F appears to be a nice board - 6PCI slots, 1 ISA (shared), Jumperless - but not dip-switchless (same thing different package), and several other key features that make it a board worth looking at.

              The ABIT BE6 has 5 PCI slots, 2 isa (1 shared), 4 IDE connectors (2 UDMA66, 2 UDMA33) - That's a lot of drives . It has been tested by the memory manufacturer @ 150FSB and is reportedly rock solid with sufficient cooling - Yeah Baby! Now if only my PCI Bus can handle 37Mhz... and AGP @ 100Mhz

              Anyway - regardless of who's is better, I don't feel there is a clear leader in either vendors lineup. Each person has to choose what they feel is important - stability, features, price, performance, overclockability, ease of use, etc.... I personally like ABIT - I've not had any experience with ASUS. If I'd started with ASUS, I probably would like them....

              So anyway - 'nuff with the long winded stuff. Peace Bros!!

              ------------------
              Running an ABIT BX6 R2, PIII-450 @ 581Mhz, 128MB (64x2) PC100SDRAM (running @ 129), Matrox Mystique G200 8MB, SBLive! Value, Adaptec AHA-2940UW (Dual Channel)
              All kinds of other SCSI and ATAPI goodies....
              -------------
              Waiting for my G400Max Impatiently, increasing system performance to give it a good home.....
              Gaming Rig.

              - Gigabyte GA-7N400-Pro
              - AMD Athlon 3200+ XP
              - 1.5GB Dual Channel DDR 433Mhz SDRAM
              - 6.1 Digital Audio
              - Gigabit Lan (Linksys 1032)
              - 4 x 120GB SATA Drives, RAID 0+1 (Striped/Mirrored)
              - Sony DRU-500A DVD/+/-/R/RW
              - Creative 8x DVD-ROM
              - LS120 IDE Floppy
              - Zip 100 IDE
              - PNY Ultra 5900 (256MB)
              - NEC FE950
              - DTT2500 Cambridge Soundworks

              Comment

              • #8
                Asus forever! Here here!

                -neo

                ------------------
                Asus P2B-F, 532MHZ Pentium II (4x133 at 2.4v), Global Win VEK12 hs/fan, 128MB Micron PC133, Maxtor 4GB, SB AWE 32, Creative DVD 2x, Mitsumi CDR 2x/8x, Sony Trinitron 17", Old Matrox Video Card, and a redhead with a pair of 36Cs (O/Ced to 38Cs)






                Comment

                • #9
                  Why in the world would anyone buy any motherboard other than than the ABit BH6?
                  Cheap, Fast, and Stable.
                  chuck

                  (erstwile cjolley)
                  celery 333@500mz 64megs@cas2 bh6 (of course)

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    The new Asus board looks very good, but it doesn't have Ultra ATA/66. I'll be getting a Abit BE6 as my IBM 22GB HDD supports ATA/66.

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      chuck,
                      I get ASUS motherboards for the same price as Abit motherboards so I buy for performance and stability.

                      I got in my P3B-F last Friday and plugged it in. The motherboard defaults to jumperless so you don't actually have set up anything. The only trouble I am having with it involves Win98 SE and rebooting. For some reason Win98 SE has a problem with softoff. It won't auto shutdown on some computers, which is quite annoying when you your computer is inside a cabinet. Otherwise it is a solid board. I have had this problem with both ASUS and Abit boards so it has to be a Microsoft problem .

                      Jammrock

                      ------------------
                      PIII 540 (120 MHz x 4.5 - 540), 256 MB PC133 SDRAM, ASUS P3B-F, Winblows 98 SuckyEdition, 18 GB WD Expert HDD, Encore 6x DVD w/ Dxr3 decoder, (TEMPORARY!!!) Voodoo 3 2000 @ 175 MHz which will be replaced by a Matrox G400 MAX, Sound Blaster Live! full retail, MAG DX715T 17
                      “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
                      –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        With the UATA/66 you will see very little if any real world performance increase over UATA/33. The maximum sustained data transfer rates on many drives rarely get above 20MB/s, so you are only making the pipe bigger without increasing the volume of water flowing through it.

                        -neo

                        BTW, I've heard that Abit boards aren't the most stable creatures.

                        ------------------
                        Asus P2B-F, 532MHZ Pentium II (4x133 at 2.4v), Global Win VEK12 hs/fan, 128MB Micron PC133, Maxtor 4GB, SB AWE 32, Creative DVD 2x, Mitsumi CDR 2x/8x, Sony Trinitron 17", Old Matrox Video Card, and a redhead with a pair of 36Cs (O/Ced to 38Cs)






                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Chris H,
                          Good answer!
                          I asked for a reason and I got a very good one.
                          I have a 10 gig 7200rpm IBM drive that I think a lot of. Let us know how the UDMA/66 thing goes.
                          chuck

                          (erstwile cjolley)

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Jammrock, neo
                            Perhaps I am just lucky. I have never had any problem with my bh6. Of course, I never had any problem with my G200 in my old 503+ (ss7) eather so maybe I'm just living right.
                            btw I too have a V3-2000 pci I bought for my newphew that I am using until I get my G400 MAX.
                            chuck

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              I've not had one problem with shutting down or rebooting since I bought my BX6. I'm hoping for the same with my BE6. I think I'm even going to keep the BX6 and when I'm tired of playing around with OC'ing I'm gonna switch back to that one for stability and performance... (With my PIII-450 in it I'm hitting over 9100 (not every time, but most of the time) with the 3DMark 99 Max benchmark....) Not too shabby... And as far as stability goes - no problems whatsoever until I tried for 133 which isn't even a standard yet, so I'm not concerned, especially if the BE6 will take me there. Also the BE6 has both UDMA1 and UDMA2 connectors on board so you can place your old HD's, CDROM's, ZIP, etc.. on the UDMA1 controller and your high speed HD's on the UDMA2 controller without worrying about the UDMA1 HD slowing down the UDMA2 drive.... - If I remember correctly, the ATAPI/IDE interface is limited in speed to the slowest device on it... I was hoping that that wasn't the case, but in testing I did several years back - it appeared to be the case. Hopefully they will fix this.

                              ------------------
                              Running an ABIT BX6 R2, PIII-450 @ 581Mhz, 128MB (64x2) PC100SDRAM (running @ 129), Matrox Mystique G200 8MB, SBLive! Value, Adaptec AHA-2940UW (Dual Channel)
                              All kinds of other SCSI and ATAPI goodies....
                              -------------
                              Waiting for my G400Max Impatiently, increasing system performance to give it a good home.....
                              Gaming Rig.

                              - Gigabyte GA-7N400-Pro
                              - AMD Athlon 3200+ XP
                              - 1.5GB Dual Channel DDR 433Mhz SDRAM
                              - 6.1 Digital Audio
                              - Gigabit Lan (Linksys 1032)
                              - 4 x 120GB SATA Drives, RAID 0+1 (Striped/Mirrored)
                              - Sony DRU-500A DVD/+/-/R/RW
                              - Creative 8x DVD-ROM
                              - LS120 IDE Floppy
                              - Zip 100 IDE
                              - PNY Ultra 5900 (256MB)
                              - NEC FE950
                              - DTT2500 Cambridge Soundworks

                              Comment

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