Thursday, April 15, 1999

Performance Test Results

All tests were performed under Windows98.

The system setup was as following:

Motherboard: ECS P6BXT-A+
CPU: Intel Celeron 300A
Memory: 64mb PC100 SDram (LGS)
IDE first channel Primary port: Quantum Fireball EIDE ST 3.2A
IDE second channel Primary port: Kenwood 40X True X CDROM drive
AGP port: STB Velocity 4400 TNT 16Mb SDRAM AGP
OS: Win98 built 4.10
DirectX 6

Winbench99 CPUmark99

The performances of this motherboard where not as good as the other socket 370 motherboards previously tested before but it didn't lagged very far behind neither. Tested with a Celeron 300A, this motherboard performed pretty close to the Abit ZM6 and the Soyo SY-6IZA previously tested on the same benchmark.

Winbench99 FPU Winmark

On this benchmark, the performances where quite the same as
the other socket 370 motherboards previously mentioned.

Winstone99

Once again, the P6BXT-A+ is on par with the other socket 370 motherboards tested previously.

Safbench v2.31 memory test

Safbench v2.31 is a computer speed/operation test program. It runs in 32bit protected mode (using DOS32 v3.3 by Adam Seychell). Safbench is programmed completely in assembly, because FOR EXAMPLE mixing integers with FPU code like it's done in Safbench isn't possible in other languages (Simple Arithmetic FPU and Mixed FPU&CPU contain the same FPU instructions, but Mixed one has some integer between FPU operations).

Here again , we obtained results that where very similar to the ones of the Abit ZM6 and Soyo SY-6IZA motherboards which are both based on the 370 socket but using the 440ZX Chipset instead of the 440BX.

Video sub-system tests

A very slight but not really significative disadvantage goes to this motherboard as it can be noticed in the above results. But, its such a small difference that it will not show at all, so, you don't have to mind about it...

Hard Disk Drives sub-system

The hard disk drive sub-system was tested by using HD Tach 2.52. The score obtained by the ECS P6BXT-A+ do not show any real discrepancies at this level as the results obtained are very good and in the usual range for this type of motherboard.

This is the same test as above but this time the Celeron 300A processor has been Overclocked to 450Mhz. As you can see, there is no significative data transfer rate improvement but just a good Read Burst speed improvement.

The below evaluation table is showing the strong points and the weak points of the tested motherboard. No need to remember to you that we never buy a motherboard only for its performances. Most of today's motherboards are exhibiting performances very close to each others, so, we need additional information in order to help us distinguish what are the real advantages of a motherboard compared to the others and this is exactly where is coming into help this evaluation table.

The score obtained by this motherboard is 90 points out of 100. Once again we know that we are in presence of a very good product reputed to be of a superior grade. In facts, one point has been lost because of the bad location of the jumper used to determine the system clock frequency. Therefore, with a better placement of the JP5 jumper, an additional memory bank and a few more programs in its software bundle, this motherboard would have taken the lead in front of the Abit ZM6 and Soyo SY-6IZA motherboards.

The strong points

The strong points of the P6BXT-A+ are: the unsurpassed versatility it offers by its two different processor sockets, its relatively good Overclockability and its excellent BIOS menu design.

The weak points

The weak points of this motherboard are: a limited number of memory banks, a very restricted choice of clock frequencies , the limited number of PCI connectors and the very bad positioning of the jumper that determines the system clock frequency which is really hard to reach once the board is in place and that all cables ares plugged-in.

Conclusions

The ECS P6BXT-A+ motherboard appeared to me as a excellent motherboard, really pleasant to use and of a very high stability. In facts , I really enjoyed myself using this motherboard and I warmly congratulate the people at ECS for this brilliant idea of placing two types of socket processors on the same motherboard, a really smoking idea, that is, hehehe ! Having Overclocked the 300A Celeron to a 450Mhz I can assure you that it performed really well and that I had not even a single glitch while using it under these conditions. The built-in soundcard appeared to be very good and really satisfied me and I only regretted that this onboard soundcard had no tone controls to adjust the high and low frequency levels . In my opinion, ECS, by this motherboard, are offering a very interesting product which by its originality and its versatility has no risk to become obsolete in a couple of months. Any idea about how many other motherboard manufacturers could say so...

For any additional information, please visit Elitegroup web site.