Low Budget DDR Socket A Mobos : Opinions Needed

[Dr Mordrid]

Uppance of this thread: toss VIA and go with SiS. You'll spend a lot less and get a lot more stability and PCI performance.

Can't beat that....

Dr. Mordrid

[Nuno]

Another vote for SiS. Got a K7S5A and couldn´t be happier since then.

Has anyone actually compared the difference between Athlons on DDR and SDR?

Yes. I used 256 Mb SDR at first and just upgraded to 512 Mb Crucial DDR some months ago. If there is a big diference? No. You´ll notice it on syntetic benchmarks, Quake tests at 640x480 and 3dmark. It really won´t make a big diference on the real world unless you are always with an eye on the fps counter...

K7S5A is still a great budget option for a excelent upgrade while keeping the SDRAM PC-133. And BTW, the 735 SDRAM performance is VERY good, rigth on par with a KT133A.

The K7S5A has NO overclocking features, btw, but there is an app for changing the FSB and RAM speeds (it changes hidden settings in the BIOS).

With a customized bios from cheapman (www.ocworkbench.com) you get several available fsb (133, 138, 142, 147, 150, 166) and more agressive memory timings. You still don´t got voltage or multiplier adjustments, but you do get other useful things - PCI IDE busmaster, IO-APIC (26 IRQ´s baby), and Fast-Writes (albeit useless, it does work fine on the 735 chipset).

If not in a big hurry I´d wait for the 746 based motherboards that may be very interesting.

My upgrade path is more or less defined: My GF4 should last me plenty of time now, I migh get a speedier XP (let´s see where the Thoroughbred ends and if Barton 512K are supported) or not, and then, Athlon-64 powa - with a SiS chipset, ofcourse

[az]

There is an app which changes some BIOS values, thus allowing you to change those FSB and memory timings without needing to reflash your BIOS. The app only needs to be run once to change things, not like a driver, and you can make changes to your BIOS without throwing away your tweaks, as long as you don't fiddle with FSB and memory settings.

AZ

[Greebe]

I'd be looking for the MSI 745 Ultra or what ever next MSI uses the SIS 746 chipset on... few more features shouldn't jack the cost much.

Very fast and stable MB without headaches and of all the SIS 745 shipset MB out the MSI has the fewest BIOS issues and is a wonderful OC'er

[Dr Mordrid]

The SiS746 is also getting a new southbridge either at release or soon after. The new one opens up the northbridge/southbridge bus from the current 533 mb/s to 1066 mb/s

Dr. Mordrid

[TiG]

Thanks all for your reponses. I've still got no idea of what I should do, but at least I've got more options now

[Marshmallowman]

sis have posted offical/final specs

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

so the 1G mutiol is defintely there, amongst other tech candy

frontrunner for my next mobo

Edit to add:

a few things to keep in Mind about the 746.
The north and south bridge will be separated.
this will mean it will cost more (but not to much if the 645...etc is an indication)
The separate chips will make getting everything running a bit more difficult, so potentially the 746 may lose some stabilty, maybe not