Ballistics Report

Performance:
I had one main fear with the BM6 - that being a Socket-370 Celeron board, the BM6 would sacrifice performance solely for overclocking and the SoftMenu II feature. Thankfully, this was not so, and the BM6 performed admirably in our suite of tests. The BM6 took a good amount of top scores, and masked its slightly lower CPUMark numbers with excellent real-world performance.

Innovation and Overclocking:
The new BIOS in the shipping versions of the BM6 further streamline the overclocking game - supporting all of the advanced features found in the new BX6 2.0, and more! FSB frequencies of 105, 110, 115, and 120Mhz make overclocking an art of fine-tuning, and there'll be little or no question of what the absolute maximum speed your processor will be able to handle. We felt that these intermediate frequencies are much more useful than even the BX6 2.0's wide range FSB range; now if only Intel could step up the tolerances on their CPUs!

Installation/Instructions:
Unfortunately we didn't have an instruction manual to go with our BM6, but knowing Abit's track record, expect a beautifully detailed 100+ page booklet explaining the board functions and features, and pin-outs. Also, Abit has an excellent habit of detailing all of the available BIOS functions for their motherboards, making tweaking and troubleshooting all the friendlier.

Price:
The BM6 shipped out to OEM distributors on Friday of last week (1/22/99)- which means you'll be finding them on store shelves early this week (same story as the BX6 2.0). The BM6 is priced only dollars above the BH6, and that's simply due to the initial production run. We estimate a street price of roughly $100-110 initially, with the price fluctuating due to demand. It's not quite as cheap as a lot of the LX or Apollo Pro Plus-based 370 boards available, but it's a great deal as a full-featured board for those who want to buy Celerons for their "full" potential.