Motherboard Specifications

The Good

If you decide to buy a Pentium II LX board based on the AT form factor specification you really don't want to sacrifice any expandability features or flexibility simply because you want to use an AT case.  Not only are AT cases easier to find , but they are also cheaper and available in larger sizes than ATX cases.   The Stallion AT features 3 PCI slots, 4 ISA and 1 AGP slot with the AGP slot oddly placed between the last ISA and the first PCI slot.  The Stallion AT also features a roomy 4 DIMM slots making the 512MB cacheable area of the Pentium II easily approachable using 4 - 128MB DIMMs.

The layout of the Stallion AT is a force to be reckoned with especially since MTech managed to achieve such an excellent design when complying solely to the AT specification.  In order to increase the flexibility of the Stallion AT, MTech opted to include both AT & ATX Power Supply connectors.  As a result of this the Stallion AT's CPU fan connector is out of the reach of Intel's boxed Pentium II's fan power cable.  Luckily MTech included an extension cable with the outstanding bundle the Stallion AT is packaged with to prevent any problems related to this from leaving your computer in a non-working position.  Included with the Stallion AT is the standard set of IDE/FDD cables as well as a PS/2 adapter for PS/2 style keyboards or mice.  MTech bundled the latest revision of Intel's Bus Mastering IDE drivers with the Stallion AT on one disk, and on its partner MTech provided the Windows 95 PCI Bridge patch to complete the package.

MTech's manual covers just about everything necessary to get the Stallion AT up and running, and although it is still a few steps away from the leaders when it comes to motherboard manuals (ABIT, Chaintech, etc...) it does cover the basics and then some.  The manual provides a quick reference card in addition to the rest of the manual which simplifies some of the initial setup procedure with the Stallion AT.  The M628 (Stallion AT) CPU setup function is controlled by a single set of dip switches that correspond to any of the available CPU clock speed settings.   Unfortunately the M628 is limited to the use of only 2 bus speeds, the 60 and 66MHz frequency.  The stability at all the achievable speeds however is outstanding, this can be attributed to MTech's  intelligent use of 22 mid sized Electrolytic capacitors along side of 40 or so miniature capacitors and one oversized unit.  To enhance this stability MTech designed the motherboard with a setup of 4 switching voltage regulators all covered with large heatsinks capable of dissipating great amounts of heat at any given time.

Likewise, it is very apparent that MTech intended the Stallion AT to be much more of a motherboard than their previous Pentium II entry, the 440FX based R653.  The M628 is much more stable of a motherboard and performance wise much faster of a motherboard than the R653.

The Stallion's AMI BIOS is highly configurable, giving the user the options and flexibility necessary for this motherboard to be deemed a Tweaker's board.  Unlike MTech's R653, the 628 covers most necessary BIOS memory timing options in the AMI setup, as well as report intelligent mainboard functions such as current CPU Temperature and CPU Fan Rotation speed.  The user also has the option of selecting a CPU Temperature Warning Level to prevent any serious system damage in the event your CPU fan fails.

The Bad

Don't expect MTech's Stallion AT to be much of an overclocker, the maximum attainable speed using today's Pentium II processors with this motherboard is 300MHz, due to the lack of a 75 or 83.3MHz bus frequency.  Another major problem the Stallion posed during the testing process was the unique manner in which the power supply configuration was setup.  By default the AMI BIOS setup is assigned to enable the ATX power supply option instead of the AT power supply option, while the jumpers on the motherboard are set for an AT power supply instead of an ATX power supply.   Therefore when setting up the Stallion be sure to double check the jumper setting onboard, MTech has informed me that this will be fixed in the next revision of the AMI BIOS to be packaged with the Stallion. 

• Auto-detects PnP Cards after HDD Detection

• Allows user to Enable/Disable the Modem's use of an IRQ

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; 1 x 64MB 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

The Final Decision

Designed mainly for server environments with large AT cases, the MTech Stallion will make the perfect addition to any die hard computer user's wish list.  However its usefulness as an overclocker's board has yet to be seen.