Which chipset ?

[Dogbert]

For a new computer, which is the best athlon chipset ?


nvidia (heard good things about built in audio and memory management)
VIA (333Mhz...)
SIS (stability)

[Marshmallowman]

SIS 745 very nice

via, may be tempted by the KT400, but I would rather the sis745 than the 333.

Nvidia, seems that they have worked out the worst of the bugs, and perfomance for PCI shoudl eb up to scratch...

Could be tempted if they releases a dual channel ddr 400 board, run two channels of ddr2100(cheap), and the FSB at 200...yeah

[Gurm]

The performance on the SiS is really only perhaps a few percentage points lower than the VIA boards, and it's SO much more stable, with no latency or arbitration issues, that it's worth it.

- Gurm

[Dogbert]

I can't find any SIS equipped Socket A boards around here (Israel)

What about the AMD MPX chipset (Asus A7M266-D) ?

[Jammrock]

The two most popular SiS 745 boards I know of are the Asus A7S333 and the MSI 745 Ultra. They are both very inexpensive and stable (according to reviews I have read, mine doesn't show up until next week).

The AMD MPX chipset is a dual CPU chipset. You can get an MPX board, but they will cost you more than double the cost of a SiS 745 board. AMD A7D266-D is the most popular one out right now, as it supports Athlon XP's in dual and non-registered DDR.

Jammrock

[Gurm]

Jamm means ASUS A7M266-D, I think.

- Gurm

[[Ch]amsalot]

Now that you can get CAS222 DDR333, I'd go with a mobo that supports it.

Does that rule out everything but VIA for right now? I know NVIDIA was going to support it with the nForce 615-D and 620-D (see http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/24459.html and http://www.amdzone.com/releaseview.cfm?ReleaseID=828), but whatever happened to those chipsets???

The SiS 746 will support DDR333 and 8xAGP! Woot!

http://www.sis.com/products/chipsets/oa/socketa/746.htm

-[Ch]ams

[Dr Mordrid]

Actually the SiS boards with the highest sales are the ECS K7A5A and the K7S6A.

The K7S5A uses the SiS 735 and can take either PC-100 or DDR266 ram.

The K7S6A uses the SiS 745 and can take either DDR266 or DDR333 ram.

I've used both and would recommend the K7S6A because it's BIOS has more settings and it has more bandwidth because of the DDR333. Works great with the AthlonXP's.

Dr. Mordrid

[ALBPM]

Go for the SIS or forever be D/Ling 4 in 1 drivers

Paul

[dZeus]

btw. did you hear the outcome of the lawsuit VIA started against Intel because they didn't get a P4 bus license?

[ALBPM]

No, I haven't but really could use a good laugh

Paul

[dZeus]

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-937863.html

the best quote from that article:

Via responded with a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Texas, claiming that Pentium 4 uses technology from Via's C3 processor. In October Intel filed a counterclaim, charging that Via and its Centaur subsidiary infringed upon Intel patents in the C3 chip.

imho. the only thing Intel would want from VIA of the C3 is the ability to hype people into buying a 1GHz CPU which performs like a 333 Mhz Celeron

Though they don't have a 1Ghz CPU performing like a 333 MHz celeron... as soon as the judge will realise that, it will mean another lost lawsuit for VIA

[Dr Mordrid]

Interesting thing about the SiS745; it uses multi-threaded I/O. Maybe why the PCI bandwidth has an edge?

Dr. Mordrid

[Taz]

One chipset that hasn't been mentioned is the ALi Magik 1, I have an Iwill XP-333R which uses this chipset and it works like a dream