Granite Bay or SiS655

[LCD]

I hoping to purchase a new motherboard by Christmas. This is my only chance to upgrade from my i845G chipset based motherboard. I was wondering which is better, Granite Bay or the new Sis Chipset? I've heard that the SiS chipset has Dual DDR, etc, but I don't know when it'll be announced. Anybody know? Thanks.

 

[P4spooky]

If you are on a 845G platform already I see no point in upgrading. Wait until the Springdale chipset is released in Q2 2003. Personally I would prefer to stay on a totally intel platform.

 

[mrman3k]

If you want to upgrade, go with a GB mobo in the near term. I would not go with a SIS chipset as the compatibility and stability record is not as good as that of Intel's.

In the long run, wait to get Springdale, or go for the Athlon 64 depending on all of the usual factors. Hopefully it will be kickass!

 

[LoverBoyJ]

Go with GB, from what I heard/read thru SIS and Via doesn't support Hyper Threading.

I myself has been itching to get my hands on GB to upgrade my system, my current system is still running PC150 . I was about to spend a lot of dough for an RDRAM rig but hold myself when I heard of GB (thanks to Value Ram for PC1066 loong delay delivery) !

 

[Super6]

The SiS655 is supposed to support Hyper Threading.

Super6

 

[Y23KC]

Basically the GB board has similiar performance as RDRAM. Obviously, DDR is cheaper than RDRAM so this would be the way to go. If you're interested in overclocking, I would wait to see if some of the mobo manufacturers implement ram dividers to up the fsb up higher since the ones I've seen only offer 1:1 ratios. If they decide to keep it this way, a 845pe mobo will offer higher performance than the GB board would.

 

[oldfart]

Originally posted by: Y23KC
Basically the GB board has similiar performance as RDRAM. Obviously, DDR is cheaper than RDRAM so this would be the way to go. If you're interested in overclocking, I would wait to see if some of the mobo manufacturers implement ram dividers to up the fsb up higher since the ones I've seen only offer 1:1 ratios. If they decide to keep it this way, a 845pe mobo will offer higher performance than the GB board would.

Not true. A 533 MHz FSB P4 needs 4.2 GB/Sec for maximum performance. An RDRAM or DC DDR mobo provides that. With a SC DDR board such as an 845PE @ DDR333 provides 2.6 GB/Sec, DDR354 provides 2.8 GB/Sec. DC DDR does not need mem multipliers to get the bandwidth up like SC DDR does. This is why anything above 1:1 would be a waste, and probably slow the system down due to the asynchronous mem timing.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Super6
The SiS655 is supposed to support Hyper Threading.

Super6

Any and all chipsets "support HyperThreading", because there is nothing a chipset needs to have to achieve that. It's a CPU internal feature. Just like with MMX in days long gone, Intel want you to believe differently and buy a new board (with their chipset on, hopefully).

You might need to buy a new board anyway, simply because the new P4 processors have a higher power consumption than the maximum specified for the older ones - and the mainboard's voltage regulators might not be ready for that.

Other than that, it's all a matter of whether your board's BIOS will be updated to support the new CPU model.

regards, Peter

 

[TheCoz]

Originally posted by: Peter
Any and all chipsets "support HyperThreading", because there is nothing a chipset needs to have to achieve that. It's a CPU internal feature. Just like with MMX in days long gone, Intel want you to believe differently and buy a new board (with their chipset on, hopefully).

Intel conspiracy theories aside, I understand the following Intel P4 desktop chipsets support HT.....

Do Support HT: 850E, 845E, 845G (B-step only), 845GE, 845PE, 845GV.
Don't Support HT: 850, 845G (pre B-step), 845B, 845D, 845GL

You can check this here.

Ok, it's hardly a comprehensive list of HT-supporting chipsets but the point is that the chipset has to support HT to make it work.

At the moment, no SiS P4 chipsets support HT but will 'in the future'. Read about that here.

 

[Vette73]

From everything I have read the Granite Bay will be pretty much only for servers and VERY $$$$ boards. Most have taken Granite Bay off their road map. So the SiS655 will probable be the first end user type board. And should also be a LOT cheaper.

 

[oldfart]

From everything I have read the Granite Bay will be pretty much only for servers

None of the boards I have seen reviewed so far (Asus, Gigabyte, Tyan, MSI) are server boards. They are all desktop boards.

 

[TheCoz]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
From everything I have read the Granite Bay will be pretty much only for servers and VERY $$$$ boards. Most have taken Granite Bay off their road map. So the SiS655 will probable be the first end user type board. And should also be a LOT cheaper.

According to Evan (AnandTech mobo reviewer), the Gigabyte GB board (GA-8INXP) will be the same price as the Abit IT7MAX2 v2 - about $175. Sure, it's expensive but it's nowhere near the $300 figure that people were worried about.

Maybe Intel originally intended GB to be a workstation chipset but the motherboard manufacturers can target whatever market they want. As oldfart said, most manufacturers (except maybe Tyan and IWill) are making their GB boards for the desktop market. I've heard that Epox and Abit are undecided about releasing their GB boards but this is only 2 manufacturers out of the dozen (at least) or so who designed GB boards.

As long as Asus release their P4G8X I don't care if the rest ditch their GB boards anyway!!

 

[oldfart]

The ASUS and Gigabyte boards look pretty good. MSI as usual, has put out something I'm not interested in.

 

[cmdrdredd]

it could reach the $300 mark or near it with 2 good sticks of DDR333 memory for overclocking with...Corsair is a bit of $$ and Samsung is too (for the real stuff)