Gigabyte GA-6CXC i820 slot 1 mainboard
Friday, March 17, 2000
The features
The GA-6CXC's expansion possibilities include: 5 PCI slots, 1 ISA slot, 1 AGP port, and 1 AMR slot. As well, the GA-6CXC sports 4 168-pin DIMM sockets that can accept up to 1GB of memory.
As concerns configuration of the GA-6CXC, to our surprise, we found that it was definitely not a jumperless motherboard. As a fact, everything is done by setting jumpers, and DIP switches. The GA-6CXC board is thus a bit more complicated than we had become used to after playing with so many jumperless boards. What's more, seeing as the GA-6CXC is packed with features, it takes alot of patience in order to configure everything without missing any important details.
Available bus frequencies include: 100Mhz, 105Mhz, 110Mhz, 115Mhz, 117Mhz, 120Mhz, 125Mhz, 127Mhz, 133Mhz, 135Mhz, 140Mhz, 145Mhz and 150MHz.
It is possible to vary the CPU voltage with this board by +10%,+20%,+30%,+40% or +50%. Note that this feature is available only as an option.
Remarks
The GA-6CXC possess a Dual BIOS system, in which two separate BIOS are integrated on-board. The first is designated as the primary BIOS, and the second is designated as the emergency rescue.
When exactly would this prove useful?
The first possibility would be during a routine updating of the BIOS information by simply Flashing it. Suppose, for a moment, that you're in the middle of updating your BIOS, when the area you're in is suddenly hit by a power-outage. The chances that you'll be able to salvage your BIOS under those circumstances is quite slim, and you end up with a computer that is un-bootable. Under a Dual BIOS system, though, you can reset your primary BIOS to the settings stored in the emergency rescue BIOS. The day is saved!
The second occasion in which this system would prove handy, would be in the case of a viral infection, such as CIH. When the virus hits, it not only can shred the contents of your hardrive, but can invade your BIOS, and render it - and your computer - inoperable. Thanks to the Dual BIOS system, though, the time needed to restore your computer is greatly reduced, as you can always restore your BIOS information from the rescue BIOS. The day is saved again!
Next: Additional features
