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Best mobo w/ integrated video

X

xirtam

Diamond Member
Hey, I need a motherboard with integrated video, but one that preferably has an AGP port (at the risk of sounding redundant). I intend to bundle it with a Duron 1.0 Ghz chip and PC133 RAM.

Need motherboard, heatsink, processor, and all shipped for under $150. Suggestions?
 
if you dont plan on doing anything that requires alot of 3d graphics, then i would suggest something based on the sis 730 chipsets

pcchips 810lmr (comes with integrated video/sound/lan, and it comes bundled with an amr 56k modem) so you dont need to add a single pci card 🙂 plus newer revisions also have an agp slot... cost is around $55 + shipping


ecs k7sem is very similar (same chipset) but it doesnt come with the amr modem


but..... if you do want something thats good for gaming and 3d stuff then either dont get a board with integrated video, or go with a nforce board
 
Check out the ECS K7SEM. It uses the SiS 730 chipset. Pretty basic board, supports all socket A _except_ Athlon MP and XP. It will support Morgan Durons. It has an AGP slot for upgrading if you outgrow the integrated video. I think it goes for around $72 or so.
 
If it's K7SEM or M810LR, I'd prefer the latter anytime. You get Athlon XP support, 4-channel sound, LAN without the PCI load,
and a free AMR modem card.

regards, Peter
 
Another vote for K7SEM/M810MR can't beat it for $50-60. Also consider the M841LR, which has both DDR and SDR slots and uses SiS 740. The ECS equivalent to 841LR is L7SOM. It though only has DDR DIMM's.
 
good to see PC Chips 841LR arrive and for $10 more, i will pick it over the sis730 if it is also stable.
nexfan.com has some checp HSF for $5 but the shipping will be high if you order only 1 from them. Newegg has a AOC D5-825 80MM HSF for $8 + 6 shipping. kinda quite. Add a quite 80MM fan that you ear will enjoy.
TWCO has low shipping and lower price on 1G Duron.
CompUSA Sun. has a 64MB FREE After Rebate (long 3-4 months rebate if u can wait)
 


<< What about the nvidia boards - do they have an AGP slot? >>

Yep, but bear in mind that like 845 and 850 boards, nForce supports only 1.5v AGP cards so don't insert a V5/V4/V3 into a nForce
 
Yeah I'd say look for a good nForce motherboard. They have GF2 MX integrated video (I belive) which is much better than any other boards' integrated video, as well as having an AGP slot.
 
Hey, you guys are forgetting that xirtam wanted something with AGP slot within a budget. He can get the ECS/PCchips board with CPU and HSF shipped within his $150 limit. Can he get any Nforce board with 1GHz CPU in the same budget? Nope, he could barely get the board. Also, he indicated that he was going to use SDRAM (maybe some that he already had) so the Nforce board wouldn't be the best choice. I won't argue that the Nforce board probably performs better, but it would not fit the restraints of his inquiry.
 
Exactly ... and besides, the new SiS 315 unit inside the 740 chipset is very close to NForce performance -
when combined with DDR RAM of course.

regards, Peter
 


<< Exactly ... and besides, the new SiS 315 unit inside the 740 chipset is very close to NForce performance -
when combined with DDR RAM of course. >>

Truthfully, I'd like to see some benchmarks comparing 740 and 420-D before I make that conclusion. SiS 740 even with PC2700 DDR (which 740 doesn't support), 740 will only have 0.6GB/ps of bandwidth, while 420-D has 2.1GB/ps. I seriousl can't believe that 740 comes close to 420-D.
 
Compare apples with apples. 420-D mainboards cost twice as much as the M841LR, not counting the premium added
by having to use two DDR DIMMs for full performance.

And how do you get to that huge bandwidth difference? By using PC100 SDRAM on SiS 740 and then comparing that
to using twin DDR266 on 420-D?

DDR266 RAM is 2.1 GB/s per channel, and 420-D doesn't benefit as much as one might think from its dual channel setup.

Belief and math are mutually exclusive. Ask Galileo.

regards, Peter
 


<< 420-D mainboards cost twice as much as the M841LR, not counting the premium added
by having to use two DDR DIMMs for full performance. >>

True, that's not in dispute.

<< And how do you get to that huge bandwidth difference? >>

No, I subtract the 2.1GB/ps of bandwidth that the Athlon's front side bus will take priority on if it's maxed out. True that the Athlon's front side bus is rarely going to consume 2.1GB/ps of memory bandwidth, but for sake of comparision, that doesn't change the fact that nForce has more avialable bandwidth. Do you see what I am saying?

<< DDR266 RAM is 2.1 GB/s per channel, and 420-D doesn't benefit as much as one might think from its dual channel setup. >>

There is a lot of miscommunication going around regarding the Dual Channel DDR and it's benefit's on nForce. nVidia went with this setup, for the sole purpose that the GF2MX in the IGP wouldn't be so bandwidth crippled like all Integrated solutions are today. And it's not about how much 420-D "benefits" from the Dual CHannel DDR setup, it's about that the GF2MX will have at least 2.1GB/ps of bandwidth with still leaving the maximum of saturation for the Athlon's front side bus. The reason however 420-D looks worse compared to an AGP MX is because the MX uses a 128-bit 166MHz SDRAM memory bus, while 420-D effectively is using a 64-bit 133MHz DDR memory bus and in the end, the AGP MX has 2.7GB/ps.

I will also comment that the reason 420-D despite the DC DDR setup, does no better than KT266A in benchmarks is because with KT266A's memory controller totally maxing out the Athlon's 266fsb, there isn't much room for improvement, another example is the KT333 launch. There's virtually no difference between KT333 and KT266A despite KT333 has 0.6GB/ps more theoretical bandwidth, why? The Athlon's fsb is maxed out as it is! I hope I came at this in a friendly manner, that was my intention.
 
Have you considered the ECS k7s5a + Duron 950 combo for $89.99 at outpost.com?

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/3211101

Is it necessary to get the vga integrated? (I don't see any apparent reason) You could buy the VisionTek xtasy 5632 (GeForce2 GTS-V) 32MB DDR at newegg for $49+6 shipped, that would give you better performance than any integrated vga. and your total cost would be almost equal to $150. (The outpost deal has retail cpu, you won't need to buy hsf separately)
 
Well you may concsider BIOSTAR M7VKG.. it has Savage 4 integrated video which is a better performer than SIS video chip
gives you the basic Open GL acceleration + it has a good image quality+ good DVD playback support
The board itself has an extra AGP slot and it is only $69.00 with shipping at www.newegg.com...
seems to be a good value
 
i'm interested in this topic as well, i'll be building a grannie box in around a week. what mobo would you guys suggest? i'm currently debating between the biostar KM133A board, the biostar KL-133 board, and that PC chips SiS 740 board. which one of those boards would be best with a 800mhz duron? i'm kinda leaning towards the PC chips board because it has DDR slots for an upgrade down the road, the only problem is the brand. i'm a little leary of getting anything with "PC Chips" on it. have their newer boards been more stable?

also which of those boards will have the best 2D image quality at 1024x768 or 1280x1024?


edit: i know it's a bunch of questions but are the included AMR modems any good? Also the big factor is stability under Windows ME(the OS i'll probably be using)
 
I don't use anything but PC-Chips in that kind of machines. You need to know your stuff since there is
zero end user support, but the products are OK. (Yes, even their old ones.)

So are the AMR modems - they have very good connection rates and high througput.
The only complaint is they have quite a slow roundtrip delay aka ping latency.
But if you're into online 3D gaming, you'd better not use that kind of mainboard
anyway ...

If it's got to be ultra-super-extra cheap, good enough for web browsing and home office usage,
then look at PC-Chips M787CLR. That funny thing has EVERYTHING onboard, including LAN, sound,
AMR modem, graphics (Trident CyberBlade i1) and the CPU (VIA C3 667 MHz) with fan/heatsink.

regards, Peter
 
Peter, I've got a problem. I picked recentley for a 2nd PC a PC Chips M779MR mobo. I liked it because it had On-Board Sound, Video, and Modem. Now, what's happening is under Windows 2000, when the modem is in use, I will get a BSOD eventually (KMODE_EXCEPTION). Since you've used so many PC Chips boards I was wondering if you've seen this before. The modem is HSP 56k MicroModem. I haven't examined the memory dump yet, but I was just wondering if you had seen this before. Thanks!
 
A4A, pick up the latest AMR modem drivers from www.ecs.com.tw, and also give those sound drivers an update.
My folks are using the older PCTel-DAA as well as the PCTel-AMR modems in Windows and Linux, with host chips
ranging from C-Media 8738 sound/modem chip to SiS and VIA chipset integrated modem connections, no such problem.

regards, Peter
 
If I were to put an integrated board on the top of my list it would be the Nvidia based boards (namely MSI), but since you're looking for a board that's sub $100 and uses PC133 than an Nforce is out of the question (whether it be from MSI, Asus, or Abit). I've built a computer using the KM133 from Gigabyte w/ a 850mhz Duron and it performed OK, but the real killer was not using enough memory (remember the graphics chip is using the system memory). ECS (makes PCchips board) certainly makes probably one of the best bargain mobo's with SiS chipsets... heck they're #2 mobo maker behind Asus, followed closely by MSI and Gigabyte. Asus and MSI being more suited towards the enthusiast , while ECS and Gigabyte more towards the OEM. The important thing to note is even on a budget system don't skimp on anything... quality first, quality Power Supply, quality memory (sufficient memory)... these are usually the most important components that get overlooked (#1 reason I think OEM systems suck so bad is because they always skimp on those 2 items... not to mention the video usually sucks too)
 
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