BH6 Upgrade Success.......Yeah!!!

[JJJDad]

I recently upgraded my Abit BH6 rev 1.0 MB.

I had a Celeron 300A@450 with 16MB TNT VC. I flashed the BIOS to SS and added a 256MB stick of Crucial RAM, 1Ghz Celeron II and a Visiontek 32 MB Geforce2 GTS-V.

Running 22.50 detonator drivers and OC'd to 200/320, I have been able to get decent scores for this equipment.

3D Mark 2000 old 1333 new 5326
3D Mark 2001 old N/A new 3357

For a three year old board, I'm happy!

Any one else with this board have 3D Mark scores to share?

 

[Feisters]

Good Job. I'm still using a BH6-v1.0 mobo in my main rig with a P3-600 oc'd to 744 (124 bus). It's starting to get a little long in the tooth though, not to mention the 2 year old install of Win98 is getting a little cranky. The 14MB hdd's are full, and that's slowing things down too. Rather than upgrade, I'm going to religate the ol' girl to file storage and build a complete new system soon. The BH6 was, and I guess still is, one workhorse of a motherboard.

 

[akshatp]

14MB hdd's????


YIKES!!!!!!!!!

 

[Texun]

This is great news.... I've got a BH6 with the PII-550 and I hate to think of parting with it just because it's old. I don't know why, but I do. It's been a rock since day one and I haven't flashed the BIOS in two years. It's good to know there are still updates. It's been so long since I've been in the BIOS I can't remember what the highest cpu is that it will take. I don't suppose ABIT worked any magic with the FSB yet, or did they?

Thanks,
R

 

[JJJDad]

The official ABIT website gives official support for PIII at 600 and Celeron at 700Mhz. However, I know of people that have gone as high as CII 1.1Ghz and PIII 1 GHZ on a 100MHZ front side bus. The MB supports a FSB up to 124.

There is a company with an addapter that allows a tualitin 1.2GHZ chip to be used in a slot 1 board, but I do not know the name.

This rig will be my kids gaming rig. I am going to build a new one either just before or just after christmas.

Good luck updating your rig. It was easy for me.

Especially, with help from guys like oldfart. He gives good advice.

 

[oslama]

Powerleap celleronII(tualtin)1.2ghz + voltage adaptor for $169

 

[oldfart]

Congrats JJJDad! Take a look @ my system rigs, kids PC #1. It is very similar to yours. If you haven't done so, set the FSB to 112 for an overclock to 1.12 GHz. The extra bus speed helps out as well. My system got 3160 in 3Dmark 2K1. You got me beat by a couple hundred points.

 

[JJJDad]

Oldfart,

What drivers are you using? I am using 22.50. They are working well. I was putting off OCing the FSB becasue I gotta open up my case and take out a weak stick of RAM. I do not think it will make the OC with it in there.

 

[JJJDad]

I change my FSB to 112. So my CPU is now at 1120 Mhz and I moved my VC to 200/330 using the same 22.50 drivers.

My latest scores are as follows:

3D Mark 2000 5795
3D Mark 2001 3647

So far I am stable at these settings. No anomolies and no hang ups.

 

[redmnms]

Excellent!
I also just recently flashed my BH6 1.0 to SS. First flash ever; terrifying but
after reading and understanding how awdflash works, went without a hitch.
Now I'm ready to update this ole board. 3 years now and has always been
one of my best buys ever.

I'm wondering, what is the fastest, bestest ram that this board can handle?

I'm also about to build another computer, and was wondering if Abit is still a good
choice. I really like Softmenu, and don't want to go back to the old days of
switches. What's the best Abit board to use with the new Athlons?

 

[oldfart]

System is running
Win98
22.50
DX 8a
CPU = 1120 MHZ
256 meg ram (1 stick)
Elsa GF2 200/333

Hmm something seems wrong. Your system beats this one with the same specs pretty well. You are doing the default 3Dmark test, no changes 10 x 7 x 32? Something in the bios config maybe? I'll mess around with it when I get a chance.

 

[JJJDad]

Oldfart,

I do the default 3DM 2000 on a fresh boot and make sure I do not have a bunch stuff in my sys tray.

The 3d mark 2001 is at 16bit colors not 32. My score drops by approx 150 points at 32 bit on 3DM2001 otherwise it is the default benchmark.

 

[oldfart]

I tested 3DMark 2K1 10x7x16 and got a 3636 score. Sounds about right now.

 

[grinningwolf]

Congrats! Wish I could say the same for me. :frown:
I've just wasted away 2 BH6 1.01 boards trying to do
the SS upgrade.

I saved the old bios, loaded the new, no errors,
when it says exit or reset, I exit back to dos, and
then reboot. And thats the last. It beeps, the
CD blinks, and thats it. No video, no floppy access. nada.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[oldfart]

Odd. I've done a 1.01 and a 1.0 no problems. You booting from a floppy? What flash utility?

 

[Outfits]

JJJDad, I don't know where you got your info


<< The MB supports a FSB up to 124 >>

but its wrong, unless I'm the ONLY one running 6x133= PIII 600 @ 800 for 18 months now.
The only benchmark I have is 2.2mkps on RC5-64. It has been the best MB I've ever owned and trouble free, though I've heard not everyone has had the same luck.

grinningwolf, do you have some kind of Anti-Virus program running? I've flashed mine thru most of the released bios' without any problems, except having to deal with the shortening of long filenames, which wasn't a real problem. Maybe someone can help if you post in detail just what you did.

 

[aventari]

If it wont boot after a bios flash, try resetting the BIOS. either pull the battery and start the board for a sec, then shut it down and put the battery back, or there might be a jumper.

This has worked both times on the 2 boards I flashed that wouldn't boot

 

[JJJDad]

Outfits, your right, my bad. It does do 133FSB. What is your AGP clock speed? Did you have any problems with components taking the OC.

 

[oldfart]

BH6 rev 1.0x boards do not have the hardware (clock generator chip) to support a 1/4 PCI divider. Yes, you can run a 133 MHz FSB. You will have a 44 MHz PCI bus if you do. You may get lucky and have it run if your components are very tolerant to such a high PCI bus. Rev 1.1 boards have a different clock generator and can do 1/4 PCI.

 

[Outfits]

I guess AGP would be about 88mhz. I realize everything is overclocked so to speak but it has only improved performance for myself. An STB 4400 TNT, V3 3000(ran this one the longest), and Asus 6800 DDR GeForce all ran fine. I also used a SB Live value, SB X-Gamer, MX 300, Linksys Line 100tx, and AverTV 98. My modems are all external. So far I haven't found any hardware that wouldn't run, I even ran a Stealth II G460 @ 1/1 with a 100mhz bus on a BX6 until a bios update.
It started giving me serious artifacts and I feared a bad flash, but setting AGP down to 2/3 fixed it. While running RC5 24/7 (979 days and counting) is not a true stress test, I did run Prime 95 along with RC5 (49% CPU each) for 36 hours without a problem. The only thing I ever felt was needed was to warm boot Win98 once a week and 2000 PRO once every 2 weeks. The BH6 has now been demoted to #2 system. A Soyo Dragon+ and XP1600(my first AMD build since a 386) is making my day(so far, its only 2 days old) now.

Clear CMOS jumper is at the end of the first ISA slot, set it to clear and power on for a few seconds, then set jumper back.