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Chipset for grannie box

N

natopotato

Senior member
i'm going to be putting a grannie box together for a friend pretty soon and i'm looking at a few chipsets.

in the blue corner:
KM133A

in the red corner:
KLE-133

in some other corners:
SiS 730
SiS 740


this box will probably be used mostly for web surfing, office apps, etc.. so which should i go with? price is a factor, cheaper is better but there isn't a whole lot of difference in the prices of these boards.

also how is the image quality on the KLE-133 and SiS boards?

edit: OS will probably be win ME. CPU will likely be a spitfire cored duron(probably anywhere from 800-950mhz) w/ 128megs of pc133 or pc2100 depending on the board.
 
currently the best integrated chipset (if u ask me, of course) is the SIS 740 for socket A, or the SIS 650 for socket 478 (beware tho, there are boards w/ SDR or DDR).

they have arguably the fastest integrated 3d performance (as if grannie cares), excellent 2d (375mhz RAMDAC), good stability and overall performance (i.e. i/o), and cost pennies...

u can get some nice feature packed microATX boards...i've been eyeing several myself for a slimline case...all the top-tiers produce them (i.e. Asus, ECS, AOpen, etc.)

forget the crap ass VIA chipsets w/ dismal video performance...even if that doesn't matter, they still blow stability/compatibility-wise...and often such boards will cost u the same as the above mentioned high performance boards.
 
u'll be hard pressed to find a SIS 740 board, for some odd reason...while it's too easy finding 650 boards everywhere...i think ECS makes a 740 board.

personally, u'd be better off grabbing a SIS 650 and a p4 northwood 1.6a Ghz...then o/c it to 2.133ghz @ 133mhz FSB....the MSI 6533 has microstepping (fsb in 1mhz increments) and voltage tweaks...u can get it at newegg for $96.
 
Unfortunately, PC Chips is the only mainboard maker of the SiS 740. I'd go with the Gigabyte 7ZMMH mATX board (VIA KM133A chipset). It features the following:

1. 3PCI slots
2. 3 DIMM slots.
3. Audio
4. Video

It'll have pretty decent quality (it's Gigabyte) but will lack a lot in the performance arena. But then again, we're talking granny, right? 😉
 
while i would like to do something like that nortexoid the budget i am trying to adhere to does not allow such moves. if the SiS 740 is the best, what takes 2nd place in your opinions?
 
The SiS 740 chipset isn't your best bet. The only mainboard maker of the SiS 740 is PC Chips, and it's not only more expensive than the Gigabyte board I just mentioned, it's also of less quality most likely.

Go with the cheaper and high quality Gigabyte board.
 
i was just looking at 1gig duron prices and it won't be much more than the 950. so morgan core compatiblity is a deffinate plus.
 
Newegg has Epox 8kha refurbs (kt266) with on-board sound for $45 shipped. How much cheaper are you looking to get? Pick up 128MB of cheap DDR from outpost for $35, a cheap duron, a few parts laying around the house that aren't fast nuff to be in your box anymore (maybe your old TNT or TNT2 video card, etc.), and you're done.

Nack
 
IMO, this is time for an Nforce board. Integrated audio, video, and LAN: eliminating the need for pretty much all of the cards you would have to put in there anyway.

Dont remember how much they are running for now, though. I lost interest when I found out dual channel DDR wasnt going to do diddly squat 😉

according to pricewatch, the 420's are running for 130+shipping and Abit now has its version out :|. Whoa..missed that one.
 
honestly, consider the ECS K7S5A for about $55....built in LAN and audio - the only thing u need is video...u can get some medicre granny type video cards for dirt cheap, including GF2 MX level cards...

also, the that SIS 735 board support SDR (cheaper) and DDR....so u can toss in SDR modules to save some money, and u always have the possibility of going DDR in the futre (if ever u wanted..)

put in a duron 1ghz (morgan) and 256 SDR memory...it's most likely cheaper thna a lot of the mATX combos anyway, including using some agp video card over the integrated stuff.

i just can't recommend the gigabyte board that godspeed recommends...simply because it's using an old school chipset w/ sub-par performance and costs roughly the same as a mid to high performance mobo..and i've built 3 systems around the K7S5A w/ no problems whatsoever....love the board.
 
I have to go with the others in recommending the ECS K7S5A, I have built two systems using this board... no problems at all. You will have to buy a video card and modem
if it's going to be used with dial-up
but you can probably find a CPU combo that will give you something in the neighborhood of 1.2 GHz with a cost savings to make it more than worthwhile.
Check out Pricewatch.com for the combos
 
Stay away from KM133A and KLE133. No reason to go VIA when there are better options. I'd say SiS 740 as well unless you want to spend big bucks on nForce, but I doubt grannie will put 740 even to use.
 
i was thinking of going with the ECS k7s5a but i can save the person about $25(mobo+ATI rage 128pro=$94shipped vs. $69 shipped for the biostar KM133A) by going with a KM133A board. while the KM133A doesn't perform as well as a SiS 735, it is probably about as stable(at least as far as VIA chipsets go) and if the KM133A is just a KT133A with integrated vid then it's performance should be okay at least for web and office apps.

so am i making a mistake trying to save $25(total is/will be around $600 w/monitor, keyboard, mouse, and printer) on this thing?
 
I'll settle this 😀

You want mATX? Grab the Chaintech 7SID. It's based on the rock solid SiS 735 chipset and has plenty of room for expansion. You won't be overclocking anyway, and this board even has upgrade potential. Perhaps you'd eventually like to throw in an XP for Granny a few months (year?) down the road...

Otherwise, the ECS K7S5A is your best bet. It's also based on SiS 735, supports PC133 SDRAM and PC2100 DDR alike, and is simply the best bang for the buck in the Socket A arena right now.

Stay far, far away from those integrated VIA chipset-based boards. Any VIA chipset-based mainboard is bad enough, but why settle for the low performance and issues surrounding those chipsets? SiS 735 is night and day superior.

If you require integrated video, look at a SiS 730 board. There's a few around the $50-$60 price point. The video sucks, yes, but the chipsets are solid and won't pull your hair out.
 
what exactly are you saying geared?? are you saying go VIA if the price is right? or are you saying to stay away from VIA chipsets at all costs?
 
pabster, you are the worst person to give advice.
I'd take any VIA chipset over a board made by chaintech, chaintech are probably the least stable boards around.
 
AA0 wrote:

"pabster, you are the worst person to give advice."

I've been called worse 😀

"I'd take any VIA chipset over a board made by chaintech, chaintech are probably the least stable boards around."

Suit yourself. Anyone with half a brain would take the incredible performance of SiS 735 with the 7SID over the lousy VIA solutions. I don't see too many people griping about the 7SID.
 
chaintech doesn't sell many boards, and those who buy them don't come to forums. They are constantly the least stable of the group, and the performance of any chipset goes down the drain their boards as well. Their webpage doesn't even work properly, all the links for support files are dead when I checked. Recommending chaintech just because you hate VIA looks awful on you. Give an unbiased opinion for once in your life.
 
nat, the only reason that integrated KM133 combo u mentioned is cheaper than the K7S5A combo is because u're coupling it w/ a piece of overpriced rage 128 pro crap...

if video performance (3d) isn't a concern, just slap in some decent low end video card - there's TONS of them...some based on the SIS 305 and 315...and obviously, they'll perform flawless w/ the SIS chipset...(the 305 will be cheaper, has good driver support, and a few mnaufacturers still make them)

though I'd probably go with something like an ATI Xpert 2000 32mb for around $30
 
thanks nortexoid(may i call you tex??)i did find a PC chips SiS 305. it fits the bill a little better(ECS board $60+$24 SiS 305=$84 vs $69 biostar board). it might allow me to go with the ECS K7S5A. Pabster, i don't need a mircoATX board.

 
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