Motherboard Specifications

The Good

Above we see the wonderful green heatsink Chaintech placed on the LX chipset as a cause of the many heat problems being reported.

The Chaintech 6LTM, being the second LX board to enter my testing lab did provide me with a few unexpected surprises. The one that stood out the most was the physical LX chipset on the 6LTM. As soon as the LX chipset was released, rumors began surfacing about the heat produced by the large 386 sized LX chip, in some cases the rumors held true. In order to avoid any possible problems Chaintech equipped the 6LTM with a nice green heatsink much like that found on the SiS 5571 chipset, except larger of course. Like the previous two Chaintech boards I tested, the 6LTM features a patented Jumperless CPU Configuration Utility known as SeePU. This configuration utility has 4 built in settings for the Pentium II - 233, Pentium II - 266, Pentium II - 300, and Pentium II - 330, however if none of those factory defaults please you, you have the option of choosing the User's Define setting in which you choose your clock multiplier and bus speed from a provided list, much like ABIT's SoftMenu technology. The familiar AWARD PnP BIOS Setup of the 6LTM also adds to its value, it had no problem with my aggressive memory timings and I never had the feeling that too much power was being stripped from me by a lackluster setup utility.

Expansion with the 6LTM is a little better than some other LX boards that have been popping up, but still not as good as I would like it to be. The 6LTM still features the meager 3 DIMM Slots, however the 3 ISA slots and 4 PCI slots (+1 AGP slot) make the future of the 6LTM a little brighter, especially if you plan to use more than just 2 ISA cards like most people.

The 6LTM's strengths don't come from its expansion capabilities, however they come from its performance and stability. The stability of the 6LTM is about on par with the Megatrends FX83-A, and in some cases, better! I can run my Pentium II 266 up to 338MHz (75 x 4.5) without any problems, although getting the entire system to function at that speed is a bit tricky. At all normal and overclocked CPU speeds the 6LTM outperformed both the FX83-A and the FIC KL-6011 by a minimum of 1 winstone point!   After re-running the tests with a genuine Intel Pentium II - 300, the 6LTM proved to be one of the most stable LX motherboards ever reviewed on Anand's Hardware Tech Page.   The 6LTM is stable enough, if cooled properly, at 375MHz to produce some extraordinary Winstone scores (see below).  The video performance of the 6LTM still can't keep up with the amazing standards instilled in me by the FX83-A, but they come pretty close, which is overshadowed by the excellent real-world performance of the 6LTM.

Here's the tricky part...is the Chaintech 6LTM too good to be true?

The Bad

...is the Chaintech 6LTM too good to be true? Absolutely, not!  The only problem I experienced with the 6LTM, has to do with expansion. The 6LTM, like the FIC KL-6011 only features 3 DIMM slots which is still a huge disappointment for me. For a Pentium II system I expect at least 4 DIMM slots, and 6 DIMM slots if possible. You can never have too much RAM...

IRQ Usage

• Allows user to enable/disable VGA IRQ

• Allows user to individually assign IRQs to PCI/Legacy ISA devices

• Autodetects PnP Peripherals after POST

BIOS Settings

Here are my Recommended BIOS Settings for those of you who have been having problems with the 6LTM and higher bus speeds. I personally have had no problems with the 6LTM and higher bus speeds related to memory timings, therefore I have provided two columns of settings. One for use with 66, 75, and 83MHz bus speeds and the other for the failsafe settings.

Chaintech 6LTM Chipset Features Setup

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.

Test Configuration

At all clock speeds the Chaintech 6LTM smokes the competition.  The new scores are 375MHz are truly amazing, especially for a motherboard produced by a manufacturer you've probably never even heard of =)

The Final Decision

If you had asked me to recommend a Pentium II board other than the Megatrends FX83-A a few months ago, I would have told you to ask me another question. However now I believe the Chaintech 6LTM is a worthy successor to the FX83-A, at least until Megatrends has a chance to retaliate with the LX83. Even then I believe the 6LTM will hold its ground as one of the best Pentium II LX boards on the market, today and in the future.