Sell them to other collectors that don't have any boards in that range.

Those 440LX/ZX boards are very handy for those wanting to do period correct systems without resulting to a pentium 4 system (gag) and Pentium 2 systems will be rather fashionable to Millennials and Gen Z wanting something that isn't a pentium 4 office toaster for 98 while at the same time actually being usable in dos. Those 440 BX boards will eventually end up being pricey if the supplies don't dry up first.

Ampera wrote:

Sell them to other collectors that don't have any boards in that range.

No one really wants them. The type of boards I described don't really sell at all on ebay, and if they do its for almost nothing.

The lower end boards were less popular with collectors unless they had some interesting features making them actually seek them (like 486 PCI boards even though Pentium was high-end back then). Also budget boards tended to be made using cheaper parts so more had either structural problems (due to being cheaply made) or other limitations (more limited tweaking options or more limited support for parts).

But otoh higher end parts tended to be more cutting edge, but this may actually end up killing the parts (for example due to overheating/solder problems or from overclocking because lower end parts were not as popular to overclock and if they were, less likely to die because they had more headroom, but opinions of this may differ).

But not everything is set into stone. One may argue that Tualatin boards were budget as Intel was already promoting Pentium 4 (mostly s423 and we all know what ended up being more popular here on Vogons).

And I actually ended up loving my s370 LX rig using a Mendocino 400MHz (it didn't even support Coppermine Celerons 😁).

And for collectors or for people starting out retro computing it may be a good alternative for the more popular (read: more expensive) parts, while hardly being less capable for their intended purposes.

I've actually kept all my (very few) ZX/EX boards, BX and LX were WAY more available here in The Netherlands! I think it may actually become very difficult to find one and this alone may want people want one (or it may not).

I looked it up: https://www.shuttle.eu/_archive/older/de/chipset3.htm.
Translated:

Intel's 440ZX-Chipset compared to 440BX - Only single processor operation - Supports 4 memory rows and 2 DIMM-Sockets - Supports […]
Show full quote

Intel's 440ZX-Chipset compared to 440BX
- Only single processor operation
- Supports 4 memory rows and 2 DIMM-Sockets
- Supports modules with maximum 128MB: For a total of 256MB.
- Supports maximum 64MBit Chips, therefor no 128MB-modules with just 4 Chips
- Supports no ECC
- Max. 4 PCI-Busmaster slots

Not bad: AGP and 100MHz bus are there.

gerwin wrote:

I looked it up: https://www.shuttle.eu/_archive/older/de/chipset3.htm. Translated: […]
Show full quote

I looked it up: https://www.shuttle.eu/_archive/older/de/chipset3.htm.
Translated:

Intel's 440ZX-Chipset compared to 440BX - Only single processor operation - Supports 4 memory rows and 2 DIMM-Sockets - Supports […]
Show full quote

Intel's 440ZX-Chipset compared to 440BX
- Only single processor operation
- Supports 4 memory rows and 2 DIMM-Sockets
- Supports modules with maximum 128MB: For a total of 256MB.
- Supports maximum 64MBit Chips, therefor no 128MB-modules with just 4 Chips
- Supports no ECC
- Max. 4 PCI-Busmaster slots

Not bad: AGP and 100MHz bus are there.

Now I'm actually interested in the supposed limitation of 128MB for each memory module, as the official limitations of LX was 128MB SDRAM modules as well (it's mentioned in for instance the ASUS P2L97 motherboard manual) while iirc LX does in fact work with 256MB SDRAM modules.
The 128MB module limit with modules only having 4 chips is a limitation shared with BX, it will probably only recognize half the memory size (same with 256MB memory modules using only 8 chips).

The 256MB total limit might be true, even though iirc the official 384MB SDRAM limit of LX turned out to be false, but I don't remember anyone ever trying this with ZX?
It may have been a limiting trick similar how Intel later limited i815 to 512MB...interesting thought 🤣.
I wonder if Intel limited the Tillamook in a similar way as well? Sometimes I have too many ideas 🤣

But I still think these Slot 1 budget chipsetted boards are actually quite interesting. Probably not many of those around these days so I'm definitely not getting rid of mine 😀

Tetrium wrote:

Now I'm actually interested in the supposed limitation of 128MB for each memory module, as the official limitations of LX was 12 […]
Show full quote

gerwin wrote:

I looked it up: https://www.shuttle.eu/_archive/older/de/chipset3.htm. Translated: […]
Show full quote

I looked it up: https://www.shuttle.eu/_archive/older/de/chipset3.htm.
Translated:

Intel's 440ZX-Chipset compared to 440BX - Only single processor operation - Supports 4 memory rows and 2 DIMM-Sockets - Supports […]
Show full quote

Intel's 440ZX-Chipset compared to 440BX
- Only single processor operation
- Supports 4 memory rows and 2 DIMM-Sockets
- Supports modules with maximum 128MB: For a total of 256MB.
- Supports maximum 64MBit Chips, therefor no 128MB-modules with just 4 Chips
- Supports no ECC
- Max. 4 PCI-Busmaster slots

Not bad: AGP and 100MHz bus are there.

Now I'm actually interested in the supposed limitation of 128MB for each memory module, as the official limitations of LX was 128MB SDRAM modules as well (it's mentioned in for instance the ASUS P2L97 motherboard manual) while iirc LX does in fact work with 256MB SDRAM modules.
The 128MB module limit with modules only having 4 chips is a limitation shared with BX, it will probably only recognize half the memory size (same with 256MB memory modules using only 8 chips).

The 256MB total limit might be true, even though iirc the official 384MB SDRAM limit of LX turned out to be false, but I don't remember anyone ever trying this with ZX?
It may have been a limiting trick similar how Intel later limited i815 to 512MB...interesting thought 🤣.
I wonder if Intel limited the Tillamook in a similar way as well? Sometimes I have too many ideas 🤣

But I still think these Slot 1 budget chipsetted boards are actually quite interesting. Probably not many of those around these days so I'm definitely not getting rid of mine 😀

I still have one of my ZX boards on my test bench. I can try installing more RAM than the max and see what it does and I can scrounge up a 100MHz FSB P3 to try in it as well Friday. Maybe ZX boards aren't as bad as I though they were. Too bad the same can't be said for SDRAM/SKT478 boards.

My i440ZX board (MSI MS-6168) worked fine using two 256MB 16-chip SDRAM sticks (so 512MB in total). Not sure if the official limit for this board is also 2x 128MB... but I think it is. Btw - this MSI also can run at 133 MHz FSB, support Coppermines and with modded slotkets also Tualatins. However Only Celerons Tualatin are stable, PIII-S was freezing all the time no matter what voltage or FSB speed. Also VRM gets very hot when running Tualatin, so it isn't a good choice.

I also have Asus P2L97 and P2L-B here (440LX based), haven't tried mor than 128MB though.

Apparently another Vogoner got 1GB SDRAM working in an LX board here What retro activity did you get up to today?

Well, my MSI MS-6156 does in fact support and correctly identify 100MHz processors (P3 600E) but it would not recognize any of the 256MB DIMMs that I had lying around. It was probably because they were single sided.

You could use your i845 boards to test dodgy-looking SDRAM modules (Back in my starting days of retro computing I had one SDRAM module which turned out to be a motherboard wrecker) and graphics cards or other dodgy looking parts. Make it your "if this thing gets destroyed I won't miss it"-set. I'd rather accidentally destroy such a board instead of a s370 Tualatin board. Or use it for preformatting harddrives so you don't have to waste one of your proper boards for that or use it to err...obtain software keys 😵 . Or just stoooore them! 😁

My take is that any working retro board is a keeper. In a lot of ways they are simpler and less can go wrong.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

My take is that any working retro board is a keeper. In a lot of ways they are simpler and less can go wrong.

^This

Tetrium wrote:

The 128MB module limit with modules only having 4 chips is a limitation shared with BX, it will probably only recognize half the memory size (same with 256MB memory modules using only 8 chips).

Yup.

The 256MB total limit might be true, even though iirc the official 384MB SDRAM limit of LX turned out to be false, but I don't remember anyone ever trying this with ZX?

In my Pentium II's motherboard manual it stated that the board had a 384 Mb limit but it also stated the chipset could handle a lot more (over a Gb).

yawetaG wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

The 256MB total limit might be true, even though iirc the official 384MB SDRAM limit of LX turned out to be false, but I don't remember anyone ever trying this with ZX?

In my Pentium II's motherboard manual it stated that the board had a 384 Mb limit but it also stated the chipset could handle a lot more (over a Gb).

True, but that's probably the theoretical max amount of memory the chipset 'could' support but this is useless if there are not enough physical memory slots available on the motherboard itself to actually install the maximum amount.

It might have been one of those Intel things to first artificially limit their own product and then sell its successor with the message "Look! Now this newer product can do this!" even though the older product could already do the same.

Havli mentioned his ZX board worked fine with 2x256MB SDRAM so I suppose ZX may actually be able to work with the same RAM limitations of the other 440?X chipsets (namely max 256MB/memory slot with no less then 16 chips for each memory module).

havli wrote:

My i440ZX board (MSI MS-6168) worked fine using two 256MB 16-chip SDRAM sticks (so 512MB in total). Not sure if the official limit for this board is also 2x 128MB... but I think it is. Btw - this MSI also can run at 133 MHz FSB, support Coppermines and with modded slotkets also Tualatins. However Only Celerons Tualatin are stable, PIII-S was freezing all the time no matter what voltage or FSB speed. Also VRM gets very hot when running Tualatin, so it isn't a good choice.

I also have Asus P2L97 and P2L-B here (440LX based), haven't tried mor than 128MB though.

Using the same MS-6168 motherboard with built-in 3dfx card and 2x256mb works just fine as well. Read the pdf manual it also states max 256mb for each ram slot.

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/pb/mb/borapro.htm

I'm curious to know the CPU support on this mobo, I have a P3 550Mhz installed right now and it works great, I'm wondering if I can go higher.

When I first got back into retro computing I was planning on using my Asus P2B ZX motherboard. For a Win98 PC the RAM CPU limit is non issue anyway.
I forgot I'd thrown it away a few years earlier, OK no big deal accept it had the ASUS slocket adaptor as well.

I'm surprised how many LX based systems are here on vogons. ZX may become like that once availability drops and prices rise. While not rare I wasn't prepared to pay the premium for a full Awe32 when I can get a value at 1/2 the price and have no desire to mess round with soundfonts.