Intel 440BX Motherboard Buyers Guide. Which Pentium III Motherboard Should You Choose? 

Buyers Guide: Whatever is available 😅 I haven't look in a long time, curious what the market is like.

Blast from the past. Instant flashback to our Pentium III 450. Was paired with a PCI Banshee. Great video :)

I have fond memories of the BP6. I ran it for a long time as my daily driver with a full SCSI setup (plextor, CD R/W pioneer DVD and a couple of U160 IBM disks) When it was time to upgrade, I mounted it in a 4U case and colocated it. Very stable setup.

Great video, Victor! My favourite BX board is the good old ASUS P2B. Very stable and an all around great performer. I was able to overclock a Celeron 300A in that board to 600MHz with a slotket adapter and a voltage bump with a 133MHz FSB. The AGP/PCI bus were probably way out of spec, but it was fun for some brief benchmarking and testing. I want to build a 1998 dream machine with it one of these days (P2 400 or 450 with V2 SLI). I also had an Abit BP6 back in the early 2000s that I used as a home server for a while. It ran a pair of 300A celeron chips at 450MHz. I stopped using it when it when it became unstable from bad capacitors. I don't remember whatever happened to it, but I wish I kept it!

I own two 440 chipset boards. The first one is an ASUS P2-99 with 440zx chipset and 3 ISA slots. The other is an ASUS P3B-F with the 2 ISA slots. Both are really good stable Motherboards. What I did with the P3B-F motherboard is, updated the bios, mounted a Slocket adapter on it with a socket 370 1GHZ pentium 3. I've tried both versions of the 1GHZ (100 and 133FSB) and work great. But like you said, I'm afraid of with the age of the motherboard, running the 133fsb CPU, it's gonna overclock the agp/pci slots and ruin the motherboard, so I use the 100fsb CPU on it

Oh gosh, talking about the Abit board around the 10m mark. I was working for a small PC repair shop at the time, and someone apparently came in with a huge wallet and the sales guy talked him into theoretical top of the line everything. I don't remember if it was this board specifically or another one, but he ended up with a Promise IDE controller with *four* IBM Deathstars attached in a RAID-0 array. Talk about data loss. The sales guy also talked him into an extended 3 year warranty on parts and labor. Towards the end of that period I swear we were swapping in a new hard drive every other month. I created a slipstreamed Windows 98 automated install CD with drivers just for that one computer to save time. Since the drives themselves had I think a one year warranty only, the shop probably lost 3-4x the initial sale price in replacement parts alone, let alone labor.

Another good 440BX mobo was the Shuttle M003, which was used in the “Blaster PC” barebones kit. It had an SB Live chip slapped right onto the board. It was a good overclocker too. I put a Tualatin Celeron 1400 MHz in it with a special slotkit, then OCed the FSB to 115, which brought it up to 1610. Good times. :)

There is sort of an Asus P2B-DLS, its called HP Netserver E60. It was made by Asus for HP, but with different SCSI controller (AIC-7895 instead of the AIC-7890) and intel 100mb lan chip (GD82559).

I have a 440BX Jetway 9BXAN with Slot 1 and Socket 370 running a Pentium II 350 @ 466 on 133 MHz FSB with 256 MB of RAM, Riva TNT AGP that doesn't seem to mind the AGP overclock and two Voodoo2 12 MB in SLI. Such a great and versatile chipset!

I ran a BP6 with dual 366 celerons at 550 as my main box from my junior year in high school through my first few years in college and loved that system. Having a dual rig at Lan parties was like being a celebrity, everyone wanted to have a look. I still have the board but use a BX133-RAID in my retro box now.

the ABit BE6-II was also used in some gateways, I love that motherboard!

I still own an ABIT BE6-2 with 512 MB PC100 and celeron 800 CPU, I would have gone for the BF6 which has 6 PCI and 1 ISA but minus the highpoint 66 ATA controller..... I agree with Voctor, disable the highpoint controller, for data security.

I've got a big nostalgia for the 440BX era. The shop I worked at had mostly midrange P2 computers and bottom of the barrel super 7 computers. The crashing and failure rate of the K6-2 PCs we sold made me appreciate Intel stuff. More than likely though it was the cheapness of the components that had a bigger impact than the architecture. I'm so much more limited now. A while back I got a whole working era computer off ebay, but tinkering with it caused it to stop POSTing. I don't have any of my old diagnostic tools or spare parts to troubleshoot - I even found it lacks a PC speaker to give me beep codes! I really wish I had the money and space to fix it up and use it, but the US healthcare system is diverting any spare funds I have. I'm an ignorant USian, but I love your accent, it's very pleasant! Especially the way you pronounce SCSI.

Cool video, thank you Bart. I have MSI 6119 v1.1 BX2 and i also have that Abit BX6 II motherboard. Both systems has PII 400Mhz installed. 440BX chipset is very stable chipset, good for overclocking.

Specs of my Ultimate 1999 Gaming PC that I just recently got up and running of which most if not all of the parts are from 1999. I even have not just a LITE ON 52x CD-RW Drive installed but also a Creative PC-DVD ROM Dxr2 installed. I even have a HP CD Writer Plus 8200e External USB CD-RW Drive plugged into the system. Looks simillar to the HP CD Writter 9200 Plus that was on my dad’s AMD K6-2 build which was clocked at 450 Mhz with a ATI 3D Rage 128. Motherboard: Abit BE6-II Revision 1.0 Processor: Intel Pentium III clocked at 650 Mhz (Originally I wanted to either go with a Pentium 3 clocked at 550 Mhz in order to have something that was close to what I had with a Dell Optiplex GX1 or a Pentium 2 clocked at 266 Mhz so that I could slow the system down significantly) RAM: 256 MB Hard Drive (had): 60 GB QUANTUM FIREBALL PLUS AS (Extremely loud) Video Card: 3Dfx Voodoo 3 3000 (AGP Varient) Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Value CT4520 (Used this in a Gateway Essential ESS 450 SE from 2015 to 2017 that I used to have and even though I have Yamaha OPL3-SA as well as ESS AudioDrive this card being the only Sound Blaster 16 compliant card around makes it a really good choice) Network Interface Card (NIC): Linksys EtherFast 10/100 LAN Card Version 2.0 (I use this primarily for playing online video games) Re-enabled the HighPoint (LowPoint) HPT 366 Ultra DMA 66 controller that is onboard and hooked up a 2 TB Western Digital hard drive as the replacement for the Quantum drive. I am using a StarTech IDE to SATA Hard Drive or Optical Drive Adapter Converter that was not playing nice with the Intel i440BX chipset. I recommend at least a minimum of Ultra66 in order for this adapter to work properly. I used the Highpoint drivers on the Abit BX-1.67M Motherboard CD. Instead of using the Highpoint UDMA66 controller instead best thing to do is install a UDMA100 IDE controller such as the Promise FastTrack TX2000 or even a SCSI controller card like this Adaptec AHA-2940UW. This particular SCSI card does 50-Pin as well as 68-Pin SCSI. Just remember to not use that fourth PCI slot.

Aopen ax6bc is a good choice imo. Very stable. Lots of FSB choices. Totally fine at 133fsb. I've run everything from p233 to Tualatin 1.4 on it.

As I am writing this comment I am currently retrieving a Win98a backup from October 1998 with the same Mainboard I used back then which is....... an MSI MS-6163 V1.0. I also found my VooDoo3 that is running smoothly on the MSI mainboard. Fun times back then and now, well mostly 🙂

Epox is Asus or Abit's tier. Not enough attention has been given to this maker by enthusiasts. Even if the fact it's kind of "obscure" makes it more disirable. The EP-BX7+100 is simply the Queen of 440BX mono-CPU boards. It's slightly better than the Abit BX133 Raid (socket 370 version of the BE6-II) in every possible way. It's faster at the same clock and better at overclocking. And it adds a RAM slot. The EP-BX5 is also a GREAT board. Even owning the poor man's version (NMC 6BEX), I have been very impressed by how stable it is at 153MHz FSB.

That P3B-F Rev 1.04 with 2 ISA slot is very desirable. Considered myself lucky to find and buy via local FB Marketplace an Asus P3V4X in clean but untested condition and found out that it works. The Asus P3V4X looks very similar to the Asus P3B-F with one ISA slot.

Hello, I use Abit BH6 (rev 1.1) and it seems to be one of the best motherboards This motherboard has a PCI x4 divider, so when I set the FSB to 133MHz. PCI is still 33mhz and this motherboard works great with all P3 cpu's i have tested katmai, coppermine and tualatins

I have 4 Slot 1 motherboards. 2 Soyo SY6BA+ with updated bioses, 1 late Soyo SY6BA+ III with updated bios, and a later A open with updated bios from 2002, all of them have two ISA slots. Wondering the A open one has the power LED connection (for the case LED) not working (seems to a problem with these boards?) any easy fixes to this problem so i can use that connection?. Or perhaps a way to get around the problem. Keep the great videos coming Victor 👍

I'd go no further than the Intel 440BX-2. Specifically, the version not sold in Dell pre-built as that particular version needs a Dell PSU. Plus the onboard Yamaha audio has excellent SB support and proper MIDI. TBH though I'd only ever use it with my PIII 650, which is rendered pointless by my primary Jetway board (Apollo 694X) does S370 and Slot 1, so I can use my PIII667 and 1000. I use my 440LX board for Slot 1 builds however - the Asus P2L97 which so far boots and runs Windows with the PIII 650 (but recognised as a PII 429, 487 or 539 depending on BUS speed and runs at 2V) and treats my 512MB sticks of RAM as 256MB (it only recognises 1 rank per stick). The board is always rock solid at 83MHz with its original: PII 233 (and both my Celeron 300A and 333), Viper V550, Diamond Monster 3DII, Awe64 Value, and Intel 100B/TX. Plus if I'm running the Klamath PII as well I can lower the multiplier enough to run games that won't start on fast computers (eg. Dark Ages, Pharoh's Tomb).

Besides a P2B-F and P3B-F, I've got an Abit BM6, which I got for next to nothing and love to bits. It's socket370, so only supports Celerons but it's just as solid as any of its slot1 440BX bros. Currently using it with a 300A (@1.9V), but I've got a coppermine 533A for it as well (that's 1.5V only!).

Back in 1999 i had asus p2b-b AT style motherboard and since 1999 i didn't see any AT style 440BX. With P-II 333 mhz Deschutes, 128 MB ram later upgrade to 256mb, TnT2 pro, and SB LIve !. And glorious 19" CRT BElinea Latest upgrade was 40 GB HDD. Served me well for years

Based, what a great channel you've got here. I have to admit I've made it harder to find some of these, I've liked like 3 of them before i realized that it was my cpu i was trying to get to run that was frying them. Finally wound up with a CUBX-L that had been pretty good. I can't for the life of me get it to run stable above 100mhz fsb thought :/

I have a P3b-f Rev. 1.4 with 1008 beta bios. Best 440BX I love this thing. I OC my 650mhz cpu to 866mhz with a 133FSB and it's a MONSTER and I paid 10 bucks for the cpu :P

Thanks for guide. I'm thinking to buy slot 1 motherboard.

Great video! I have many 440bx motherboards, it was the best chipset for that time and with great compatibility with cards, memory etc

Ahh the BP6. Loved that board. Spent a lot of time looking up SMP support in games.

I also had a BP6. Loved Abit products, and A-open cases and accessories at the time......good old days. Hated windows NT at the time for the dual cpu support, and windows 2000 was out shortly after.

I have an Aopen AX6B, always worked great for me. Also got such a legendary Abit BP6, for which I machined two Thermaltake Super Orb coolers to fi it looks great.

Was building machine based around the FIC VB-601 which was a really solid board based on the 440BX, although a Dual Slot 1 Would be fun again to build

P2B is a really solid platform for a late dos / early W98 setup. I mostly run mine with a Klamanth chip since they can underclock all the way to 133 MHz, perfect for a smooth Daggerfall without breaking the engine too badly. I did have to update the BIOS before it would recognize an 80 gig IDE drive though.

I have the P3B-F Asus board. love it. P3 550 1gb 100MHz bus. I'm looking for the duel cpu board. I have two P2 400's for it. if I ever find one

My main retro PC is running P2B-DS with dual SL4KL 1GHz Slot 1 CPU's. I spent way too much money on it but I'm also very happy with it! I did try running a 1GHz P3 CPU with 133MHz FSB once but I couldn't get the platform stable. I cannot recall for sure what graphics cards I tried; Probably Voodoo 3, GeForce2 Ultra, and or GeForce4 MX 440.

I had the standard P2B. Truly a legendary board :)

I got asus p2b-f 103. Quite good board for my use. i have slocket adapter and 1ghz p3 133fsb (also got lot of other 400-800mhz p2/p3 prosessors if needed). gf4mx 440, sb2 pro, ide-cf adapter, fdd, 1.2mb floppy, dvd-drive

Actually i have with the 440bx: Abit BX6, Abit BE6, Abit BF6 and a Asus P2B-F.

As far as IBM Deskstar hard drives go, I know they are notorious for failing. That being said, I have had a 4.3gb one in nearly uninterrupted operation for over 22 years.

Missing mention of the P2B-LS

I have some boards i need to recap. I know recapping with better caps can increase overclocks on old boards. A guy on tpu forums used to recap everything and post results.

Victor!! My kind of people :) I own a ABit BX6 with a 440BX on it. I have it with a Pentium II 266 Klamath which I love because it's unlocked and let me play with the multiplier. Looking for a 500Mhz one, i got a Pentium III but Xeon (it is not in the motherboard compatibility list). Should I look for a Pentium III Katmai instead? The Xeon works fine but i am not sure if it's the right cpu. Searching on Google all I could find was that the difference it's in the cache, wondering if that's it? Awesome channel!! just subscribed ;)

You are a GOD in this realm...

It also supports Pentium II Klamath and Deschutes.

If you want to push 133mhz ram 2x256 I've found that boards that have buffer chips for the ram sockets to be a good choice. YMMV there though 440bx boards from Asus can be pricey.

There were also funny L-shaped boards: P2B-S (single CPU with SCSI), P2B-L (single CPU with LAN) and P2B-LS (both SCSI and LAN).

Cool boards! What OS would you use with dual cpu boards?

I want a MB like that one day!! AGP is so nice

Wszystkiego najlepszego rzycze z całego serca wesołych świąt ♥️♥️♥️

I have P2B-S in PII 400MHz PC with Voodoo 1 and P3B-F in PIII 650 PC with Voodoo 2 SLI. Both are really stable boards. Ofc TUSL2-C/Abit ST6 with i815 are gems, but they have mentioned drawback of only 512MB support and no ECC. Still 1GB RAM on 440bx is really pain, you will be lucky if 512 will be visible... Never had luck with this... Meanwhile on i815 you can stick one 512MB stick and it will work fine.

Abit BE6-II was the best mainboard with 440BX

I so need a dual CPU from those times ! But the prices are way too high :(

Abit BH6, Asus P2B-DS.

I have a Asus Cubx , and it was free. In hindsight i'm really lucky 👍

440BX systems are so interesting. Like!

the one that works best with Haiku.

BX & 815 chipsets for PIII were good. 810 not as stable. I had an ASUS TUSL2-C motherboard, which has rare support for the Tualatin PIII a server CPU and was amongst the first to support RAM data prefetching & much faster. It was too expensive for me though.

I had a dual Slot one motherboard, with scsi loved it! It did support 4 gig of ram funny enough. sadly the PSU spiked it and killed it.

I have Asus cusl2 with Pentium 3 1ghz for my 2000 buid.

How to check and confirm your ecc memory in 440 bx is active and effective? I have 4 * 64gb samsung ecc memory insert into p3b-f and enabled it in bios, during screen before boot ,it shows in ecc mode, but I use memtest86 cd-rom to boot and test the entire memory, the memetest86+ always test the entire memory in non-ecc mode, why ?

what do you think about another Chipset you didn't mention like ASUS P3V4X Apollo Pro 133A Slot-1?

I have Abit BX133-RAID

for 370 i like the i815 chipset :)

Gigabyte GA-6BA It is very compact and has voodoo 3 jumpers ; )

For period corect PC from 1999, I have Chaintech CT-6BTA3 and slot 1 P3 700Mhz, 512 mb sd ram (2X 256mb sd ram, It's not period correct, but why not :D ), seagate 20 gb hdd , nvidia tnt2 ultra , and of course Windows 98 se and DX 7. I tried to install Inno Vision voodoo 2 12 mb version , but one of 2 tmu i not working :( In some future time i need to repair my voodoo 2 or find another voodoo 2 :/

The only 440BX motherboard I have in my collection atm is a Gigabyte GA-6BXE. Nothing special, but it's nice and stable. As for the memory. Back then, a GB of RAM was just a fantasy for most people. Hell, even 768 MB would have been considered 1337 / exotic in '98/99. Or was I just poor? lol

the asus is great!!perfect balance all hail victor bart. ...

ASUS P2B-D(S) represent!

What's scoosy?

P2B、P2B-Dは今でも持ってます　いいマザーでした

A Pentium 3 with untested motherboard still sells for $100 in my country like wtf...

Didn't like the video, only 8 "scuuuzy" mentions :( Here Asus P2B DS

I recall hearing of some 440BX board with a 4th FSB jumper that allowed 133MHz FSB WITHOUT overclocking the PCI/AGP. Does that exist and what model(s)?

Legit

ASSES ❤

These high speeds will never prevail ... 8086 forever ... Looked in the basement and found ... : 7x Asus P2B, 5x Asus P3B ... an a lot of another boards. Dual-Pentium1-Boards with EDO-RAM and so on...

5:11 Balanced?? *BALANCED* ??? WHO NEEDS BALANCED? PAH A JEDI CRAVES NOT THESE THINGS, YOU MUST MAX THE BOARD FEEL THE POWAH!

Asses P2B...🤣

Te veel reclame er tussendoor. Ik ben klaar er mee.

i have a pie that has more memory than that :P

You do realize only NT based OSs support multiple processors, right? NT is garbage for gamming, Win2K is almost as bad, and WinXP is too modern for these boards, so dual processors are a complete waste. Of coarse they look cool, so there's that.

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐦