Text preview for : Freetech P6F91i Slot-1.pdf part of Freetech P6F91i Freetech P6F91i "Scorpioni" (Pentium 2) SLOT1 motherboard Manual PDF file
Back to : Freetech P6F91i Slot-1.ra | Home
Freetech P6F91i Slot-1 i440BX ATX
Date: Oct 24, 1999 Type: Motherboard Manufacturer: Freetech Author: Elliott Lee Hazen Page 1
Flexus Technology, under the Freetech brand name, is a fairly recent entry to the motherboard market. Founded in 1990, we're just now seeing their boards in computers everywhere. In their quest for motherboard excellence, their boards have been making the review rounds, now adding a third stop in the AnandTech labs. While Freetech boards can be hard to find, they are competitive with larger motherboard manufactures thanks to boards such as this. The Freetech P6F91i was a very stable board with all of the standard options but lacking some amenities.
New Anand Tech Report Card Rating 88/B
Motherboard Specifications CPU Interface Chipset L2 Cache Form Factor Bus Speeds Clock Multipliers Voltages Supported Memory Slots Expansion Slots BIOS The Good The P6F91i runs on the Intel 82440BX AGPset and can take advantage of up to 768 MB of SDRAM. It has a very similar layout to Freetech's P6F107, although it is a Slot-1 rather than a Socket-370 interface. This board features a 5/2/1 (PCI/ISA/AGP) slot configuration with a total of 3 DIMM slots. Neither of the ISA slots is capable of accepting full length cards, while all but one of the PCI slots can take full length cards. Slot-1 Intel i440BX N/A (on-chip) ATX 66 / 68 / 75 / 83 100 / 103 / 112 / 124 / 133 / 140 / 150 3.0x - 8.0x Auto Detect 3 168pin DIMM Slots 0 AMR Slots 1 AGP Slot 5 PCI Slots (4 Full Length) 2 ISA Slots (1 Shared / 1 Full Length) Award 4.51PG
Click to enlarge
The ATX specification is followed closely for the most part, with the ATX power cable being the only real exception. It's placed behind the Slot-1 connector, as shown in the picture, which forces the power cable to run over both memory slots and CPU adding to the jumble inside the case. There are only two fan connectors on this board -- one directly to the left of the chip and the other below the PCI slots at the left front of the board. There were plenty of capacitors both around the chip and a few scattered around the board. There are four 2200uF capacitors, two 1500uF caps and one 1000uF cap along with multiple 330uF caps near the Slot-1 and smaller 100uF caps around the rest of board. Instead of the standard green heatsink Freetech decided to tone it down with a black heatsink mounted with thermal tape onto the chipset rather than grease or the more common spring clips. One advantage of using thermal tape instead of spring clips, is that the tape allows more heat to be transferred to the heatsink. CPU retention mechanisms come with the board, but have to be manually installed and will hold any Celeron, Pentium II, or Pentium III CPU. Unfortunately, Freetech did not include the diagnostic LED's that were found on the P6107 on this P6F91i. The LED's on the P6F107 would diagnose simple issues such as bad memory or video, making it easier for anyone to detect installation problems; a great addition for computer builders. Just like the P6F107, Freetech allows a jumperless CPU configuration, switching in the BIOS for clock/FSB frequency and CPU multiplier. There are three jumpers on the board: the two standard CMOS reset and for disabling keyboard power on along with a jumper to force 100MHz. In the BIOS, Freetech has reversed the two columns by putting all saving commands on the right. The CPU
settings are under "Chipset Features Setup" with settings for clock multiplier and FSB frequency. Those FSB settings are plentiful and include 66 / 68 / 75 / 100 / 103 / 112 / 124 / 133 / 140 / 150. Front side bus speeds above 124 MHz aren't viable because of the frequency at which they put the AGP bus. But for those of you willing to try, we assume settings above 124 are available with a 1/4 PCI multiplier at higher bus speeds, but there is no mention of it in the BIOS or manual. The 100MHz jumper will give access to all settings, with any CPU installed. The rest of the BIOS is the standard Award 4.51PG fare. Also included is the TCAV (Trend Chipaway Virus) which prevents boot viruses from infecting the boot sector but it can get annoying when installing operating systems. In comparison to the P6107, the P6F91i was a much more stable board, probably due to the higher quality design, the attention to detail, and, in part, to the abundance of nice, large value capacitors. Also, we overclocked the Pentium II 400 to 112 MHz and ran the same benchmarks. The P6F9li was just as stable as the when overclocked considering only four crashes in a twenty-four hour test run. The P6F91i uses the popular Winbond 83781D for hardware monitoring of both onboard fans, 7 voltages, and up to 3 temperatures. Without adding any temperature sensors, this chip can only monitor one temperature - the temperature of the Winbond chip itself. To allow monitoring of an additional temperature, for example, that of the CPU, the Winbond chip requires external thermistors. There is one included thermistor which is relatively slow reacting and is mounted directly in front the Slot-1 CPU. The thermistor sticks up about a quarter of an inch and reacts to temperature fluctuations within a couple of seconds. Some boards include a header to add other external thermistors but this board did not. To read temperatures under Windows, the included CD features Winbond monitoring software. Of course, a variety of shareware/freeware hardware monitoring utilities are available on the web, such as Motherboard Monitor and Hardware Monitor. In most of the recent motherboard reviews, power management has consisted of pretty much the same stuff. Both wake on LAN and wake on modem ring headers are options available in the BIOS to allow the system to be powered on remotely by the presence of network activity or by an incoming call. Also, the computer can be ready before you even get into work since the BIOS can be set to turn on the system at a specific time. When the system suspends, the BIOS allows the option of suspending the CPU fan to quiet things down a bit. Added power management is available via ACPI support built into the BIOS as long as the OS is ACPI compliant like Windows 98 or Windows 2000. If you are not fond of your case's power button, the system can be configured to power on via hot key or mouse click. Finally, the Freetech P6F91i supports the ability to configure how the system will respond after a power outage when AC power is restored. After power returns, the system can either remain off (default), turn on, or resume the last power state that the computer was in before the outage. This feature is often overlooked after the market included ATX and soft power, but is critical for any users where their system must be on as close to 24/7 as possible. This also has a more practical use for the everyday consumer because it allows for users to shut the system on and off from a surge protector. The Bad As usual, there's still no sign of voltage tweaking options from most manufacturers, including Freetech. Another oversight by many manufacturers is also found here - the ability to assign a specific IRQ to a particular PCI slot. This has been a boon for many users trying to sort out fully loaded situations, but something Freetech users will have to do without for now (although there is always the possibility of a BIOS upgrade to add it *hint-hint*). Only a single sheet of paper is included with the P6F91i, a quick reference that serves to get you up and running with information about CPU settings, memory, and front panel connectors. Unfortunately, we still miss a real paper manual and that quick reference guide does nothing to help the first time system builder install the board. At least Freetech included a CD-ROM that has drivers, Adobe Acrobat and a nice, in depth manual. USB Compatibility · · · · Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0 Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2 USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes
Recommended SDRAM Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 64MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM
Manufacturer: The Memory Man Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com Manufacturer: Mushkin Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com 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. Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology. Test Configuration Processor(s): RAM: Hard Drive(s): Bus Master Drivers: Video Card(s): Video Drivers: Operation System(s): Motherboard Revision: Intel Pentium II 400 OEM 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM Western Digital Caviar AC28400 - UltraATA/33 Microsoft Win98 DMA Drivers Matrox Millennium G200 (8MB SGRAM - AGP) MGA Millennium G200 Release 1677-411 Windows 98 SE Freetech P6F91i Revision 3 Windows 98 Performance
Business Winstone 99 Intel Pentium II 400 (100MHz x 4) Intel Pentium II 448 (112MHz x 4)
18.5 19.4
The Final Decision The Freetech P6F91i was a very stable board with a good layout. The BIOS is pretty simple and it would benefit from added features such as the ability to change voltage. Also, some people might not like the fact that the two columns have been switched from the standard Award BIOS. Although the Freetech boards may be hard to find, the P6F91i is a solid BX board even though it doesn't include many bells or whistles. If you are looking for a stable, well priced, standard fare board, the Freetech P6F91i is one board we recommend. How it Rates AnandTech Motherboard Rating
Business Performance Price Ease of Use Overclocked Stability General Stability Quality Documentation Reliability Overall Rating
80% 87% 90% 88% 90% 87% 83% 88% 88%
Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.