Standard Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with M-Tech in any way, shape, or form. The opinions expressed here are mine.Introduction
The M-Tech R534 was my trusted companion for months. It was one of the first mainboards to be optimized for Cyrix processors. Cyrix and M-Tech work closely together and it shows. M-Tech was the first mainboard manufacturer to market their products specifically towards Cyrix users. They are also currently the only manufacturer to offer a standalone MediaGX CPU/mainboard combination. Could the R542 live up to the reputation of the R534? The specifications looked good, but you can't judge a book by its cover. It needed to be put to a test. M-Tech 542 Specifications
Other Highlights:
The Out of Box ExperienceFour things stood about this board after I took it out of the box:
The mainboard documentation is average. M-Tech, like many mainboard manufacturers, didn't dedicated any coverage to the BIOS chipset features setup options in the manual. M-Tech recommends that you only change these settings if you are absolutely sure of what you are doing. This advice will cutback on the number of M-Tech technical support inquiries because the BIOS settings are set for safe performance by default, but if you follow this advice you will be left with less than optimal system performance. A complete listing of all 6x86MX parts, their MHz, and Performance Ratings (PR) is also missing from the manual. As a result, there is the potential for users with 133MHz 6x86MX PR166 and 150MHz 6x86MX PR200 parts to unknowingly use the wrong settings and inadvertently overclock their CPUs. A CD-ROM that includes the bus mastering drivers and VGA drivers for the onboard SVGA accelerator is also shipped with the board. Drivers for all of the most popular operating systems are included. The Good
The M-Tech R542 is listed on the Cyrix 6x86MX mainboard compatibility list and supports the linear burst mode feature of the 6x86 and 6x86MX. The M-Tech R542 offers a special PCI asynchronous mode for 75 MHz system frequencies. This means that the PCI bus is running at 33 MHz at 75 MHz instead of 1/2 the system clock. As a result, you aren't overclocking the PCI bus at 75MHz and your PCI cards won't misbehave at these system frequencies. The R542 is one of the few mainboards that I have worked with that have 3 x 168-pin DIMM sockets. I love this feature. SIMM sockets are finally starting to take a backseat to DIMM sockets with the increasing popularity of SDRAM. DIMM sockets and memory that utilizes them are the future. The more of them on a mainboard the better in my opinion. You will seen an increasing number of new mainboards in 1998 that will not ship with any SIMM sockets. The SIS 5598 integrates a 64-bit DRAM-based graphics/video accelerator. If you are trying to build a system for the least amount of money possible, you can save yourself some cash by utilizing the onboard 64-bit SVGA accelerator instead of buying a dedicated one. The BadI extremely dislike the fact that the location of the PCI and ISA slots on the mainboard are reversed. I am sure that M-Tech did this to allow full lengh ISA card in every ISA slot. However, three case slots were required to secure the PS/2 mouse connector, parallel port, and serial ports to the case. As a result, three ISA slots were rendered unusable and I only had room left in my case for only one ISA card. If the mainboard had a standard AT layout, I would have lost the PCI slots instead of the ISA slots. I would have preferred to lose the PCI slots instead of ISA slots because ISA peripherals outnumber PCI peripherals in most systems. This is another reason why I preach the ATX form factor. Because the serial and parallel ports are mounted to the mainboard, you don't have to worry about losing case slots to secure these connectors. It is a non issue. The availability of only two SIMM slots is limiting for those of you wanting to use SIMMs. You will also be throwing away memory if you want to upgrade from 16MB to 32MB or 32MB to 64MB of EDO DRAM. If you decide to use the embedded 64-bit SVGA chip you will be sharing system memory with the video buffer. There is a BIOS option where you can select from .5MB to 4 MB of system memory to share. This isn't a big deal if you have a lot of system memory, but it is definitely less than optimal if you only have 16MB or less. The UpgradeThis was one of the easiest upgrades that I have ever done. The whole ordeal took approximately 30 minutes. I pulled out the Chaintech mainboard and put the R542 in its place. I booted in to Windows NT 4.0 successfully the first time I hit the power switch. Everything worked perfectly. I attribute much of my success to the rigorous burn in process that John puts every board through before shipping. All mainboards are fully tested and all components are tested together. Testing includes a full set of DOS & Windows95 benchmarks to test for stability. John verified that the R542 worked properly before I received so that I would not have to. Windows NT 4.0I have built multiple Cyrix/IBM powered Windows NT 4.0 systems. I have never had a problem. Don't hesitate to run Windows NT 4.0 on a Cyrix/IBM CPU. BenchmarksBenchmarks were performed on the following system. Here is a summary features:
The R542 failed the 83MHz bus speed test badly. I could not get the R542 to boot Windows NT 4.0 when using the 83MHz bus speed. Windows NT crashed hard during the boot up process. I know the problem is not a memory issue because I have used the Macrotron SDRAM at 83MHz successfully in many other mainboards. Honestly, I wasn't surprised because I had been warned me that the R542 would not work at 83MHz. Outside of this, the M-Tech R542 is a solid mainboard in every respect and offers good 6x86MX performance. Key LearningsIn summary, I liked the R542 but I didn't fall in love it. The R542 earns my stamp of approval, but the instability of the R542 at 83MHz and the irregular board lay prevent me from placing it on my mainboard recommendation list. Please remember that this is a new mainboard and it will improve over time. M-Tech didn't get the R534 right until the later revisions. The original R534 didn't work at 83MHz either. However, there are a number of other mainboards currently available on the market that handle the 83MHz bus speed quite well if this is a feature that you absolutely must have. The R534 required M-Tech qualified SDRAM before it would work with SDRAM flawlessly. It also never worked very well with SDRAM in pairs. The R542 doesn't suffer from these problems. This is a huge improvement. Unless you have a case with a tremendous number of case slots, be prepared to lose a ISA slot or two if you decided to go with this board. This may not be a big deal for some, but it could be a huge problem for others. Personally, I prefer the layout of its sister mainboard the R548. It better suits my taste. This page has been accessed |
The goal was to build a Windows NT 4.0
workstation based on a SiS 5598 mainboard to power a IBM 6x86MX PR233. The 
n-board 64-bit SVGA video accelerator
Via isn't the only viable
alternative chipset maker to Intel. SiS and is products are also worthy candidates.
The SiS 5598 chipset supports SDRAM, Ultra DMA, on-board SVGA, and will cache up to 128MB
of DRAM.