Intel 440BX 133MHz Motherboard Roundup (June 2000)

It doesn't make sense to buy a BX motherboard now with hopes of it remaining capable of running the latest processors in a few months (Willamette will use a completely different bus), but one thing a lot of potential BX motherboards owners were worried about was not having Ultra DMA 66 support on their BX motherboards.

As we proved in our Ultra DMA 33 vs. Ultra DMA 66 comparison, the Ultra DMA 66 specification does not provide any tangible performance benefits for today's hard drives but that is quickly changing.  The IBM Deskstar 75GXP is supposed to be able to provide performance that is limited by the Ultra DMA 33 specification, which could cause problems for BX motherboard users since their boards would be limiting their disk performance.

Last year, when it became clear that the BX chipset would be around for at least a little while longer while Intel readied the i820 chipset, motherboard manufacturers began adding external Ultra DMA 66 controllers to their motherboards.  At that time, there wasn't really a need for Ultra DMA 66 support since no hard drives could burst at above 33MB/s, but quite a few users went after the motherboards simply because they supported Ultra DMA 66. 

There are a few options for users when it comes to having Ultra DMA 66 support on a BX motherboard.  Currently Promise, CMD and High Point manufacture controllers that are being used on BX motherboards in order to add Ultra DMA 66 support.  Moreover, if your motherboard doesn't feature either one of those on-board controllers, you can always purchase an add-on card that features either one of the controllers. 

High Point HPT366

Used on: ABIT BE6-II & Soyo SY-6BA+IV

Promise PDC20262

Used on: Gigabyte GA-6BX7+ & Microstar BXMaster

CMD 648

Used on: ASUS CUBX