Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/691

ABIT SH6 Slot-1 i815E ATX

by Mike Andrawes on December 28, 2000 4:32 AM EST


Those who have been paying attention to processor evolution should remember the decision by Intel to migrate from Socket-7 to Slot-1 a couple years ago when they released the Pentium II. Before that, their processors had been based on socketed designs for several generations, and the change to slot implementation was no doubt a big change for Intel.

Intel had their reasons in doing so, mainly because they wanted to move the cache closer to the processor core without actually integrating it in the same package (ala the Pentium Pro). Therefore they had to change to a slot design, where they would be able to include the L2 cache external to the die but still on the same PCB.

Slot-1 looked to be the way of the future for Intel CPU's. Unfortunately for those users who bought Slot-1 motherboards with those thoughts in mind, the advent of on-die L2 cache with the Celeron and Coppermine CPU's signaled a move back to socketed designs due to their lower manufacturing costs.For those who had bought a Slot-1 motherboard and CPU that meant they would not be able to upgrade anymore without getting a new motherboard and CPU.

Things were not as bad, since manufacturers immediately came up with Slotkets, which allows users to use Socket-370 processors on Slot-1 motherboards. Unfortunately, those with Slot-1 CPUs would not be able to upgrade to newer chipsets and/or motherboards without getting a new processor once Slot-1 motherboard designs were phased out. It didn't take long for that to happen - up until now, all i815(E) boards were Socket-370 based.

Here's where ABIT comes into play with the SH6, an Intel i815E motherboard with Slot-1 implementation. In terms of the design, the SH6 is very similar to the SA6R, Since ABIT had to redesign CPU section of the board, the question remains of whether or not they can maintain the same level of stability and performance. Read on to find out if this board can serve as a bridge between your Slot-1 CPU and your next Socket processor.

ABIT SH6 Specifications

CPU Interface
Slot-1
Chipset
i815E
Form Factor
ATX
Bus Speeds
50 - 96 MHz (2:3:1) (in 1MHz increments)
50 - 140 MHz (3:3:1) (in1MHz increments)
50 - 250 MHz (4:3:1) (in 1MHz increments)
50 - 250 MHz (4:4:1) (in 1MHz increments)
Voltages Supported
Auto Detect
1.30 - 1.90V (in 0.05V increments)
Memory Slots
4 168-pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots
1 AGP Slot
6 PCI Slots (5 Full Length)
1 CNR Slot (1 Shared)
0 ISA Slots
Onboard Sound
Avance Logic ALC200 AC'97 CODEC
BIOS
Award Modular BIOS 6.00PG
ABIT SoftMenu III

The Layout

Just like the ABIT SA6R, the SH6 is using quite a hefty PCB - about 12 by 9.5 inches. We will talk more about the reasons for this later on, but for now you can see that there are traces all over the place, so ABIT is not wasting any PCB space at all.

The general layout of the board is excellent. ABIT is always known as a manufacturer focused on hardware enthusiasts, and the SH6 is definitely another indication of ABIT's excellent work. The area around the CPU slot is clean without any major obstacles or connectors. The power supply connector, just like other recent ABIT motherboards, is located on the right edge of the motherboard, so the power supply cables will not have to run over the CPU.

The DIMM slots are located around 3.5 inches from the CPU slot, so you should have no problem using larger HSF units. The IDE connectors and the floppy connectors are located in the front of the DIMM slots, allowing all but one PCI slot to be full length.

As you can see from the following pictures, when the motherboard and CPU are installed into the case, there is a lot of space around the processor (notice that the cables are not even carefully bundled here) so that the HSF can effectively cool down the processor. All the major cables, including the power supply cables, IDE and floppy cables, are packed on the front of the motherboard, so they will not block the expansion cards on the left.



ABIT Remembers Overclocking

When you want to overclock, heat is one of the biggest concerns. As processors run faster and faster, keeping the processor cool is very important in making the system stable. To do that, you might choose to install a larger HSF unit. With certain motherboards, space becomes a major issue for those HSF units and many times we've found capacitors, power supply connectors, and DIMM slots to be the obstacles for installing these cooling units. With the SH6, ABIT has done a very good job of making sure there is nothing around the CPU slot that could prevent you from using a large HSF unit.

ABIT is famous for their SoftMenu III setup, which provides easy jumperless setup under the BIOS for all hardware enthusiasts. With their first i815E solution, the SE6, ABIT failed to offer this tool in the BIOS. Instead they offered SoftMenu II, which lacks quite a few features that the 3rd iteration does have.However, starting with their second attempt at an i815E board, the SA6R, they have included SoftMenu III. So it comes as no surprise that the SH6 also features the same SoftMenu III setup as the SA6R.

Probably the most unbeatable feature of SoftMenu III is the FSB support, which includes speeds all the way from 50MHz to 250MHz in 1MHz increments. This wide range of FSB speeds provides all the possible clock speeds you could ask for to help overclock your CPU to the maximum. While you are choosing the FSB, ABIT uses the CPU:SDRAM:PCI ratio to inform users what clock speeds their SDRAM and PCI buses will be running at. With a ratio of 2:3:1, users can choose FSB speeds between 50MHz and 96MHz. This range is suitable for users with Intel Celeron processors, where the CPUs are defaulted to run at 66MHz. With a ratio of 3:3:1, the available FSB settings are 50MHz to 140MHz. These settings are good for processors designated as 100MHz FSB from the factory. With a ratio of 4:3:1 or 4:4:1, you can choose FSB speeds between 50MHz and 250MHz. This is suitable for processors designed for 133MHz FSB operation. The 4:3:1 setting allows you to run your processor at 133MHz while running the memory bus at 100MHz. On the other hand users with PC133 memory can use the 4:4:1 ratio to take advantage of the increased memory bus speed. Note that the default CPU:SDRAM:PCI ratio used when running an 133MHz FSB CPU is 4:3:1, even if you put in a PC133 memory. So don't forget to go into the BIOS and change the ratio back to 4:4:1 when you first set up your system.

Beside the FSB settings, SoftMenu III also allows users to change the core voltage for the CPU. The available settings are from 1.30V to 1.90V in 0.05V increments. This is a wide range of voltages, and should be enough for most overclocking. However, unlike some other motherboards, the SH6 does not have any I/O voltage tweaking.

ABIT has begun using the Winbond W83627HF Super I/O controller, which includes integrated hardware monitoring support. Within the BIOS, you can go to the PC Health panel to check the CPU core voltage as well as the I/O voltage. The temperature of the CPU (via the CPU's on-die thermal diode) and system temperature are also displayed. One additional temperature reading is also supported by an external thermistor header located at the top left hand corner of the CPU slot. This time around, ABIT includes the thermistor cable, so users can take advantage of the third temperature reading on any device they want. Finally, there are three fan connectors on the motherboard, which can also be monitored through the PC Health panel. Two of the fan connectors are located close to the DIMM slots, and the third one is located at the bottom left hand corner of the board.

The SH6 is ABIT's third i815E solution and they have been doing an incredible job in improving the stability of the motherboard. If you remember, the stability of their first solution, the SE6, was far from satisfactory. Even using CAS2 rated PC133 memory, the motherboard could not maintain any semblance of stability when running the memory at those speeds. The SA6R surprised us by running 133MHz on the memory bus without any problems, but the CAS 2 133MHz setting was still relatively unstable.

Now with the SH6, which is virtually a new design of the CPU side of the board, everyone wonders if the board is more stable or not. Surprisingly, ABIT takes yet another step in stability. The board was rock solid under our stability tests, even when we ran with a 133MHz memory clock and enabled the CAS2 setting. ABIT puts a total of seventeen 1500uF capacitors around the CPU slot and the 82815 Graphic and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) to ensure clean and stable signals, but rather it is the redesign of the board that makes the board so solid.



The Features

The 82815 GMCH, which is the core of the i815 chipset, sits to the left of the CPU socket. It features 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 should be enough for most users who do not use any 3D accelerated applications, but for everyone else, the on-board video is definitely not acceptable. Fortunately, an AGP slot is provided allowing you to install any video. The AGP slot is a "universal slot," meaning that you can put in almost any AGP card.

Beside the AGP slot, there is also a connector where users can insert an optional add-on card to enable the on-board VGA 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 between the fourth and fifth PCI slots, and they include the necessary serial port bracket.

Just like the SE6 and SA6R, the SH6 also has four DIMM slots instead of the three you'll typically find on an i815(E) board. However, since the chipset only supports 6 rows of memory, there are some constraints here. The first two slots works like normal. But the third and fourth DIMM slots share memory banks 5 and 6. Therefore, if you want to use both the third and fourth DIMM slots, two of the modules must be single-sided. If the SDRAM is all double-sided, a maximum of 3 DIMM slots can be occupied.

For most, 512MB memory is more than enough for now, but this won't be the case forever. This is not a fault of ABIT though; but rather is a limitation of the i815E chipset. Additionally, the i815E chipset also has some constraints on memory types. If you 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. The SH6 does allow you to force all modules to run in PC133 mode, but the system became quite unstable in our testing with this option enabled.

Below the first and second PCI slots is the 82801BA I/O Controller Hub 2 (ICH2), which is what differentiates the i815E chipset from the i815 chipset. The i815 chipset, which uses the 82801AA ICH1, which only has Ultra ATA 66 support. The 82801BA ICH2 not only features Ultra ATA 100 support, but also adds a second USB controller and the Intel 82559 network controller.

The second USB controller allows two more USB devices on top of the original two. The original USB connectors are located at the back on the I/O panel, and ABIT puts the extra two USB headers on the left hand side of the motherboard. ABIT also includes the necessary USB bracket to take advantage of those extra USB ports.

The SH6 features 6 PCI slots as part of its 6/0/1/1 (PCI/ISA/CNR/AGP) expansion slot setup, which is about as good as it gets right now. The CNR slot is shared with the last PCI slot and provides access to the 82559 network controller integrated in the ICH2. This 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 of CNR cards, which is unfortunate because the 82559 network controller is quite good and the CNR cards are relatively cheap.

The SH6 uses the Avance Logic ALC200 AC'97 CODEC as their on-board sound solution. AC'97 audio provides some basic sound functionality for users on a budget, but for those who are serious about sound should definitely go for a true hardware-based PCI solution.

The manual shipped with the SH6 is similar to that of the SE6 and SA6R, which means it is of very high quality. It gives you a step-by-step installation and configuration guide for your system, from how to install the motherboard to information on the jumpers / connectors, BIOS settings all the way to driver setup. The CD provided by ABIT has all the drivers and software utilities you'll need for the motherboard.



ABIT Plans for the Future

In the beginning of the review we stated that the SH6 has quite a large sized PCB. One of the reasons we proposed was that ABIT need more room for the routing since now a CPU slot is used instead of a socket. However, if you look closely at the board, you will see that ABIT is actually planning for the future.

For starters, if you look at the bottom left hand corner of the 82801BA ICH2, you will see a square silkscreen. Then if you look at the two IDE connectors below the DIMM slots, you will also notice space for two extra IDE connectors. From these it is pretty obvious that ABIT has prepared for the possibilities of an RAID controller on another revision of the SH6. And from our experience with ABIT's motherboards, the RAID controller will most likely be the Highpoint 370 IDE RAID controller, which features Ultra ATA 100 support. The RAID functions included are RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1.

Further, if you look at the top left hand corner, on top of the fifth and the sixth PCI slots, there is also a silkscreen and spaces for two little connectors. From our experience, the size of the connector appears to be for IEEE 1394 Firewire connectors. As we have seen the Firewire setup more and more common in recent motherboards, it is not too surprising for that to appear on the later revision of the SH6.

From our Motherboards in 2001 Preview, we have covered that the ABIT SA6R-1394 has a single chip Firewire solution. In the past, Firewire has generally been implemented with a two chip solution, which takes up more PCB space and increases the cost by a fair amount - something motherboard manufacturers have pointed to as limiting the adoption of integrated Firewire. We were not able to confirm if ABIT has come up with the one-chip solution, but from what we see on the SH6, it is very likely that ABIT has found a cheap solution for their Firewire implementation.

Therefore ABIT has their reasons in using a larger size of PCB - to reduce the time and cost for future revisions of the motherboard. If you recall, ABIT had a total of ten 440BX motherboards. Since we know that the i815E chipset will be around for quite a while, it makes sense for ABIT to design a board where they can add in or take out some components to produce another revision.

Now if we look back on all the i815E solutions ABIT has come up with so far, the SE6 has its unique design. Starting with the SA6R, it already has the space for the RAID controller as well as the Firewire, so the upcoming SA6R-1394 will follow the same reference board. If we compare the SA6R and the SH6, we see that the two boards are very similar as well. The only difference in the design of these two boards is in the CPU section of the board where there is either a Socket-370 interface or Slot-1 interface, resepectively

Therefore, now ABIT can base on the need of the market and decide what they are going to do tomorrow. If a lot of people ask for the i815E Slot-1 solution, ABIT can release the RAID or Firewire version of the board easily. What ABIT saved was the money and time in designing a new board with a new feature. Besides just releasing a new revision of the board earlier, those boards will probably have more attractive pricing thanks to the shared PCB design.



The Bad

The size of the board is considered a little bit large. It might be trouble for users with smaller cases.

It would be great if the board also had I/O voltage tweaking, so that the whole "overclocking package" is complete.

As always, ABIT motherboards are generally a bit more expensive than average, and the SH6 is no exception.


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

  • USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes


Recommended SDRAM

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

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Corsair PC133 SDRAM; 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 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.

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

Test Configuration

Processor(s):
Intel Pentium III 733 OEM
RAM:
1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM
Hard Drive(s):
Western Digital 153BA Ultra ATA 66 7200 RPM
Bus Master Drivers:
Intel Ultra ATA 6.00
Video Card(s):
NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS 32MB DDR
Video Drivers:
NVIDIA Detonator 5.22
Operation System(s):
Windows 98 SE
Motherboard Revision:
ABIT SH6 Revision 1.0

 

Windows 98 Performance

Pentium III 733 (i815E)
Sysmark 2000
Content Creation
Winstone 2000
Quake III Arena
640 x 480 x 16
ABIT SH6
163
32.0
133.1
ABIT SA6R
164
31.9
132.2
ABIT SE6
161
31.8
132.5
Iwill WOR-2
161
31.8
131.7
Transcend TS-ASL3
161
31.8
131.3
Chaintech CT-60JV2
162
31.1
131.2

 

Final Words

Being the only Slot-1 i815 motherboard on the market, the ABIT SH6 provides an upgrade path for owners of Slot-1 processors. It brings along some impressive performance, just like its brothers, and at the same time even more brilliant stability. Compared to the old 440BX motherboards, the SH6 allows users to stay with their Slot-1 processors but enjoy AGP 4X,Ultra ATA 100, and official 133MHz FSB support. It also provides users with some extra features like a second set of USB controllers and AC'97 CODEC.

Obviously for users with Socket-370 processors, the SH6 will not be on their shopping list. But for users with Slot-1 processors, who think that their 440BX motherboards are getting old, but don't want to go after VIA chipsets or give up their CPUs, the SH6 is definitely a very impressive motherboard and basically your only option right now.



How it Rates

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

 
Rating (x/10)

Performance

The SH6 performs very well among all i815E motherboard.

7.5

Price

Price has always been a bit high for ABIT products, and the SH6 is also priced a bit above average. Then again, it is the only Slot-1 i815E solution out there so if that's what you need, this is your only option and certainly cheaper than buying a new CPU and motherboard.

4.5

Stability

ABIT has been improving in this department quite a bit since their first i815E motherboard. The SH6 is the third ABIT motherboard in this line and we finally see some outstanding stability. Running memory at 133MHz CAS2 settings, the system crashed three times in 24 hours, which is quite impressive.

Although its stability is not as good as the ASUS CUSL2, the SH6 is still considered very stable among all i815e solutions.

7.5

Quality

Remember how many times we criticized ABIT for their quality? That's all changing now. The SH6 we received is a very high quality motherboard.

6.0

Features

Without a doubt, the CPU slot is the biggest feature of the board for those that need it. But don't forget about the fact that Ultra ATA 100, AGP 4X, and official 133MHz FSB support are all missing from the old i440BX motherboards.

The inclusion of the extra USB header as well as the thermistor allows users to take advantage of the extra features out of the box.

7.5

Layout

The layout of the board is virtually perfect. There are no major obstacles around the CPU slot, so users should have no problem installing CPUs with super sized HSF units. There should also be plenty of space for airflow. Most of the major connectors are located close to each other; therefore no cables will block the CPU or any expansion cards.

7.0

Availability

It is never hard to find ABIT motherboards. Most online stores and many local computer stores always have them in stock. Even some large retail stores like Microcenter, Fry's Electronics, and CompUSA have begun to carry them.

8.5

Documentation & Software Bundle

The manual bundled with the SH6 is very well written. It contains just about everything you might need to get going, including actual motherboard installation instructions. The CD that comes with the motherboard contains all the drivers and utilities users would need to get up and running as well.

7.5
   
Overall Rating - not an average Click here to find out why
7.5

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