ABIT BM6 BX Socket-370

The Bad

As a reader of AnandTech pointed out (thanks Andrew), the BM6, in spite of the specifications listed on ABIT's website and in ABIT's manual, is missing a second surface mounted thermistor for measuring ambient case temperature.  Depending on the type of user you are, its absence may or may not be of any value to you, but do note that it was absent from the sample AnandTech tested.

The only other down-side to the BM6 isn't a fault of the motherboard, rather the processor, as the Socket-370 Celeron, at the time of AnandTech's review of the BM6, is still positioned at a higher price point than the Slot-1 version.  With the price of the BM6 still being a tad bit higher than that of ABIT's older Slot-1, BH6, the overall cost of a Socket-370 system will still cost more than a Slot-1 system, defeating the entire purpose for Socket-370.  In the future, when the production of Socket-370 processors increases, things may change, however for now, there is no point in even considering a Socket-370 based system.  If you do happen to stroll down the path of the PPGA Socket-370 Celeron, then the BM6 does make for one fine choice in a motherboard though.

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.mushkin.com

The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

How I Tested

• Each benchmark was run a minimum of 2 times and a maximum of 5 times, if the motherboard failed to complete a single test within the 5 allocated test runs the OS/Software was re-installed on a freshly formatted Hard Drive and the BIOS settings were adjusted to prevent the test from failing again.  All such encounters were noted at the exact time of their occurrence.

• Business Winstone 98 & 3D Winbench 98 was run at each individually tested clock speed, if reliable scores were achieved with the first two test runs of the suite an average of the two was taken and recorded as the final score at that clock speed.  If the test system displayed erratic behavior while the tests were running or the results were incredibly low/high the tests were re-run up to 5 times and an average of all the test runs was taken and recorded at the final score at that clock speed

• All video tests were conducted using an AGP video accelerator

• No foreign drivers were present in the test system other than those required for the system to function to the best of its ability

• All foreign installation files were moved to a separate partition during the test as to prevent them from effecting the test results

• All tests were conducted at 1024 x 768 x 16-bit color

• Quake 2 tests were conducted at 800 x 600 x 16-bit color in Software Rendering Mode