ABIT VP6

Company: ABIT
Product: VP6 Dual Intel Motherboard
Street Price: ~ $165
Complete Motherboard Spec's: ABIT-USA Spec's
Date Reviewed: May 27, 2001
Reviewed By: Jason

Board Layout:

When I first looked at the VP6, I thought to myself how it was a technological feat to pack so many features such a relatively small dual processor board. The physical dimensions of the VP6 aren't that much bigger than a single processor board.

Starting in the back corner is the power connector, which is located out of the way and doesn't cause any obstructions. Right next to the power connector is a big group of capacitors, and voltage regulators, no doubt for the two CPU's that are adjacent to this group. Oddly enough the CPU sockets are not aligned in the same direction, one has a north-south orientation, while the other is east-west, not a big deal, probably done to minimize trace lengths.

The northbridge chip does not have a fan on it, however it does have a good sized heat sink attached to it. There are no holes around the northbridge chip, so any aftermarket heat sink / fan combo will have to be attached with thermal tape or epoxy. I did notice that the airflow from both the CPU fans blew over the northbridge chip, so it was keeping cool without a fan of its own.

Below the northbridge chip are four DIMM slots supporting up to 2GB of RAM. Out in front are the hard drive and floppy drive connectors. The VP6 does have the Highpoint 370 controller which supports RAID 0,1,0+1. The orange connectors are the HighPoint controlled ones, and the blue connectors are controlled by the VIA southbridge.

The VP6 has 1 AGP (supporting 4x AGP), and 5 PCI slots, plain and simple. Thankfully no space was wasted on AMR/CNR or ISA slots. There is only one jumper on the board, and that is to clear the CMOS.

One nice feature to note is that extra USB connectors were included with the motherboard. You also receive a manual (very detailed), CD with drivers, and floppy & HD cables.

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