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Chaintech 6BTM
by Lester Sim (10/8/98)

Recently I went shopping for a BX motherboard and was pleasantly surprised with Chaintech's 6BTM. The first thing that struck me(and probably you too) was the price. It costs about least fifty dollars less than most of the competition. I am usually not in favour of purchasing something that is unusually priced as this, but having read a review in Tom's Hardware site which gave this board a pretty good rating gave me a sense of reassurance. Anyway, the extra fifty could be invested in another 32 megabytes of SDRAM.

First, the box. It's a colourful box with the brand name Chaintech and it's logo printed on all sides together with a catchy phrase - "We don't imitate, we innovate!". Well, let's see what this borad can surprise us with. In the box, the usual user's manual, ribbon cabling, a CD-ROM and the motherboard in it's anti static wrap. The motherboard looks well made, with all connectors are placed neatly. Immediately, I notice 3 things. It has 4 DIMM slots opposed to the many others that come with 3. Also the slot 1 for the CPU already has the retention bracket built around it, which can be folded down for packaging purposes. Next to the slot 1 is a tiny flexible fin, which after conferring with the manual turns out to be the CPU temperature sensor. Very thoughtful, as this ensures that the CPU will be in physical contact with the sensor once inserted, assuring an accurate reading.

I plug my Celeron 266 into the CPU slot which it fits into snugly. The retention bracket does not really hold onto the CPU cartridge as it is made for Pentium IIs but ensures that the Celeron won't be rocked forward or backwards unduly. Under normal usage, the CPU should not fall out. Within half an hour, I manage to setup the board up into a new ATX casing together with my video and sound cards. The placement of the connectors on the motherboard is quite good ensuring there is minimal cluttering of cables over the motherboard.

The moment of truth comes as I power up the system. It beeps and the POST screen comes on, announcing that I have a Celeron CPU running at 266 Mhz. Entering the Award BIOS setup, there is an addional menu item which Chaintech calls SeePU features. This is a software configuration for the CPU clock multiplier and the FSB speed. The CPU core voltage is automatically deteced and cannot be changed which I suspect will limit the success of extreme overclocking somewhat. The version of the BIOS software that comes with the board orginally does not allow for overclocking, automatically detecting my FSB speed to be 66Mhz. No amount of coaxing would allow the system to go beyond 83 Mhz with the Celeron. However, a special overclocker's BIOS update is available from Chaintech's homepage which allows you to manually select the clock multiplier and the FSB speed. After updating the BIOS with the latest version which allows for settings at 66/75/83/100/103/112/133Mhz with multipliers up to 5.5x, I deceided to start experimenting. The Celeron 266 is locked at a 4x multiplier, so choosing a 100Mhz FSB would put my Celeron at 400Mhz. No problems at that speed, the system ran smoothly without any hitches or crashes whatsoever. I slowly increased the FSB speed to 103Mhz, then to 112Mhz at which the system refused to boot into Windows. I have confirmed that my Celeron CPU is capable of booting up at 448Mhz on a similarly configured ABIT BX6 / ABIT BH6 system, so that means that the limiting factor here is probably the motherboard and not the CPU.

The limit of the motherboard's overclocking ability is easily outweighed by the motherboard's many features. For one, the motherboard comes with a built in bootsector antivirus software in the BIOS which Chaintech calls "ChipAwayVirus", together with the award winning PC-Cillin v3.0 (OEM version) antivirus program for a total antivirus protection solution. The motherboard is ACPI ready for use when a ACPI-enabled operating system is available, supports audio SB-Link interface and WOL (Wake on LAN) network cards.

In conclusion, the Chaintech motherboard is more of a all rounder rather than excelling in any particular area. Motherboard comparison tests show it's performance to be very much in the middle of the pack. However, it's plentiful features and low price should appeal to those looking for a BX solution on a tight budget.

System Specifications:
OS: Windows 98
CPU: Intel Celeron 266Mhz (SL2QG)
Memory: Hyuandai 64Mb PC100 SDRAM
IDE: IBM Deskstar 4.3Gb
Video Card: S3 Virge DX 4Mb with Creative Blaster 3D Voodoo2 8Mb
Sound Card: Aureal 3D 128 PCI Sound Card

Motherboard Specifications:
Processor
Supports up to 450Mhz Intel Pentium II processors
Slot 1 CPU socket with retention mechanism
Supports 66/100MHz system clock speeds
Innovative SeePU technology (simple CPU installation via BIOS)

ChipSet
Intel 82440BX two chip PCIset

Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)

DRAM Memory
Four 168-pin 3.3V unbuffered DIMM sockets
support up to 512Mb EDO (66MHz only) and
Synchronous DRAM
Provides single bit ECC capability

Boot-block Flash BIOS
Award System BIOS supports PnP, APM, DMI,
CPU throttling and Multi-device booting features
Includes Trend ChipAwayVirus

Two Ultra DMA-33 IDE Ports
Supports up to PIO Mode 4, Multiword DMA
Mode 2 and Ultra DMA-33 timings
Bus Mastering software drivers for all well-known multi-task operating systems

On Board Ultra I/O
2S(16550A compliant) + 1P(SPP/ECP/EPP) + 1FD(up to 2.88MB, 3 Mode and 1Mbps transfer rate)
Supports IrDA IR function

Two USB ports On Board

FCC Class B & CE EMI Regulation Compliant

Advanced Management Capabilities
Supports 68/75/83/103/112 MHz system frequencies for over-clocking possibility
LDCM compliant system monitoring hardware
Supports Software power off control, Override power button, Power-on by keyboard, Power-on
by modem ring, Power-on by alarm, Power failure recovery, Blinking LED in suspend
Poly-fuse overcurrent protection for USB and keyboard.
Industrywide first mainboard to combine Trend ChipAwayVirus, PC-Cillin, and Flash BIOS
protection for a 100% virus-free system boot-up
ACPI features ready when ACPI-enabled operating system is available
Supports audio SB-Link interface and WOL (Wake on LAN) network cards
All hardware designs meet PC98 requirements

Wintune 98 Results

Quake II OpenGL Tests