Introduction

By now, most people within the AnandTech community have heard of ABIT and their motherboards.  They have been in the motherboard market since 1989 and have generally focused on the overclocking community.  While this is a fairly small group compared to the OEM market, it does represent a large portion of AnandTech readers.  During their first few years, their products were not very outstanding, and ABIT was far from being one of the best motherboard manufacturers. However, during the past three years, ABIT has emerged into a world-class brand name.  They have done everything possible to make better motherboards – they improved the quality and the design, and increased the stability and the performance of their products.

ABIT’s effort in improving their products is best shown in their 440BX series of motherboards.  For the record, ABIT released a total of ten BX motherboards and was among the first manufacturers to include an Ultra ATA 66 controller on a BX board  with their BE6.  The first dual Scoket-370 motherboard, ABIT BP6, made SMP a reality for many users thanks to its ability to accept cheap Celeron processors.  ABIT also introduced the SoftMenu III, which was used on the BE6-II and the BF6, allowing overclockers to increase their FSB speed in 1MHz increments. They were also the company who first added ATA 100 RAID to a BX board with the BX133-RAID.  In the VIA KT133 motherboard market, they have the KT7-RAID, which earned our AnandTech Editor’s Choice Gold Award.  These all happened in a mere 3-year span.  ABIT is no doubt one of the best motherboard manufacturers today.

With Intel releasing the i815 as their flagship chipset and the days of the 440BX numbered, there are few reasons for ABIT to stay in the 440BX market any longer.  Therefore, they released the SE6 as their i815E solution.  With people having such high expectations of ABIT, how would they react?  Can ABIT live up to those expectations? 

The Good

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The SE6 utilizes a moderately sized PCB of about 12 by 8.5 inches.  This is good news, because a smaller PCB reduces manufacturing costs.  The general layout of the board is quite standard.  Unfortunately, the placement of the power supply connector is far from ideal.  It is located next to the serial / parallel ports and the CPU socket, which means the power cables will have to run over the memory as well as the CPU, potentially blocking airflow.  As the clock speed of CPUs get higher, more heat is dissipated, and the blocking of airflow can affect the cooling substantially.

ABIT has always catered their boards to the needs of hardware enthusiasts, and their name always comes up when people talk about overclocking.  Users can find everything ABIT brings to tweakers in the BIOS.  The SE6 uses the Award Modular BIOS 6.00PG, but ABIT took a step back and included the SoftMenu II, instead of the SoftMenu III found on their other new models.  This is quite unfortunate, since users will lose the ability to choose FSB settings in 1MHz increments and a number of tweaking options.  Most users would prefer to have access to more FSB settings so they can push their CPUs to the limit.  Fortunately, SoftMenu II still retains the key elements – a jumperless CPU setup with CPU core voltage tweaks and lots of FSB options.  The FSB speeds available are 66 / 68 / 70 / 72 / 75 / 77 / 83 / 90 / 100 / 103 / 112 / 115 / 120 / 125 / 128 / 130 / 133 / 137 / 140 / 145 / 150 / 153 MHz, so users can still have a lot of settings to choose from.  However, we would have liked to see some more settings above 153MHz, since speeds up to 166MHz have run reliably in the AnandTech labs on other motherboards. 

The FSB:SDRAM:PCI ratio is listed in the parenthesis next to the FSB setting in the BIOS, so users can always figure out what speed the SDRAM and PCI are running at.  Settings between 66 and 77 MHz use a 3:2:1 FSB:SDRAM:PCI ratio, while 83 – 125 MHz settings are available with a 3:3:1 ratio, and 125 – 153 MHz can use either a 4:3:1 or 4:4:1 ratio.  However, one thing to notice is that by default if a 133MHz CPU is used, the ratio 4:3:1 is chosen.  That means the memory will be running at 100MHz, even if you use PC133 memory modules.  You can simply change that in the BIOS, but that’s definitely something to watch out for.

With SoftMenu II, ABIT also allows users to change the core voltage of the CPU.  The settings available are in the range of 1.30 – 1.80 V in 0.05V increments.  This should be enough for those of you who want to squeeze out the last bit of juice from their CPUs. 

ABIT has begun using the Winbond W83627HF-AW Super I/O controller, which includes integrated hardware monitoring support.  In the PC Health panel of the BIOS, you can read about the temperature of the CPU via the CPU’s on-die thermal diode.  Users can also read the system temperature as well as one more temperature using the external thermistor header.  Unfortunately, ABIT does not include the thermistor cable like they have in the past.  Moreover, there are three fan connectors on the motherboard, and users can read the speeds of all those three fans in the PC Health panel.  Last of all, the CPU core voltage is shown in the panel, but not the AGP voltage.

In the past, ABIT motherboards always had stability problems, but that has changed over the years.  Now ABIT motherboards are among the best when talking about stability.  For the SE6, ABIT puts a total of 17 1500uF capacitors around the CPU socket and the 82815 GMCH.  During our stability tests, setting the memory CAS latency to 2resulted in reduced stability.  On the other hand, if we set the CAS latency to 3, the board was once again rock solid in our stability tests.  That means if you prefer to have a stable system, even with a CAS 2 memory, you lose that 3 – 5% performance margin.

The 82815 Graphic and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) sits to the left of the CPU socket, which is the core of the i815 chipset.  It has an integrated i752-based 3D video.  One serial port is replaced by the VGA connector at the back of the motherboard.  However, from our Intel i815 chipset article, you can see that the integrated i752 performs quite poorly.  It might be enough for users who do not use any 3D accelerated applications, but for most users out there, the on-board video is definitely not acceptable.  Therefore, ABIT puts in an AGP slot so users can put in any video cards of their choice just like other i815 boards out there.  The AGP slot is a "universal slot," so users can put in almost any AGP cards.  ABIT also put in a connector beside the AGP slot, where users can plug in an add-on card and allows the on-board video to be output to TV-Out or Flat Panel LCD monitors.

Since the on-board VGA connector replaces one serial port, ABIT puts the second serial port connector next to the power supply connector, and they include the necessary serial port header.  However, since the AGP video card (if users decide not to use the on-board video) will use the first expansion slot of the case, the serial port cable will have to run either over or under the AGP video card for another available slot.

The SE6 has three DIMM slots, supporting a maximum of 512MB SDRAM.  To most users, 512MB memory is more than enough now, but this might not be the case in the near future.  Also, currently a decent servers or workstations still requires 1GB or more memory, so 512MB is definitely not enough.  This is not a fault of ABIT though, but rather is a limitation of the i815/i815E chipsets.  Further, the i815/i815E chipsets also have some constraints on memory types.  If users want to use PC133 SDRAM, only the first two DIMM slots can be populated.  If users want to use all three DIMM slots, the memory will have to run in PC100 mode.  If you don’t feel like following the specifications put forth by Intel,  the SE6 does have the option to run all modules in PC133 mode, but the system became highly unstable in our testing when we enabled this option.  So far, the ASUS CUSL2 is the only i815E solution that we have tested that can run all three DIMMs in PC133 mode without sacrificing stability.

Below the first and second PCI slots you can find the 82810BA I/O Controller Hub 2 (ICH2), which is what differentiates the i815E chipset from the i815 chipset.  The i815 chipset, which uses the 82810AA ICH1 South Bridge, only has Ultra ATA 66 support.  The 82810BA ICH2 not only features Ultra ATA 100 support, but also a second USB controller and the Intel 82559 network controller.  There are two IDE channels on the board allowing up to 4 IDE devices (2 devices per channel).  The second USB controller allows two more USB devices on top of the original two.  The original USB connectors are located at the back of the I/O panel, and ABIT puts the extra two USB headers on the front side of the motherboard.  However, ABIT does not include the necessary USB bracket, something they have done for the KT7-RAID, to take advantage of the extra USB ports., So you will have to get their own expansion bracket or a USB hub if you want to connect more than two USB devices.

Like most i815E solutions we have seen, the SE6 features the 6/0/1/1 (PCI/ISA/CNR/AGP) expansion slot setup.  The 6 PCI slots should be enough for most users.  The CNR slot is shared with the sixth PCI slot and utilizing the 82559 network controller integrated in the 82810BA ICH2.  The integrated network controller supports 10Mbps Home PNA 2.0 or 10/100 Ethernet depending on the CNR card that is plugged in.  However, currently we only see a handful of suppliers on CNR cards, which is unfortunate because the 82559 network controller is quite good and the CNR cards are relatively cheap.

The SE6 uses the Avance Logic ALC100 AC'97 CODEC as their on-board sound solution.  This can provide some basic sound for users on a budget, but for those who are serious about sound should definitely go for a true hardware-based PCI solution.  Make sure to read our Speaker Buyer’s Guide as well as our growing collection of Sound and Speaker reviews.

ABIT’s manuals are always highly regarded, and the SE6 is no exception.  It gives users a step-by-step installation and a configuration guide for their system, from how to install the motherboard, information on the jumpers / connectors, BIOS settings, all the way to drivers setup. 

The Bad

It is a little bit disappointing that the SE6 is still using SoftMenu II instead of SoftMenu III.  Users lose the 1MHz increments for FSB all the way to 200MHz and couple other tweaks.  Also, we expect to have settings higher than 153MHz, since speeds up to 166MHz have run reliably in AnandTech labs using other 815 boards.

The location of the second serial port is awkward.  As shown in the following pictures, the serial port cables will have to run either over or under the AGP video card (if you use one).  Ideally, running the cable under the video card is better, but when everything is seated in the case already, that can be hard to do.  The best place for the second serial port would be the left side of the board and above the PCI slots.

The AGP slot is very close to the DIMM slots.  That means users will have to install the memory first before inserting the AGP video card, otherwise the card will block the clips of the DIMM slots.

It would be great if ABIT had placed the power supply connector on the right edge of the board, just like the KT7-RAID.  The current position of the connector may block airflow since the power cables have to run over the memory and CPU.

It would be great if ABIT also included the thermistor cable and the bracket for the additional USB ports.

USB Compatibility

·         Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

·         Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

·         USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 128MB Corsair PC133 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM

Manufacturer: Corsair
Purchase Website: http://www.corsairmicro.com

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

The Test

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 should not 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.

Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.

To be frank, the SE6 is a bit of a disappointment coming from ABIT.  We are not saying that the board has bad performance or poor stability.  In fact, the board performs very well and is highly stable.  The board even provides quite some settings for users to overclock their CPUs.  However, ABIT does not meet the expectations from users.  The choice of using SoftMenu II instead of SoftMenu III probably hurts them the most.  The lost of the 1MHz increments and some other settings can be the reasons for users to go for some other boards instead. 

On the other hand, again, the SE6 performs very well and maintains high stability.  If you want an i815E solution that can help to push your CPU to the ultimate limit, the SE6 might not be the first one on your list.  However, if you want to have a motherboard that is rock solid, and yet allow you to do some basic overclocking, the SE6 is a good option. 

How it Rates