Lex BN790E MainBoard Review
Http://www.lex.com.tw/
(Im just going to point out this is my first Mainboard review so its probably a bit Crap, Better to come soon though)
Well Lex is one of them companys not many people have heard of, they have brought out only a handfull of mainboards in the past years. This is Lexs Newest Board that uses the KT266A Chipset and the VT8233A South Bridge. I cant say i have had any prevous experence with this make beforce so i dont no how good the last few boards have been.
As you no the KT266 only supports upto 266 FSB, so it is more of a lower range mainboard compared to a the new ASUS and Abit Boards.
I have heard news that LEX may be using a lot newer chipsets on their newer boards but i havnt seen any yet.
Closer Look
Specs
CPU
Socket A CPU Athlon Xp/Duron
266mhz FSB
CPU Bus Frequency Choose One Step Up in 1mhz, Up to 200mhz
Chipset
4x AGP
KT266A North
VT8233A South
Memory
2 x 168-pin DIMM Sockets support PC133/PC100 SDRAM up to 2.0GB System Memory.
2 x 184-pin DDR Module Socket support DDR200/DDR266 DDR SDRAM up to 2.0GB
I/O Internal
Supports Ultra DMA 133
1x Floopy Connector
2x USB 1.1 headers
5x PCI
1x AGP
3x Fan Connectors Inc CPU Fan
Back I/O
Onboard AC97 Sound- Input, Output, Mic
1x Gameport
2x Usb 1.1
Misc
ATX Format
hardware Monitoring
CPU and System Tempreture Monitoring
Inc Fanspeeds
Bios Award BIOS , Support Green function, Plug and Play Function 2MBit Flash ROM
Bundle
I never got a chance to take a picture of the bundle the mainboard as im reviewing a board ive been using for a while but heres a list.
1x USB Bracket
1x Manual
1x Driver Cd Containing
Pc-cillin
Magic Bios
Sound Driver
1x IDE Cable
1x Floopy Cable
All that is needed to get your Lex mainboard in and working.
Installation
I didnt come across any problems when installing the mainboard. Even the biggest of heat sinks can fit onto the board. I used my Akasa AK785SE and it kept my 2100+ athlon perfectly sound.
This is when i noticed the AGP slot comes in a Black colour giving it a differnce effect to most mainboards and also had the clip which some makes forget to include.
I had no problems booting up and found no problems with locations of connectors.
I found the use of SDR and DDR ram slots great so for first time system builders who dont have any DDR ram they can use some old SDR ram.
Something that really let me down at this stage was the fact that you cant use DDR 400 as the chipset is kinda old. Maybe thier newer boards will be able to.
Setuping up the bios was not a problem. i really have to get my self a diggy cam so i can make these reviews a little more interesting, thats a soon to come i hope.
With everything In place and setup i go on to bench marks.
Test setup (a bad one)
-Amd Athlon 2100+ Xp
-354Mb SDR Ram
-Geforce 4 Mx440 128mb DDR
-20gb Maxtor 5400Rpm Hard drive
:'( i hate my Pc
3d Mark 2001 SE
Well at a unclocked state i was able to get 4970 3D marks which for this mainboard isnt to bad, but compared to other makes this is very poor indead.
At this point i got ready to atempt to over clock it and see what increase it has gained but after opeing my case i relised my case fan had packed up, and untill i get another one i dont want to risk an overclock as because of where my pc is placed it is hot enough already but if you cheak the forums as soon as i get a new case fan ill over clock and tell everyone the results but i really cant see it doing very well at all.
Sorry for the lack of infomation here.
Conclusion
Well im finding it hard to put what i thought of this board in words but i think i know what im trying to say.......Crap basicly, In my eyes ive seen better and using a friend of mines board i managed to get the same CPU ram and graphics cards to get 1000 3d Marks higher (then again his board did cost a lot more) i would say what board he has so we can compare but he has no idea eather as it was a ready made system he bought of someone.
What i didnt like about this board was its lack of 4x AGP and DDR 333 but im sure their new boards maybe be a little better. Unless Lex can Redeam them selfs i dont recoment getting this board unless your a system builder who sells cheap pcs to people who dont need high performence. The AC97 onboard sound would also be good for system builders as you can save money on not buying a sound card.
Pros
Cheap price
Onboard Sound
SDR and DDR Slots
Cons
Bad chipset
No AGP 8x
No RAID
should support DDR 333
should have USB 1.1
Could do with another PCI slot.
Poor performance