Thresh's
Firing
Squad
of
Gamers
Extreme
Says
the
ZM6
"Makes
a
name
for
itself"
|
Taipei,
Taiwan,
R.O.C
March
5,
1999-Thresh's
Firing
Squad
is
one
of
the
up
and
coming
hardware
review
sites.
Through
his
Quake
II
fame,
Dennis
Fong
has
set
up
a
new
site
in
the
gaming
world.
One
of
the
best
features
of
the
Firing
Squad
is
the
"How
to.."
section.
These
guides
provide
useful
information
for
those
who
are
just
entering
the
world
of
computer
gaming. ABIT has also introduced a great product for those who are interested in "getting into the game" so to speak, the ZM6. For the person who is ready to build a high performance system with out having to go all out, the ZM6 offers an excellent entry point. The ZM6 offers the same 440BX core as other BX based boards insuring the same winning performance. And while the ZX chipset offers great performance, ABIT, "long known for their intolerance of the status quo", has pushed the envelope and is stirring it up again. "With the ZM6, you'll find features not supported through the original Intel spec, and some additional options not usually reserved for low-cost parts."
With ABIT's ZM6 you will be able to have the maximum in memory. Although the 440ZX chipset supports up to 256MB of RAM on four memory banks and "it's not possible to up the maximum memory allocation of the chipset, but ABIT did pull a stunt by splitting the 3rd and 4th memory bank between two DIMM sockets. What does this mean? Well, you still have 4 banks and the 256MB limit, but ABIT's been able to implement this through 3 DIMM sockets. This means that you'll be able to use three DIMMS as long as their bank usage adds up to 4 banks, as sockets 2 and 3 share banks 3 and 4. This means you can have two double-sided DIMMs in slots 1 and 2, or 1 double-sided DIMM in slot 1 and 2 single-sided DIMMs in slots 2 and 3. It's certainly a little confusing, but it's a little easier to think in these terms. 32MB and 128MB DIMMs are double sided (and thus take up two banks), while 16 and 64MB DIMMs are single-sided. So if you have 2 64MB DIMMs, you can populate slots 2 and 3, and still be able to add a single or double-sided DIMM to slot 1 - if you decide to buy a 128MB DIMM, you can hit the 256MB limit even though you're using 3 DIMMs instead of 2."
Again, although the ZX chipset only provides for 4 busmastered PCIs, ABIT has given the best with the ZM6 having 5 PCI. "Since PCI5 (shared with ISA1) is a slave, it cannot bus master, making it useless for many video, network, or disk controller cards. However, for those of us with non-bus master peripherals such as 3D add-on cards (voodoo) or certain PCI sound cards, the extra slot can be implemented without any loss of functionality."
ABIT has designed the ZM6 to be the best in its class. To get a great entry-level mainboard with the performance you expect you can't get better than the ZM6, "it strikes to make a name for itself in the low-cost Celeron market, and there it succeeds beautifully." |