You already found it. From your link Chaintech CT-6BTA2
Also known as: Matsonic MS-7070S Matsonic MS7070S

Okay, I really thought another vendor distributed this particular "clone". The Chaintech and Matsonic motherboards in the links are printed with "Chaintech" and "Matsonic" on them right next to the big AGP print, but mine isn't labeled any company anywhere.

Does the KE7942-3 Ver. 2.0 ring a bell to anybody here? That is what is printed on the BIOS chip sticker. Is this part of the KE-series of another company, or just something to do with the onboard audio 😀 I wish I was more familiar with motherboard brands of the 90's, I was just finishing elementary school when this particular one was made 🤣

Okay, so I looked at the Chaintech and Matsonic websites in the 90s. They both are from Taipei, but at the same time, Chaintech claimed on having a large distribution network around the world back then. I also saw their "factory tour" of pictures, kinda interesting to see : https://web.archive.org/web/19970210213030/ht … any/company.htm

I wonder now if Chaintech distributed some of these motherboards unmarked, and whoever the vendor was buying them chose whether to mark their company name on the board. I am in the United States, btw, so maybe this is from a vendor that sold these boards over here only, but doesn't exist anymore......

This rear io panel on the unmarked version of the board says "OEM PC"...

https://www.ebay.de/p/13029764102

Even the chaintech boards were 'unmarked' (referring to the silkscreen printing) ~ the only real identifier was a sticker or 2 either on the board itself, or on one of the ISA slots.... a lot of the time these stickers came off (or ppl removed them as they were falling off) ; sometimes you can see evidence of glue residue that's a telltale something like this happened.

My biggest giveaway for Chaintechs of this era is the dotted pattern throughout the board.

That, and in certain cases, the strange header used for USB on some of their socket 7 mobos.

I still call for an all-inclusive "Identify this hardware" topic rather than having one new for every hardware someone needs identifying. Same as:
Bought these (retro) hardware today
What retro activity did you get up to today?
What modern activity did you get up to today?
Bought this (Modern) hardware today
Bought these games today

That's an awesome idea... a pinned thread "Help me identify this hardware" would be very, very nice.

...two things I noticed....

...that wouldn't make sense on a 6BTA2 ...it does make sense on a 6ESA or 6LTM but this board is definitely 6BTA2 sku.... and one of the key differences here is chipset -- intel 440 BX/EX/LX ....

..which makes me look twice at this...

...errm.... since when would discovering a/the chipset part number, constitute voiding warranty? I could understand putting a sticker on the yamaha chip to obfuscate it's identity. but not that.... to me, it makes me think they're hiding something ... boot up linux and see what it finds (if you're attest to removing stickers =)

giantclam wrote on 2023-09-20, 11:10:

...two things I noticed.... […]
Show full quote

...two things I noticed....

...that wouldn't make sense on a 6BTA2 ...it does make sense on a 6ESA or 6LTM but this board is definitely 6BTA2 sku.... and one of the key differences here is chipset -- intel 440 BX/EX/LX ....

..which makes me look twice at this...

...errm.... since when would discovering a/the chipset part number, constitute voiding warranty? I could understand putting a sticker on the yamaha chip to obfuscate it's identity. but not that.... to me, it makes me think they're hiding something ... boot up linux and see what it finds (if you're attest to removing stickers =)

It is present on other 6BTA2 boards. Check this photo I found from a bay listing. M101 marking in the same spot, and also no CT/Matsonic markings, just like OP's board.

So to answer to the topic - OP, your board is a 6BTA2-H103N to be exact. The only things I can explain about the different tag instead of 6BTA2-H103N, is that the company that made the servers might have requested the specific text in place of the actual model.

PcBytes wrote on 2023-09-20, 11:20:

It is present on other 6BTA2 boards. Check this photo I found from a bay listing. M101 marking in the same spot, and also no CT/ […]
Show full quote

It is present on other 6BTA2 boards. Check this photo I found from a bay listing. M101 marking in the same spot, and also no CT/Matsonic markings, just like OP's board.

So to answer to the topic - OP, your board is a 6BTA2-H103N to be exact. The only things I can explain about the different tag instead of 6BTA2-H103N, is that the company that made the servers might have requested the specific text in place of the actual model.

Good find... also has the same 'KE7942' id on BIOS sticker (likely the ODM) but earlier revision

Oh thats really interesting! Thanks on the confirmation and that revision number as well! I definitely have never had a chance to look at a motherboard from that era in person before this one, so this is definitely great to know that this is indeed a Chaintech product.

I did look for a specific "Identify this motherboard" thread before opening this one, so I third for a dedicated sticky for these (with a separate one for expansion cards....and I guess input device and monitor ones too). I can't really say I found these in the dumpster or bought these either 😀

giantclam wrote on 2023-09-20, 03:39:

Even the chaintech boards were 'unmarked' (referring to the silkscreen printing) ~ the only real identifier was a sticker or 2 either on the board itself, or on one of the ISA slots.... a lot of the time these stickers came off (or ppl removed them as they were falling off) ; sometimes you can see evidence of glue residue that's a telltale something like this happened.

There are in fact 2 stickers on the bottom of the last ISA slot one is a silver AWARD BIOS sticker, and the other one next to it is a serial number S/N: M9811XXXXXX (unsure if I'm allowed to post whole serial numbers here like that).

PcBytes wrote on 2023-09-20, 08:35:

My biggest giveaway for Chaintechs of this era is the dotted pattern throughout the board.

That, and in certain cases, the strange header used for USB on some of their socket 7 mobos.

Those dotted line etchings actually look really cool. They all seem aligned to a different line of each bus. It probably makes probing the intel chips much, much easier.

giantclam wrote on 2023-09-20, 11:10:

...two things I noticed.... […]
Show full quote

...two things I noticed....

...that wouldn't make sense on a 6BTA2 ...it does make sense on a 6ESA or 6LTM but this board is definitely 6BTA2 sku.... and one of the key differences here is chipset -- intel 440 BX/EX/LX ....

Good eye, I did not look that much into the details yet.

giantclam wrote on 2023-09-20, 11:10:

..which makes me look twice at this... […]
Show full quote

..which makes me look twice at this...

...errm.... since when would discovering a/the chipset part number, constitute voiding warranty? I could understand putting a sticker on the yamaha chip to obfuscate it's identity. but not that.... to me, it makes me think they're hiding something ... boot up linux and see what it finds (if you're attest to removing stickers =)

I want to say that sticker is there as a (cheap) way for the server vendor to deal with scams from product returns. Someone would have a broken motherboard, buy the new one from the vendor, then return the broken one to get their money back. I hear about that type of thing in the state where I live pretty often (not just with computers), and I do think it's pretty sad that some vendors have to set up different little measures to circumvent that.

I am definitely going to run linux on all these machines and test everything out. I just am not sure how soon that will happen, I'm in the middle of a major data storage management overhaul where I live and I kinda want to knock that out of the way before I dive further into these motherboards.

PcBytes wrote on 2023-09-20, 11:20:

It is present on other 6BTA2 boards. Check this photo I found from a bay listing. M101 marking in the same spot, and also no CT/ […]
Show full quote

It is present on other 6BTA2 boards. Check this photo I found from a bay listing. M101 marking in the same spot, and also no CT/Matsonic markings, just like OP's board.

So to answer to the topic - OP, your board is a 6BTA2-H103N to be exact. The only things I can explain about the different tag instead of 6BTA2-H103N, is that the company that made the servers might have requested the specific text in place of the actual model.

Nice find! That example definitely clears up the exact model number of the motherboard. And we both suspect the same thing with the label on the BIOS chip. "ATX-AUDIO-2" itself could be how the server vendor marketed this board in their catalog/website/etc. Where I live, there used to be a place called TigerDirect, and I did check the archive of their website just in case this was one of their store brand motherboards, but I don't think it was them. I'm not sure who specifically sold servers down here back then. Finding the actual motherboard manufacturer, model number, and revision is good enough though.

Thanks for all of your feedback everyone!

PcBytes wrote on 2023-09-20, 08:35:

My biggest giveaway for Chaintechs of this era is the dotted pattern throughout the board.

That, and in certain cases, the strange header used for USB on some of their socket 7 mobos.

Oops, I'm now realizing you probably were talking about the dots all over the board, and not the dotted lines on the buses 🤣

vzz wrote on 2023-09-20, 22:26:

Nice find! That example definitely clears up the exact model number of the motherboard. And we both suspect the same thing with the label on the BIOS chip. "ATX-AUDIO-2" itself could be how the server vendor marketed this board in their catalog/website/etc. Where I live, there used to be a place called TigerDirect, and I did check the archive of their website just in case this was one of their store brand motherboards, but I don't think it was them. I'm not sure who specifically sold servers down here back then. Finding the actual motherboard manufacturer, model number, and revision is good enough though.

Thanks for all of your feedback everyone!

Highly likely that maybe more of your CT-6BTA2 boards might have a slightly different string - like ATX-IMG-2 (or something like that, depending on what each of them were used for). I'd say the one you've put up here was used for audio related stuff.

I had a similar case with an Agfa photo development machine that I extracted a Gigabyte 8IG1000 Pro from - mobo looked every bit as standard. What gave it away as a custom AGFA board was the BIOS revision being FGx, which was specific to them.

Interesting that you mention this. I did kinda mess things up with what I pulled, and I separated most hard drives from their original servers, so I have no clue now whether there was anything special installed on the original hard drive for this specific motherboard. This motherboard isn't even in its original case anymore 🤣 (that case is probably long gone getting scrapped). Most of these cases looked almost identical in the datacenter, though (same case brand/diff models). I'm actually going to post something that's been making me curious about those particular cases, in another thread.

There is another server that I picked up from there, which looks specialty-based, and I think that one still has its original 8.7GB hard drive in it. I think it might not even have an M$ OS installed on it. I just have to add some RAM again and fire it up to see what's on that. I might start yet another thread about that one.

I'll definitely keep in mind about the BIOS content, when I get to starting up this one. You may be right and there could be something special in that BIOS chip.

I think by accident i found the type of case the mainboard was used in.

https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/targa- … 519621-228-5581

this looks exactly like the picture i posted above

DerBaum wrote on 2023-09-20, 02:52:

This rear io panel on the unmarked version of the board says "OEM PC"...
s-l1600 (2).jpg
https://www.ebay.de/p/13029764102

That's pretty cool to see a similar board in a home desktop case. I say similar because this one in Germany shows to have an SiS 530/5595 chipset, 1 less PCI slot, and 1 less ISA slot. I did get the chance to turn mine on and run an old live cd on it. It definitely has a 440BX chipset, and is using Award BIOS 4.51PG. The BIOS setup menu says (2A69KC39) at the top which is probably the build number, not the same as in that German listing. Google is showing me that the German (2A6ILC39) build number might be for a CT-6SSA2.

One unique thing that might be worth mentioning about my board is that it has headers for Vol Up/Vol Down buttons. That definitely makes me think kiosk-style or all-in-one casing options for this board, where the (crt or early lcd) monitor's controls would include volume for the sound.

There was another store down here called CompUSA, and they did offer custom PCs in the 90s when I checked TheWebArchive on them. Maybe they sold on the commercial level as well. That could be another possible place my board was purchased from.