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Intel's i440BX chipset has been around for a while. In fact, it's been around essentially unchanged for longer than any other single piece of computer hardware I can think of. But a BX board produced today is significantly different than the ones that graced the shelves a year or more ago. Today's BX boards typically have more PCI slots, less or no ISA slots, and a faster IDE (ATA66) interface. The BXMaster seeks to include as many modern features as possible on a board designed for a (relatively) standard desktop PC.

What you get:
What you don't get is a list of things you do get in the box. I guess they wanted to keep their options open as to what to include. Here's what I got in my box:

• BX Master board, Intel 82443BX/PIIX4E chipset
• Manual version 3.0A
• IDE, ATA66, and floppy drive cables
• Temperature sensor cable with metal clip (instead of useless double-sided tape)
• Driver CD
• Sticker for the interpreting D-LED codes (see below)
• Pamphlet with some D-LED propoganda in various languages
• Foam
• Cardboard separator with advertising paraphernalia for other boards printed all over it.

Layout:
The BXMaster is a standard ATX form factor board, measuring 30.4cm x 20.7cm, in a 4 layer PCB. There are 6 PCI slots (all bus mastering thanks to the arbiter chip), an ISA slot, 4 DIMM slots, the slot-1 for the CPU, and an extra pair of IDE connectors for the ATA66 interface.

The (potentially) best news about the ATA66 interface is the fact that it uses the Promise Ultra66 PDC 20262 chip, which is apparently hackable into a RAID chip. If I ever get the time at a later date, I will try the experiment and see if it works with this board.

All the connectors and slots are in convenient places. The DIMM slots don't interfere with the AGP card at all, the drive connectors sit neatly behind the DIMM slots and the power connector is out of the way behind the CPU slot, towards the top edge of the board. The power connector location may be an issue for people with short power cables, but typically most systems shouldn't have a problem, and in my opinion it's the second-best place to have the power connector. (the best in my opinion being in the same location as the KA7's, or the like). Having it close to the top edge makes it much better than on the BX6r2, whose connector is still behind the CPU but further down the board so the power cable has to reach diagonally across the top of the CPU. This has always annoyed me about the BX6r2. The BXMaster also has a little onboard speaker/buzzer which was probably included just for gimmick value but I think it's kinda cool, especially for those of us who have accidentally pulled off a case speaker wire and can't be bothered soldering it back on.

Next to the parallel port on the board is something called the D-LED, which stands for Diagnostic Light Emitting Diodes. It's kind of an expansion on the POST beeps when things go wrong on bootup, using binary sequences of green and red, it shows the current status of the board. For example, while the BIOS is signing on, it will show green red red green. If the board hangs on bootup you'll know what it was doing when it crashed and hopefully be more aware of what the real problem is because the D-LED will stay lit in the last place it was up to. There is a sticker included that you're meant to stick to the inside of your case for reference. Another LED shows the power status of the DIMM slots, so that you don't accidentally remove them while they have power.

Installation:
Installation was a snap thanks to the good layout I described above, components being easily accessible even after the board was mounted on the backing plate. One annoying quirk about the power up is I had to hold the power button down for about a second before it would power up. Just pressing it in and out briefly as I do with every other board I've used did not work. It took a few attempts for me to figure this out, combined with the problem I had with the RAM (see next section) it was about half an hour before I was able to get power to the machine.

RAM issues:
I don't think there has ever been a more controversial brand of RAM than KingMax and I've got nothing but fuel for the fire here. The BXMaster would not power up with either of my KingMax DIMMs installed, one of each version 1.0 and 1.2. Not even the D-LED lit up, the fans did not even stutter, absolutely nothing happened. I tried one and both DIMMs in all slots, and tried them in conjunction with my generic PC100 DIMM, and got nada on all attempts. When I took the RAM out altogether the machine would power up and get the usual "no RAM inserted" POST beeps. It's like the the RAM causes a temporary short circuit, and is quite uncanny. With my generic PC100 ram the machine powers up normally.

However, further experimentation reveals it may also be related to the power supply. I'm running this board as my main machine for the time being, having scored a P3-666 on the cheap. With the Leadman 400W power supply (reviewed separately here), KingMax RAM works! I think maybe it needs to suck a *little* bit more juice to boot up than my cheap 64 meg DIMM, but so far everything is fine. Mixing both the Mushkin with the KingMax and no errors as yet. The power button instantly switches on now, so I think the bigger standby current has solved that problem too. Previously, I was using a 250 watt Macase power supply which should be fine for any BX motherboard, so it's something to consider if you're thinking about a BXMaster.

BIOS:
The BIOS is Award 4.51PG, the older type where unfortunately you can't bring up a menu for each BIOS setting by pressing Enter. The settings are altered by the usual page-up and page-down keys with F1 showing a list of possible settings. This is a tad backwards, but I think Award have copied AMI in this regard at a date after this board was created. The BIOS settings are typical of most modern BIOS's, but there is no memory interleave option. The ATX power control options after a power outage are a plus, some boards (such as my KA7) seem to be still missing this feature.

Most if not all BIOS's these days have CPU adjustment in the BIOS, and the BXMaster is no exception. A variety of bus speeds are supported: 66, 75, 78, 81, 83, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 112, 115, 117, 120, 122, 124, 126, 133, 135, 138, 140, 142, 144, 150, 155. There were rumours of this board supporting a 1/2 AGP divider, which I've also heard is impossible with the BX chipset. Whether it's possible or not, there is no 1/2 divider here, only the standard 1/1 and 2/3. This makes the 133MHz FSB option less useful for people with AGP cards that can't run reliably over the standard frequency.

There are settings for CPU voltage control, as well as the Northbridge voltage. The former's limits are determined by the type of CPU that is plugged in, while the latter can be adjusted between 3.3 and 3.6v.