The Intel BX Motherboard
I must admit that it is very strange to see this board, The layout is completely alien compared to other
motherboards. Why? well, its just simply how it looks, there seem to be PCI slots missing
(which afcourse isn't the fact). The board has 3 free PCi slots and one ISA slot
available. That seems a little steep, but for the majority of the users thats plenty. Why
are there so little did you say ? Well, the integrated soundcard takes up one PCI slot and
the TNT takes up one AGP slot, so when you add it all together then theoreticly you'd have
6 slots.
Furthermore its just like a plain
Slot-1 BX mobo, Its features include support for up to 768MB SDRAM and has three DIMM
slots. There is also support for the latest processors like the Pentium III, and has
selectable FSB speeds using DIP switches. The Front Side Bus speeds supported by the board
are the standard 66, 75, 83, 100, 112, 133MHz which seriously covers all the needs.
The board is very easy to install
and very easy to use thanks to the Award bios. One minor glitch though, i would have like
seeing another AGP slot and the option to Disable internal integrated AGP with a jumper).
Since a motherboard usually lasts 1 to 2 years and since 3D graphics card last about 6
months to a year it would be nice to see the option to install a newer AGP Videocard when
needed.
Copyright 1999 - All rights reserved Hilbert Hagedoorn |