A-Trend for sure.

ECS has a Dallas RTC, and an older chipset (Intel HX)

A-Trend has Intel TX chipset, and supports ATX PSU.

ronyket wrote on 2021-11-18, 18:07:

A-Trend for sure.

ECS has a Dallas RTC, and an older chipset (Intel HX)

A-Trend has Intel TX chipset, and supports ATX PSU.

Imho the older 430HX is the better chipset of the two though.

Depends what you want to do with the system.

It's mainly down to the differences in chipset:

i430HX

Pro:
- max RAM 512MB
- with second tag RAM (which can be added in the COAST slot), all 512MB can be cached (otherwise 64MB)
Con:
- no SDRAM support
- no UDMA on built-in HDD controller

i430TX:

Pro:
- SDRAM support
- UDMA support
Con:
- can only cache 64MB, performance heavily impacted if you go over.

So, if you're building a DOS system where 64MB is more than enough (possibly even too much) and want to use the onboard IDE controller, the i430TX board is the better choice. If you want to build a Win9x system with lots of RAM >64MB, particularly if you also want to use your own (IDE or SCSI) HDD controller, the i430HX board is the better choice.

dionb wrote on 2021-11-18, 19:51:

Depends what you want to do with the system. […]
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Depends what you want to do with the system.

It's mainly down to the differences in chipset:

i430HX

Pro:
- max RAM 512MB
- with second tag RAM (which can be added in the COAST slot), all 512MB can be cached (otherwise 64MB)
Con:
- no SDRAM support
- no UDMA on built-in HDD controller

i430TX:

Pro:
- SDRAM support
- UDMA support
Con:
- can only cache 64MB, performance heavily impacted if you go over.

So, if you're building a DOS system where 64MB is more than enough (possibly even too much) and want to use the onboard IDE controller, the i430TX board is the better choice. If you want to build a Win9x system with lots of RAM >64MB, particularly if you also want to use your own (IDE or SCSI) HDD controller, the i430HX board is the better choice.

Yeah I intended to use 64mb only. Maybe 128mb, but the machine would be destined for dos and early win9x games, so I believe the 430TX will supply me well.

Funny that it has support for UDMA, but still (at least with the current bios) it only recognizes hard drives up to 8GB

IMHO the 64 MB cacheable limit of 430TX is more than enough for most DOS and early Win9x games; SDRAM, UDMA, and USB supports outweigh the benefit of >64 MB cacheable RAM of 430HX (which was not a consumer-grade chipset and could be quite expensive).

For late Win9x games there are much better chipsets from 440BX to 865G, plus many non-Intel chipsets. If combining DOS and late Win9x on a same system is a must then I'll look for a Super Socket 7 MB instead.

If you want to keep is simple and straight forward, go for the atrend.
Sdram is rock solid. Even with some timing issues the tx may have.
ATX PSU can be convenient as well, may open up the path to ATX cases. Lots of those pre-2000 ATX cases have mounting holes for AT board.
The coin battery is bonus too. Easy and cheap replacement when flat.

As for the ECS:
Edo may in this case be about the same speed, but is a little more expensive.
Besides that, some coast modules can be a passion to get to work there right way.
The Dallas clock, which contains the BIOS battery and ram, may be flat or will be soon if it's not replaced yet. The fix to mount a cr2032 holder may be possible, but if it's soldered into the board this can be another challenge. (And I tend to do the Dallas rework in place then)
The Hx chipset is there older "high end" one, so that makes it interesting. If you have our can fairly cheap get the right equipment this board can be very interesting too.

If the prices were good would buy both of them, that way have a spare pentium board (if I did not already have a few 🤣)