ABIT BE6 i440BX Slot-1 ATX

The Bad

One of the biggest downsides of the BE6 seems to be the stability issue. For non-overclockers, there simply is very little reason to pick a board with merely average stability. Overclockers, on the other hand, will benefit from the voltage adjustment options.

Rumors have abounded about potential incompatibilities between UDMA/33 devices and the BE6's HighPoint UDMA/66 controller, including this supposed admission by ABIT. While AnandTech was unable to confirm any such problems, the admission by ABIT indicates that users should proceed with caution.

A few hundred early BE6's slipped out with an extra resistor onboard that prevented core voltage adjustments in the BIOS from functioning. If you happen to get one of these boards, ABIT will fix it for you, but it is something to watch for. The resistor in question is R59 and is located behind the AGP slot. Our review sample did not have such a problem.

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

Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 64MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM

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

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com