ABIT SH6 Slot-1 i815E ATX

The Features

The 82815 GMCH, which is the core of the i815 chipset, sits to the left of the CPU socket. It features integrated i752-based 3D video. One serial port is replaced by the VGA connector at the back of the motherboard. However, from our Intel i815 chipset article, you can see that the integrated i752 performs quite poorly. It should be enough for most users who do not use any 3D accelerated applications, but for everyone else, the on-board video is definitely not acceptable. Fortunately, an AGP slot is provided allowing you to install any video. The AGP slot is a "universal slot," meaning that you can put in almost any AGP card.

Beside the AGP slot, there is also a connector where users can insert an optional add-on card to enable the on-board VGA to be output to TV-Out or Flat Panel LCD monitors. Since the on-board VGA connector replaces one serial port, ABIT puts the second serial port connector between the fourth and fifth PCI slots, and they include the necessary serial port bracket.

Just like the SE6 and SA6R, the SH6 also has four DIMM slots instead of the three you'll typically find on an i815(E) board. However, since the chipset only supports 6 rows of memory, there are some constraints here. The first two slots works like normal. But the third and fourth DIMM slots share memory banks 5 and 6. Therefore, if you want to use both the third and fourth DIMM slots, two of the modules must be single-sided. If the SDRAM is all double-sided, a maximum of 3 DIMM slots can be occupied.

For most, 512MB memory is more than enough for now, but this won't be the case forever. This is not a fault of ABIT though; but rather is a limitation of the i815E chipset. Additionally, the i815E chipset also has some constraints on memory types. If you want to use PC133 SDRAM, only the first two DIMM slots can be populated. If users want to use all three DIMM slots, the memory will have to run in PC100 mode. The SH6 does allow you to force all modules to run in PC133 mode, but the system became quite unstable in our testing with this option enabled.

Below the first and second PCI slots is the 82801BA I/O Controller Hub 2 (ICH2), which is what differentiates the i815E chipset from the i815 chipset. The i815 chipset, which uses the 82801AA ICH1, which only has Ultra ATA 66 support. The 82801BA ICH2 not only features Ultra ATA 100 support, but also adds a second USB controller and the Intel 82559 network controller.

The second USB controller allows two more USB devices on top of the original two. The original USB connectors are located at the back on the I/O panel, and ABIT puts the extra two USB headers on the left hand side of the motherboard. ABIT also includes the necessary USB bracket to take advantage of those extra USB ports.

The SH6 features 6 PCI slots as part of its 6/0/1/1 (PCI/ISA/CNR/AGP) expansion slot setup, which is about as good as it gets right now. The CNR slot is shared with the last PCI slot and provides access to the 82559 network controller integrated in the ICH2. This network controller supports 10Mbps Home PNA 2.0 or 10/100 Ethernet depending on the CNR card that is plugged in. However, currently we only see a handful of suppliers of CNR cards, which is unfortunate because the 82559 network controller is quite good and the CNR cards are relatively cheap.

The SH6 uses the Avance Logic ALC200 AC'97 CODEC as their on-board sound solution. AC'97 audio provides some basic sound functionality for users on a budget, but for those who are serious about sound should definitely go for a true hardware-based PCI solution.

The manual shipped with the SH6 is similar to that of the SE6 and SA6R, which means it is of very high quality. It gives you a step-by-step installation and configuration guide for your system, from how to install the motherboard to information on the jumpers / connectors, BIOS settings all the way to driver setup. The CD provided by ABIT has all the drivers and software utilities you'll need for the motherboard.