The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

AnandTech Motherboard Testing Methodology

Test Configuration

Processor(s): Intel Celeron 366 OEM
RAM: 1 - 64MB Memory Man SEC PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Caviar AC28400 - UltraATA
Video Card(s): Matrox Millennium G200 (8MB SGRAM - AGP)
Bus Master Drivers: Microsoft Win98 DMA Drivers
Video Drivers: Matrox Millennium G200 Release 1677-411
Operation System(s): Windows 98
Motherboard Revision: Gainward 6IZB Revision 1.0

 

Windows 98 Performance

  Winstone Quake 2
Business 99 Quake 2 demo1.dm2
Intel Celeron 366 (5.5 x 66MHz) 6 - 12
(fluctuated)
2.8

 

The Final Decision

The sound/AGP IRQ situation certainly are bad enough, but the performance and stability are unforgivable. A BIOS update likely could fix the IRQ and ACPI issues, but until then, there is no way around those problems. Gainward's first chance at AnandTech was a complete failure. As such, definitely stay away from this board until Gainward has had some more experience in the motherboard business and a chance to deal with their problems.


How it Rates

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

  Business
Performance 30%
Price 83%
Ease of Use 80%
Overclocked Stability N/A
General Stability 60%
Quality 75%
Documentation 75%
Reliability 75%
Overall Rating 67%

Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology

The Bad
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