ASUS P2L97 LX Pentium II Board

Here are my Recommended BIOS Settings for those of you who have been having problems with the P2L97 and higher bus speeds, I'm not sure why though since it was very stable when I tested it. Below are my recommended settings for bus speeds < 66MHz, and 75MHz. If you are using Non-EDO RAM, then use the settings the in the 2nd (Non - EDO) column, if you are using SDRAM/EDO RAM with a 50/60/66MHz bus speed use the 3rd (66MHz Setting) column. The next column should be used if you are using the 75MHz bus speed and EDO/SDRAM. Finally, if you are looking for the safest and most stable setting, use the last column. There are more Chipset Features Setup options than those I have listed here, but they pertain to HDD settings as well as Serial/Parallel Ports and have nothing to do with memory timings so I left them out intentionally.

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.

Test Configuration

Windows 95 Performance of the ASUS P2L97 (PCI Video)

* This speed was achieved using the 75MHz bus speed (75 x 4.0 = 300MHz, 75 x 4.5 = 337.5MHz ~ 338MHz)
** This speed was achieved using the 83.3MHz bus speed (83.3 x 4.0 = 332MHz ~ 333MHz, 83.3 x 4.5 = 375MHz)

Windows 95 Performance of the ASUS P2L97 (AGP Video)

* This speed was achieved using the 75MHz bus speed (75 x 4.0 = 300MHz, 75 x 4.5 = 337.5MHz ~ 338MHz)
** This speed was achieved using the 83.3MHz bus speed (83.3 x 4.0 = 332MHz ~ 333MHz, 83.3 x 4.5 = 375MHz)

The Final Decision

When I first reviewed this motherboard I didn't experience any problems at all with it, however according to most users (not all however) there are a few reliability problems with the P2L97. In response to this ASUS has revised the motherboard by doing a few things:

• removing the jumperless setup

• dropping the price

• making a few more modifications, 'under the hood'

All of these changes have been made in the newest revision of the motherboard, 1.05. So if you do decide to get the P2L97, be sure it is a revision 1.05 motherboard.