First off, the board offers a conservative number of PCI slots, four, which is in contrast to the recent boards from ASUS, Abit, and others who offer up to six full bus mastering slots.

Whether or not four PCI slots is too limited for your needs largely depends on your PC's configuration, but it's safe to say that four slots is cutting it close when used with a SCSI/Network-based PC.

Another noticeable item that jumps immediately from the P6BXT's specs is its integrated audio solution.

Thanks to diminishing profit margins and robust competition integration is all the rage in 1999, and the P6BXT's Elite CMI 8338 3D audio chip is equipped on the board to provide acoustic support.

3D? Is that a typo? Believe it or not the Elite CMI 8338 3D chip can emulate true 4-speaker 3D audio in both Windows98 and entertainment titles, using Microsoft's DirectSound3D

During testing we felt that the P6BXT's audio support was not as crisp or clear as an aftermarket Vortex-2 powered sound card, nor was the 3D representation of DirectSound3D as accurate in reproduction.

We also didn't like the CPU utilization effects that the on-board audio of the P6BXT demanded as it chewed up roughly 15 to 20% of the CPU's available cycles, which produced lower benchmark scores in games than we've recorded with stand alone audio accelerators.

Still, it's impressive that 3D audio made its way to the P6BXT, and if you're pinched in the pocketbook you can easily survive with the included audio solution until you're able to upgrade to a stand alone audio card.

The final big feature from the spec sheet that rings a warning bell with us, and should for you too, deals with the very limited CPU front side bus speed settings that the P6BXT offers to the user.

Speeds of 66, 68, 75, 83, 100, 112, and 133MHz are the only ones available, which when compared to the newest 440BX mainboard from Abit (the BE6-II) that offers over 100 front side bus speed settings, the P6BXT comes up lacking in a big way for the overclocker.