Motherboard Specifications

The Good

Impressed by Chaintech's new TX motherboard design?  However are you finding that the AT layout of the 5TDM2 is just too cramped for you?  In that case the 5TTL is what you need, provided you don't have any old 72-pin SIMMs laying around.  The 5TTL features the standard 4 PCI / 4 ISA slots configuration laid out spaciously on the ATX form factor of the motherboard.  As mentioned earlier, this entry by Chaintech provides the user with a full 3 DIMM slots for memory expansion, and nothing else.  The motherboard complies fully to the ATX specification, placing the Socket-7 IC (Integrated Circuit) directly in the path of the ATX PS Fan.

The 5TTL's Socket-7 IC differs from that of many other motherboards in that the center of the physical socket is home to a thermal sensor, therefore enabling the 5TTL's System Monitoring and Alert features for the CPU installed.   The easy to configure AWARD PnP BIOS Setup of the 5TTL allows the user to monitor the CPU's current temperature as well as set a warning alarm if the temperature exceeds a user defined limit.  The BIOS Setup is also home to Chaintech's patented SeePU^TM technology which is a Jumperless CPU Configuration Utility much like ABIT's SoftMenu^TM setup.  From the Chipset Features setup in the AWARD PnP BIOS utility the user is allowed to select from a list of pre-defined CPU settings in order to expedite the installation/configuration process.  However the user also has the option of enabling the User's Favorite setting in the SeePU^TM setup which allows you to manually select the bus speed, clock multiplier, and core voltage settings for your configuration.  The Bus speeds available range from 50 - 83.3MHz including the turbo frequency of the 66MHz bus speed (68MHz) and the clock multipliers the user has to choose from cover the standard 1.5x - 3.5x. 

Like the other two new Chaintech TX motherboards, the 5TTL allows you to switch among two different CPU settings on-the-fly!  If the user enters in the following keystroke combination while the computer is running: [CTRL][ALT][-] the motherboard will automatically put the CPU into a de-turbo mode, which is incredibly useful especially when running those old 286/386 programs on your new high speed Socket-7 system.  By striking [CTRL][ALT][+] the motherboard is placed back into the turbo mode so you can return to your computer to its normal operation state.  

Chaintech's manual is of course a first class manual, with its only major competitor being ABIT, naturally.  The strongpoint of Chaintech's manual happens to be its excellent description of the possible BIOS settings of the 5TTL, the individual descriptions are aided greatly by accurate screen shots of the AWARD BIOS interface.  Since the motherboard is jumperless, and since the manual is a very well written document, initially setting up and using the 5TTL should be a breeze even for a first time system builder.  

Like the 5TDM2, the stability of the 5TTL is excellent at most clock speed settings, with the exception of the 290.5MHz setting for the Pentium MMX, and the 250MHz+ settings for the AMD K6 due to a lack of high quality Sanyo capacitors mostly, and also encouraged by the limited core voltage settings in the SeePU Setup Utility.  Performance wise the 5TTL is just about on par with the 5TDM2 with the performance difference being about 0.1 - 0.3 Winstone points in all tests, a margin just about the size of a standard Winstone margin of error.  As far as the end user is concerned, the 5TTL is just as fast as the 5TDM2.

The Bad

Unfortunately the 5TTL is plagued by the same problems mentioned in the 5TDM2 review:

As mentioned earlier, the SeePU^TM Jumperless CPU Configuration utility only allows you to select from a limited amount of core voltage settings for your CPU.  This makes overclocking on the 5TTL a bit of a chore if you plan on increasing the clock speed beyond 25%, and in some cases even beyond 10%!   For example, with the Pentium MMX you are limited to at MOST a 2.9v core setting, which unfortunately doesn't cut it at 290.5MHz (83.3 x 3.5) although it is perfectly ok at 262.5MHz. 

Again, like the 5TDM2, the long term reliability of this motherboard is questionable due to the lack of high quality Sanyo-tantalum capacitors, and as most people would agree, those high quality capacitors are almost a requirement for operation out of spec, in other words "serious-overclocking."

• Auto-detects PnP Cards after HDD Detection

BIOS Settings

Recommended SDRAM

This little addition to my review layout was put in here just so you all can have an idea of what brand of SDRAM I recommend and have tested with the board, just to avoid problems in the future if you decide to purchase the board.

Recommended SDRAM: Advanced Megatrends SDRAM; Corsair SDRAM; SmarTech SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 2 x 32MB Advanced Megatrends SDRAM DIMMs; 2 x 32MB SmarTech SDRAM DIMMs; 2 x 32MB Corsair SDRAM DIMMs

Manufacturer: Advanced Megatrends
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.megacom.com

Manufacturer: Corsair Microsystems
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.nf-ny.com/nfny/comp.html

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 97 / Business Graphics Winmark 97 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

• Business Winstone 98 / Business Graphics Winmark 98 was run on the Pentium MMX at 233MHz, and the AMD K6 at 233MHz, the averaging rules for these tests are the same as those used for the 97 test suites. 

• After each motherboard was tested a complete format of the test hard drive was initiated and the OS/benchmarking software was re-installed afterwards a defragment was initiated using Windows 95's Disk Defragmentation Utility

• 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 800 x 600 x 256 colors

Test Configuration

As you can see, there is virtually NO difference between the Chaintech 5TTL and the 5TDM2 performance-wise, so in this case look towards the specifications of each individual motherboard before making a final decision.

The Final Decision

If you are an overclocking maniac, stay away from the 5TTL, however if you plan to do some light overclocking, and you feel that DIMMs are the wave of the future give the 5TTL a good look over.  ABIT's TX5/N series cannot offer you the immense memory expandability the 5TTL due to its 3 DIMM slots, however also keep in mind that when using above 64MB of RAM, the TX chipset will not cache any memory above the first 64MB, resulting in a 10 - 15% performance hit when using more than 64MB of RAM.