Hello All. I spent my 2 1/2 hr (whoops!) lunch break today meeting up with some friends from college and, after some beer and the normal chat about women, we got to talking about some of the retro motherboards that we spent many-a-night with back in the day. We came up with our own personal "Top 5" list of the motherboards that we found to be the most influential over our time. This list is not all inclusive, nor does it date back past 1998 or so... yet it does include the motherboards that we think defined "enthusiast" in their time and some of the reasons behind each one.
5) Asus CUSL2:
At the time of its release, this board was an enthusiasts dream come true. The lastest features, an incredibly stable intel i815 chipset, DDR 133mhz support, and best of all, a world of overclocking options enabled by Asus's BIOS. We were easily running our P3 cB0 700mhz cpu's at 950mhz or sometimes even near or slightly above the ominous 1ghz barrier. Overall, a great board and one of the first to show consistant stable overclocks.
4) Abit KT7 / KT7A
Who doesn't remember the time when just about everyone had this board in their rig? These boards included one of the first successful VIA chipsets, onboard IDE Raid, and a wealth of other features that virtually vaulted the Athlon Thunderbird into the eyes of enthusiasts everywhere. This board also helped to keep Abit at the top of the list of name brand enthusiast mainboards.
3) Abit BP6
So let me get this straight, 2 celerons perform better than my one Pentium 3??? Who would have ever thought that this board was going to be as sucessful as it was in the enthusiast market. The insane overclocks made this board a staple of multithreaded heaven for years to come. Most people upgraded their main system numerous times yet kept their trusty BP6 around as a "spare" or "backup" pc because it was too valuable in their mind to just get rid off.
2) Asus P2B
The one, the only, the legendary, P2B. At the heart of this beauty was the indestructable Intel 440BX chipset, powering Pentium 2's and 3's higher than ever before. Even though the board was rated at 100mhz, this jumpered wonder easily ran the 133mhz chips and was even able to further overclock those chips. Got a new 600mhz / 133fsb P3? Just throw it in your P2B and watch the benchmark scores absolutely crush all of the newer and "better" chipsets that came out for the P3 at the time.
1) Abit TH7II-RAID
What?!?!? A Rambus chipset is #1? YEP. It is impossible to find a motherboard that held the performance crown for longer than the TH7II. When this board was first released, it easily became the highest performing board / chipset for the P4... not to mention the overcloking possibilities. As time went on, newer chipsets were released (including DDR chipsets) and none were able to match the performance of the TH7II and i850 chipset. Even when 533fsb P4's started showing up, you were able to just slap some PC1066 Samsung Rambus into your trusty TH7II and rule the benchmark world again. I, like most [H]ard enthusiasts, tend to swap out my motherboard every 6 -12 months in favor of the latest and greatest. This motherboard still holds the record for remaining in my box for 1 month shy of 2 years while still being at or near the top of the performance charts.
You've heard my list... whats yours? Thanx for reading and taking a walk down memory lane!
Aux
5) Asus CUSL2:
At the time of its release, this board was an enthusiasts dream come true. The lastest features, an incredibly stable intel i815 chipset, DDR 133mhz support, and best of all, a world of overclocking options enabled by Asus's BIOS. We were easily running our P3 cB0 700mhz cpu's at 950mhz or sometimes even near or slightly above the ominous 1ghz barrier. Overall, a great board and one of the first to show consistant stable overclocks.
4) Abit KT7 / KT7A
Who doesn't remember the time when just about everyone had this board in their rig? These boards included one of the first successful VIA chipsets, onboard IDE Raid, and a wealth of other features that virtually vaulted the Athlon Thunderbird into the eyes of enthusiasts everywhere. This board also helped to keep Abit at the top of the list of name brand enthusiast mainboards.
3) Abit BP6
So let me get this straight, 2 celerons perform better than my one Pentium 3??? Who would have ever thought that this board was going to be as sucessful as it was in the enthusiast market. The insane overclocks made this board a staple of multithreaded heaven for years to come. Most people upgraded their main system numerous times yet kept their trusty BP6 around as a "spare" or "backup" pc because it was too valuable in their mind to just get rid off.
2) Asus P2B
The one, the only, the legendary, P2B. At the heart of this beauty was the indestructable Intel 440BX chipset, powering Pentium 2's and 3's higher than ever before. Even though the board was rated at 100mhz, this jumpered wonder easily ran the 133mhz chips and was even able to further overclock those chips. Got a new 600mhz / 133fsb P3? Just throw it in your P2B and watch the benchmark scores absolutely crush all of the newer and "better" chipsets that came out for the P3 at the time.
1) Abit TH7II-RAID
What?!?!? A Rambus chipset is #1? YEP. It is impossible to find a motherboard that held the performance crown for longer than the TH7II. When this board was first released, it easily became the highest performing board / chipset for the P4... not to mention the overcloking possibilities. As time went on, newer chipsets were released (including DDR chipsets) and none were able to match the performance of the TH7II and i850 chipset. Even when 533fsb P4's started showing up, you were able to just slap some PC1066 Samsung Rambus into your trusty TH7II and rule the benchmark world again. I, like most [H]ard enthusiasts, tend to swap out my motherboard every 6 -12 months in favor of the latest and greatest. This motherboard still holds the record for remaining in my box for 1 month shy of 2 years while still being at or near the top of the performance charts.
You've heard my list... whats yours? Thanx for reading and taking a walk down memory lane!
Aux