Going Dually
Written: Apr 28 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: low cost dual processor power
Cons: takes a bit of know how, but not too much
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| Techru's Full Review: Abit BP6 Motherboard |
Okay, I wanted to build a custom system with Dual CPUs to take advantage of some products from AutoDesk that were SMP enhanced. Second, I didn't have a fortune to spend. And finally, I wanted it to be simple.
This Motherboard allows for all those things to come together. Abit makes some great motherboards. They also have very good tech support, with a nice website that has frequent driver and BIOS updates. These are all important factors for a motherboard, and more importantly, for a custom system that means self-help when it comes to support.
The board has about every feature that you could want as far as features go. The dual Celeron processor support is great. More processors = more power = more speed = cool. Of course, the Celeron isn't as powerful as the Pentium III, so you can't go head to head with a dual PIII and expect to win. But there is the value aspect that allows the savings in processor price to be spread out into other components like RAM. Again the more the merrier. With dual processors, a reasonable amount of RAM would be 128 MB, but 256 MB works better!
You can have the fastest Hard Drives out there because you get ATA66 support on 2 channels, and another two channels of ATA33. That's up to 8 IDE devices!! You've got AGP 2x support for good video quality. 2 USB ports, high speed serial and parallel ports too.
I set the system up with Windows 2000 Pro, because to take advantage of the dual processors you need an Operating System that uses both, otherwise you're just wasting your money!! I'm loving it. It works great with Architectural Desktop r2 and 3D Studio Viz. I use Dual PIII 600's at work, but that cost a fortune, which I don't have.
All in all, I think it's a great motherboard. You will have to keep up with the latest BIOSes and Drivers, but that's fun (well, fun if you're into that sort of thing). Abit doesn't claim this Motherboard to be the end all of Dual boards, and in a way it's just a way to show up Intel (because they stated that the Celeron wouldn't support SMP)!! So you have to use this motherboard realizing that you are "beta testing" in a way. But if you are the type that IS into playing and tweaking your computer, this is a great way to fulfill those urges. Or a great way to start, if you've wanted to try, without spending a fortune.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Techru
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Member: Andrew D. Smith
Location: Zebulon, NC
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 1 member
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