feel so dumb for asking, but what da hell is a chipset?

[Maximus96]

??

 

[Menelaos]

First of all: you are indeed dumb for asking

The chipset is a part of a computer architecture that makes sure every part of your PC is working together with the CPU in the right way. For a more technical (corretc) description, do a search on one of the many dictonary sites.for example

I suggest you do some reading before spreading out much more comments on this board, because people will not only find it ridiculus, but even annoying.

Just trying to keep you from suffering,

Menel.

 

[Rigoletto]

A computer needs a lot more parts than it looks like nowadays. If you looked at a PC in the 1980s you'd see bigger boards and lots more chips.
The chipset is on the motherboard, and is needed by a particular range of CPUs to interface with it to do less glamorous things like run the PCI, AGP, memory buses, USB, directing the traffic and so on... the CPU basically does calculating work but the chipset handles the running of the computer.
Chipsets are usually criticised if they are slow with memory or just unstable. Sometimes they have issues with specific hardware, like AMD did with AGP before. The chipsets from the CPU makers are usually best for their CPUs.

 

[Budman]

You goto the Store & grab a bag of Lays & Ruffles chips,the you have a CHIP SET

 

[jblondi]

Man Menelaos! Why do you have to be such a dirtbag. This guy just asked a question. This forum is for learning, and sharing ideas. Let the guy ask a question, even if it might seem simple to you. And with your "corretc" response, it doesnt even seem as if you really know. Zaku, dont let guys like this bother you. Id like to hear more about this myself.

 

[Talon]

Here's a site for chipset information.

http://www.motherboards.org/chipset.html

EDIT: Getting parse error on link. Really strange. When I posted, it worked perfect. I ran the link 3 times to make sure.

Pearman: thanks for the heads up on the broken link.

2nd EDIT: It seems the problem is on the link's end. Articles temporarily unavailable.

 

[Menelaos]

jblondi:

It was never my intention to brake this guy down. If I sounded like that I trully am sorry. I was just trying to warn him. Again, Sorry if that came out the wrong way.

But I would like to add this:

It wouldn't hurt people (in general, not zaku specificly) to do some elementary reading on the subject before participating in discussions about it. I'm not pretending I know everything, never ask dumb questions, or always RTFM first; but I try to. I also try to share my knowledge as much as possible (check here if you dont believe me). I'm just trying to say that it would help solve a lot of problems if people were less lazy.
And repeating again that I'm NOT stating that this is the case with Zaku, just something I notice in general.

Now you may call me a dirtbag.

Menel.

 

[Weyoun]

let me just say this about forum posting:
he who asks is a fool for 5 minutes, he who never asks is a fool for eternity

this applies to real life too, never be afraid to ask

 

[dkozloski]

We all started out in this racket so ignorant that we didn't know what it was we didn't know. You have to get started somewhere. After more than forty years of fooling with this stuff I still find myself searching for that key piece of information that everyone else figures is so elementary that it isn't worth mentioning. Let's try to keep this the friendly place where we can all go to display our lack of knowledge without being ridiculed for it.

 

[AndyHui]

A chipset not only refers to the controlling pieces of silicon which define the architecture and capabilities for the motherboard, but also is used to refer to an entire controlling chip for other items such as video cards.

For example, the 440BX is a motherboard chipset, the nVidia GeForce 2 GTS (the chip itself, not the video card) is a chipset, the Creative EMU10K1 is also a chipset, which is used for soundcards.

In the case of the 440BX, there are a number of chips, 2, that make up the entire chipset. Something like the i8xx series has 3 or 4, making up the whole chipset. The GeForce 2 GTS and the EMU10K1 are only single chips.

 

[Sunny129]

lol...Weyoun, didn't Confucious once say that?

 

[Weyoun]

i've no idea who said it, but it's golden advice It still holds very true in our society...

 

[NakaNaka]

ya Menelaos I agree. We were all there once. C'mon, I can remember on my old POS Mac way back when I was like damn, how does this thing work. When I left my computer on all night to download a 2 meg file which was actually corrupt.

I do like that Confucius quote.

"He who learns but does not think is lost ... He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger."

Think about it .... P.S. It doesn't apply to this fully but I still like the quote.

 

[Whitedog]

If Menelaos had rating on, he'd have gotten a 1 from me. tisk... tisk...

Perhaps you find his questions annoying... I find your attitude towards his questions annoying.

 

[Pearman]

Talon, thanks for the website, but it doesnt work! Oh well, thanks for trying anyway, its all good. And Menelaos,

<< It was never my intention to brake this guy down >>

? Learn to speak English before insulting people

 

[Radboy]

I had an elementary Computer Science class (CS1A) where the prof said the chipset was the most important part of a computer. He said, most folks think it's the CPU, but it'd not, cuz the chipset determines which CPU you can use .. not the other way around.

 

[Mday]

exactly, a chipset just refers to chips that do stuff, or a chip.

the 440BX or whatnot is known as a core logic chipset and it handles\manages communications between parts of a computer's bus which includes memory to cpu, pci to memory, etc...

 

[Weyoun]

that does seem a bit shallow of your professor, as different parts of the computer could be the integral part, depending on the operation. the chipset, and to a larger degree, the motherboard is the most important piece of hardware in the computer, as it totally determines what you can/cant do.
anyways my new burner jsut arrived, itching to install it, cyall later, wish me luck knowing my history i'm going to need it

 

[Whitedog]

And to clarify why the term &quot;chipset&quot; is because they (the two chips in referrence) work as a pair known as (why they call them this is beyond me) Northbridge and Southbridge. Forming... TADA!! a &quot;Set&quot; of chips. hehehe

[edit]I guess Northbridge was developed by someone from Boston, and the Southbridge was developed by someone from Georgia [/edit] hehehe

 

[Weyoun]

just finished installing it, works like a charm *gasp* at 12x, god you have to love burnproof as for chipset, that sounds pretty accurate Whitedog, but i dont know about this Boston/Georgia business

 

[AfterBurn]

&quot;The only dumb question, is a question unasked&quot;

 

[Mday]

what about &quot;it's better to be silent and be thought to be a fool than to speak and prove it&quot; or what not

so when

<< The only dumb question, is a question unasked >>

is stated, the person doing the asking can be shown to be dumb despite the question at hand not necessarily being dumb

and besides, how can we tell if a question is dumb without it being asked...

 

[Rigoletto]

It's kinda easy to overlook how much a motherboard does. It just looks like a boring expense and you wanna get to the juicy stuff that goes into it... but just remember how much it does and read up the reviews.

 

[hungrypete]

its a shame more people on here dont come forward and ask questions like that, maybe less people would talk out thier azzes to people looking for legitimate answers....