I have a P3B-F v1.04 here. On mine the BIOS was on a MX29F002NT chip and I wasn't sure how to get the update software to work so I used the big rig to fix this one : remove the DIP32 from the MoBo and flash the chip with a BK Precision 866B universal programmer. Works like a charm.
Great board! Glad to see it still working all these years later! Back in those days if I hadn't already purchased an Abit BH6 motherboard to go with my Celeron 300A I would have probably gotten one of these. But the Abit board was released a few months before this Asus board and the BH6 quickly became legendary at that time for overclocking through it's use of SoftMenu jumper less CPU setup. I had that combo (BH6 + 300A) running at 464 Mhz for years until bad caps caused it to spectacularly fail while running and physically burned several parts of the board.
The memory read, and write bandwidth looks good for SDRAM (Single Data.) There is only a data transfer on the rising edge of the clock cycle unlike DDR that transfers data on the rise, and falling edge of the clock cycles.
I expected the read transfer rate to be higher than the write transfer rate. Shouldn't both of those be values be at least very similar? Right now, writing seems to be 5 times faster than reading (L1 cache).
I know this was a year ago but on a long shot... I have a P3B-f 1.04 with 1008 bios, I can only use AGP 1x. Are you able to use AGP 2x? Have a great day.
Updating ur bios no matter what system is important first cause the bug fixes and second if its and old bios/system it refreshes the cells of the eeprom so bios corruption is prevented.
Hey nice video. I found the BIOS setting 'USB Legacy support' can make benchmarks behave strange. Disable all USB legacy support. Cache will likely improve.
This version has only one ISA slot, but there is another version with 2 ISA slots, would it be possible i wonder to just remove the lower PCI slot and solder in another ISA slot, or will you have to add something else to??
Worth noting is that w98 by default only supports 512mb ram, or 1gb with some later changes. 1.5gb or more and the OS might not even boot. And that is not only ram but total system memory including graphics memory and such
i used pc probe with my tuv4x and cusl2 asus boards. very gimicky program but could savedata in real time so kind of usefull in overclocking because you know exactly when board hang up because data cut off at one point for all sensors it was a thing way before hwinfo 64 and it's extensive sensor sweep
Great video and content, the P3B motherboard however I can't recommend. I have had multiple of them and all have had various issues and failed eventually, i don't think they aged well
Great mobo, I have two of these, one with 2 ISA slots and other one with 1 ISA slot. Only complain is that both of these struggles @150FSB, only 2 sticks of RAM works. Abit BF6 does a lot better with overclocking.
I have a P3B-F v1.04 here. On mine the BIOS was on a MX29F002NT chip and I wasn't sure how to get the update software to work so I used the big rig to fix this one : remove the DIP32 from the MoBo and flash the chip with a BK Precision 866B universal programmer. Works like a charm.
Ran a PIII-500 on a P3B-F back in the day. One of the nicest, low maintenance systems I've ever had. Beauty of a board.
Great board! Glad to see it still working all these years later!
Back in those days if I hadn't already purchased an Abit BH6 motherboard to go with my Celeron 300A I would have probably gotten one of these. But the Abit board was released a few months before this Asus board and the BH6 quickly became legendary at that time for overclocking through it's use of SoftMenu jumper less CPU setup. I had that combo (BH6 + 300A) running at 464 Mhz for years until bad caps caused it to spectacularly fail while running and physically burned several parts of the board.
The 440BX was legendary. This was the board to get on Anandtech, HardOCP and Toms Hardware back in the day.
I still have my Intel 440BX II motherboard (ATX).
Very RELIABLE , probably best 1990s board that Intel sold.
That brings back memories. I ran a slot-1 Celery 300A @ 504 on this beast for a number of years.
The memory read, and write bandwidth looks good for SDRAM (Single Data.) There is only a data transfer on the rising edge of the clock cycle unlike DDR that transfers data on the rise, and falling edge of the clock cycles.
I expected the read transfer rate to be higher than the write transfer rate. Shouldn't both of those be values be at least very similar? Right now, writing seems to be 5 times faster than reading (L1 cache).
The BIOS Update function in this BIOS is for allowing for loading microcode-Updates into the CPU, as i remember
I thought that looked familiar, dug through my pile and I have that exact board. Fantastic info, very much appreciated.
Thanks for all the videos.
I know this was a year ago but on a long shot... I have a P3B-f 1.04 with 1008 bios, I can only use AGP 1x. Are you able to use AGP 2x? Have a great day.
Thanks for the video and the links . I have one of these motherboards and will try that new BIOS.
OMG... I had totally forgotten CPUs used to be like that.....
Updating ur bios no matter what system is important first cause the bug fixes and second if its and old bios/system it refreshes the cells of the eeprom so bios corruption is prevented.
incredible how a simple bios update can upgrade processor. Imagine if motherboard manufacturer provide 5 years bios update.
Then they don't make money 🤑. Luckily there are some good people in the community who have the knowledge and skills to modify BIOSes!
I have this exact motherboard! I gotta try that that BIOS update.
Good luck! Hope it works
@@bitsundbolts Finally got around to flashing it. All good in the 'hood. No more missing -5V hardware monitor error on boot.
Hey nice video. I found the BIOS setting 'USB Legacy support' can make benchmarks behave strange. Disable all USB legacy support. Cache will likely improve.
This version has only one ISA slot, but there is another version with 2 ISA slots, would it be possible i wonder to just remove the lower PCI slot and solder in another ISA slot, or will you have to add something else to??
Worth noting is that w98 by default only supports 512mb ram, or 1gb with some later changes. 1.5gb or more and the OS might not even boot. And that is not only ram but total system memory including graphics memory and such
i used pc probe with my tuv4x and cusl2 asus boards. very gimicky program but could savedata in real time so kind of usefull in overclocking because you know exactly when board hang up because data cut off at one point for all sensors
it was a thing way before hwinfo 64 and it's extensive sensor sweep
Great video and content, the P3B motherboard however I can't recommend. I have had multiple of them and all have had various issues and failed eventually, i don't think they aged well
Great mobo, I have two of these, one with 2 ISA slots and other one with 1 ISA slot. Only complain is that both of these struggles @150FSB, only 2 sticks of RAM works. Abit BF6 does a lot better with overclocking.
GG
Just about any ISA card you'd want to use with such a board wouldn't require -5v anyways.
Mainly the Soundblaster 2.0, Roland LAPC-I and the Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 soundcards require the -5V
I just got this same board from an ewaste bin! It has two ISA slots though, and no BIOS chip. Anyone know where I can find one?
So, can one desolder and remove a Bois chip ?
Or replace it?
What sort of corrosion can happen...
I
I hope someone can add usb boot feature to this motherboard, and add ecc memory auto-enable if detected feature....
Just install a Tualatin CPU
Learn to use programmers and then you do not need to mess with these scrappy software. Programmer writes everything to chip and job done
worst motherboard i am deal with :(