SOYO 6BA+100 Motherboard

Before we go into detail on the board, lets recall back what really were the limitations of the BX chipset. First and foremost the BX chipset is rated at only 100MHz. Considering the fact that most CPU’s today are rated way above this, the board officially does not have support for FSB’s above the 100MHz mark. Nevertheless, BX boards known for their incredible stability have no problems in going well beyond this mark in most cases. We tested the 6BA+100 at over 150Mhz FSB and the board still remained stable, with no hitches at all. This is no real amazement really, as I said BX boards are renowned for their superb stability.

The only problem some of you might face with this board is the /2 divider. This is not a drawback, which is specific for the 6BA+100, rather it’s a Plague that engulfs all BX boards. Due to the lack of the /2 divider, at 133MHz FSB the AGP Bus works at 89MHz. The normal AGP frequency is 66MHz and a 23MHz increase can bring in a whole new world of troubles. However if you’re using a Graphics card based on the GeForce chipset, then it’s unlikely that you’ll face any trouble from this. We even ran the AGP bus at 100MHz without any trouble at all. Make note of one fact though, at these high FSB’s if you have any ISA devices it’s very unlikely that your system will boot. Even the SB! Live value edition will not work at this high rate. If you plan on having some overclocking fun with this lovely board, remember to get rid of that old junk. (sorry folks, but we have to face facts here :))

We recently reviewed a Micro-ATX board from ECS based on the VIA chipset. This board includes AGP 4X support due to the VIA chipset. Now BX boards can go up only to 2X AGP. I have played many games in both these systems, and personally I really don’t feel any difference between them. AGP 4X claims double the speed of 2X, yet most applications today don’t require this amount of high processing. Once the GeForce 3 cards are finally released and given that it’s made affordable to ordinary folk like most of us, yeah in that case you’re bound to see some spectacular results. But hey, are you going to spend over $600 just to get all that performance. Guess not…therefore at least for now you’re sure not to see much delight with 4X AGP.

When considering performance and stability in my opinion th BX boards are still one of the best. So until some chip manufacture introduces a good successor to this old king, you won’t see me switching over to any other board at any cost.