We've all seen the best of
the best in the Socket-7 world...but how about in the ever growing Slot-1 market?
Grab your fans and let's find out who comes out on top in the arena of Intel's flaming
Goliath, the Pentium II.
Windows
95 Performance - Business Winstone 97 - Intel Pentium II - 300 (66MHz x 4.5) |
Motherboard |
Business
Winstone 97 |
ABIT LX6 |
64.5 |
AOpen AX6F |
64.1 |
AOpen AX6L |
66.9 |
ASUS KN97-X |
65.3 |
ASUS P2L97 |
66.6 |
Chaintech 6FTM |
63.7 |
Chaintech 6LTM |
67.5 |
EPoX KP6-LA |
65.8 |
FIC KN-6010 |
64.3 |
FIC KL-6011 |
66.2 |
Megatrends FX66 |
65.7 |
Megatrends FX83-A |
66.3 |
MTech Phantom R653 |
62.4 |
MTech Stallion AT M628 |
65.4 |
Shuttle HOT-631 |
65.1 |
|
|
At the base 300MHz clock
speed Chaintech is the clear leader with a score of 67.5, followed by AOpen's AX6L by a
differential margin of 0.6 points...hardly noticeable to the average user. Coming in
a close third place is ASUS' P2L97, an excellent performer which is pretty much expected
considering ASUS' history of producing high speed high quality motherboards. The
Pentium II board that managed to come in fourth place in this roundup, amazingly enough
wasn't a 440LX based motherboard...rather a board based on the old 440FX (Natoma)
chipset. This board is none other than Megatrends FX83-A, unfortunately the original
revision of the FX83-A is no longer in production it has been replaced by the FX83-II
which has been problematic to quite a few users. Its a shame, the FX83-A had
something most of the older 440FX P2 boards released didn't have, the potential to become
something great. Moving down the list to the 5th place holder, FIC's KL-6011 managed
to pull out a 66.2 Business Winstone score, mind you that all the listings on this chart
are ALL outstanding performers and they disserve equal consideration, remember to look at
more than the numbers you see before you, look at the individual features of each
motherboard and then make the final decision. It is very interesting to note that
some of the older 440FX boards like the ASUS KN97-X outperform even the newest LX based
motherboards, this just goes to show you that nothing can beat a well designed
motherboard...not even a bloated new chipset ;)
Windows
95 Performance - Business Winstone 97 - Intel Pentium II - 338 (75MHz x 4.5) |
Motherboard |
Business
Winstone 97 |
ABIT LX6 |
66.9 |
AOpen AX6F |
Not Supported |
AOpen AX6L |
68.4 |
ASUS KN97-X |
Not Supported |
ASUS P2L97 |
68.6 |
Chaintech 6FTM |
Not Supported |
Chaintech 6LTM |
68.4 |
EPoX KP6-LA |
Not Supported |
FIC KN-6010 |
Not Supported |
FIC KL-6011 |
67.2 |
Megatrends FX66 |
Not Supported |
Megatrends FX83-A |
Not Run |
MTech Phantom R653 |
Not Supported |
MTech Stallion AT M628 |
Not Supported |
Shuttle HOT-631 |
68.2 |
|
|
Out of the 6 boards that were
tested at 337.5MHz, the ASUS P2L97 came out on top with a score 0.2 Winstone Points above
the two way tie for second place between the Chaintech 6LTM and the AOpen AX6L.
Shuttle's stable LX wonder, the HOT-631 followed the lead of the top three performers
quite nicely with an outstanding 68.2 Business Winstone 97 score followed by FIC's KL-6011
and ABIT's LX6.
Windows
95 Performance - Business Winstone 97 - Intel Pentium II - 375 (83MHz x 4.5) |
Motherboard |
Business
Winstone 97 |
ABIT LX6 |
70.0 |
AOpen AX6F |
Not Supported |
AOpen AX6L |
71.5 |
ASUS KN97-X |
Not Supported |
ASUS P2L97 |
71.8 |
Chaintech 6FTM |
Not Supported |
Chaintech 6LTM |
71.6 |
EPoX KP6-LA |
Not Supported |
FIC KN-6010 |
Not Supported |
FIC KL-6011 |
Not Run |
Megatrends FX66 |
Not Supported |
Megatrends FX83-A |
Not Run |
MTech Phantom R653 |
Not Supported |
MTech Stallion AT M628 |
Not Supported |
Shuttle HOT-631 |
Not Supported |
|
|
Pretty much the same picture
here, ASUS takes the lead, closely followed by Chaintech and AOpen, with ABIT holding up
the rear with a score of 70.0. All of these scores fall within 2 Winstone Points of
each other, which is very good indeed, the simple ability of a motherboard to make it up
to the 375MHz clock rate with a Pentium II - 300 is an achievement by itself. Out of
all of these motherboards however, the AOpen AX6L is the most stable at 375MHz, followed
by the ABIT LX6, the Chaintech 6LTM and finally the ASUS P2L97.