Shuttle HOT-569

Motherboard Specifications

* For future processors

The Good

Expansion, speed, stability, and documentation, 4 areas in which the HOT-569 smokes the competition. First, expansion, is 4 SIMM slots enough? How about 3 DIMM slots in addition to those 4? The first thing I noticed was that the 569 had an ATX power supply connector on it, so I thought to myself, why not, and I decided to test it in my Enlight 7230. The HOT-569, although designed for an AT case, worked perfectly in my Enlight Mid-Tower ATX and it made testing it much easier (due to the roomy ATX case) than with an AT case. The HOT-569 also supports most of the features of an ATX motherboard (i.e. Soft Off) so if you have an ATX case just sitting around don't feel like the 569 isn't for you, because...well...it is! This is the first AT style motherboard I've tested that allowed me to use full length ISA cards in ALL of the ISA slots, this is mainly due to the offset positioning of the CPU Socket-7 and the low profile switching voltage regulators which allow the HOT-569 to support core CPU voltages ranging from 2.0v to 3.52v (for the SERIOUS overclocker). No, the HOT-569 isn't jumperless, but it does allow you three different options for selecting the core voltage of your CPU. You can either setup the voltage via a jumper setting, let the board autodetect it, or configure it manually through the BIOS setup!! Because of its support for < 2.8v CPU voltage settings, the HOT-569 is an excellent candidate for upcoming processors including the Intel Tillamook and the AMD K6 250/266 processors. That tops off the majority of the HOT-569's expandability features. Performance-wise the 569 is among the best for use with the AMD K6 and gives the Megatrends HX83 a run for its money with the Pentium MMX. I am expecting to have a 6x86MX in my test lab soon and when I do I'll be sure to post scores of that with the HOT-569. Although people have complained about the HOT-565 having some reliability problems at an 83.3MHz bus speed, the 569 doesn't display any erratic performance when using the 83.3MHz bus speed. In fact, the HOT-569 is the ONLY TX board I got to run the Pentium MMX 233 at 290.5MHz even semi-reliably. The documentation of the HOT-569, unlike the 565, is provided in a written manual instead of a CD. This does come in handy, especially since the 569's manual is very descriptive and easy to follow. Another nice add-in Shuttle decided to include with the HOT-569 are the settings for the 75 and 83.3MHz bus speed, which were mysteriously left out of the HOT-565's quick reference card. Shuttle also decided to include a few stickers with the 569 manual, which even though isn't a major advantage of going with the 569 (you shouldn't buy it because it comes with shiny stickers), shows you how much attention Shuttle pays to the little things that make us all happy =)

The Bad

Like the HOT-565, the 569 is plagued by the 64MB cacheable memory limit of the Intel TX chipset. If you're wondering how much of a performance hit you get, see below for my 64MB vs 96MB memory test on the 569. The only other downside is the small capacitors used on the 569, although pretty stable in my tests, it could prove otherwise with excessive overclocking (just gotta love that term =) ). Shuttle tried hard to make the best TX board possible, and in my opinion they did it VERY well!

IRQ Usage

• Allows user to individually set IRQs for each Legacy ISA card

• Allows user to reserve IRQ/DMA Channels if necessary

• Auto-detects PnP Cards after HDD Detection

BIOS Settings

Here are my Recommended BIOS Settings for those of you who have been having problems with the HOT-569 and higher bus speeds. 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 75/83MHz bus speeds and EDO/SDRAM. Finally, if you are looking for the safest and most stable setting, use the last column.

Recommended SDRAM

This little addition to my review layout was put in here just so you all can have an idea of what brand of SDRAM I recommend and have tested with the board, just to avoid problems in the future if you decide to purchase the board.

Recommended SDRAM: Advanced Megatrends SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 2 x 32MB Advanced Megatrends SDRAM DIMMs

Manufacturer: Advanced Megatrends
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.megacom.com