Have you heard SiS 740 chipset?

[bowie71]

I just opened Headquarter ECS website (Taiwan site=http://www.ecs.com.tw) and found that they just launched new MicroATX mobo called L7S0M using SiS north and south bridge (SiS740 & SiS961/961B/962) chipset. They support ATA 133, and DDR266 (PC2100). It's also equipped with intergrated video, sound, optional LAN, optional USB 2.0 and optional two firewire ports. Anybody can help me where I can get the review or at least some explanations about those chipsets?... I never heard of 'em before

 

[Boonesmi]

its the kinda like the relationship between the sis 730 and 735
the 740 very similar to the 745, but has integrated video

pcchips and amptron also have boards out based on the sis740.... your not going to find many reviews because its basically a system builders board, not really for enthusiast (do it yourself) types.

 

[lsman]

i will say 730 is more like 733, because it is single chip design and both support SDRAM only.
740 however, like 735 (support SDRAM and DDR) but go with North/south chip design rather than one chip design of 735. 745 only support DDRam.
BTW, sis730 is a good value for an office computer.

 

[bambam]

Its already around in the Pccchips cousin of the L7SOM known as the M841LR . So far, the prices on the PCCHIPs version in the US are 80-90 which really is no better than buying a K7S5A and a modest video card like a 32meg TNT2 . Maybe when Newegg etc. start pushing them maybe there will be a lower price.

 

[bambam]

Anyone here at AT tied one of these yet ?

 

[clumsum]

bambam,

For some SIS information go here: SIS

Go to PriceWatch and look for PCChips M841LMR in the motherboards ........... prices start about $65. plus shipping.
The PCChips/Amptron version will use either DDR or SDRAM and has two dimms each available, the ECS has only DDR dimms (2)?
PCChips/Amptron also comes with an AMR slot (Modem included) ............. instead of the ECS version's CNR slot.

 

[bowie71]

Thank a bunch guys,... I'd prefer to wait until it is available in the US market, though ECS and PCCHIPS basically are just the same company, I believe that ECS has better quality, and moreover, I don't need the onboard modem PCCHIPS has, ECS L7S0M will support ATA133, it also has USB 2.0, 6 channel sound card, and onboard firewire.. wow!!! I won't mind to buy it, even if it's more than a hundred bucks,.. the value will be more than the price, again thanks.

 

[Peter]

L7SOM (that's an O not a Zero) v3.x _can_ have USB 2.0 and Firewire, but it doesn't have to. In fact, three different
versions are described in its manual - with UDMA100 and USB 1.1, UDMA133 and USB 1.1,
or UDMA133 and USB 2.0 plus FireWire.
regards, Peter

 

[bambam]

FWIW - I have just found out that the ECS L7SOM SIS 740 motherboards will available at the major USA distribution channels (ASI etc) in late April or early may . The PCCHIPS m841lr and the
Amptron K7-m841lr variations of the SIS 740 motherboard are already available in the US but seem to be availble at only few resellers.

 

[Zap]

I think the integrated video this chipset has is the SiS 315. The 730 chipset had the SiS 305 video (I think). As a regular AGP card the SiS 315 can be configured a number of ways. Indeed it seems similar to the Geforce2 MX series in the way it can be configured using SDRAM with 64bit or 128bit interfaces, 32MB or 64MB capacities. It's performance is also almost like the MX, meaning it is okay for some gaming but not the best. Being integrated means that it will have a slower 64bit memory interface and you can tell it how much system RAM to use. Yes, yes, we all KNOW that a cheap AGP card and motherboard will give better 3D gaming performance than integrated video cards, but not all computers are used to play 3D games.

 

[Peter]

SiS 730 has the embedded version of the "300" graphics engine, 740 has the 315.
Team the latter up with DDR RAM and you'll have really good performance in games. With SDRAM,
you lose some 15 to 20 percent (estimated).

regards, Peter

 

[Athlon4all]

Yeah, this is an integrated version of the SIS 735. The on-board video is decent, and supposed to be close to a GF2 MX 400 (and thus nForce with I find rather unbelievable( in performance although I have yet to see any benchmarks run on SiS 740 or the P4 based SiS 650. I wish somebody would get one of these boards and compare them to a GF2 MX and or nForce.

 

[lsman]

how about if sis come up with intergrated video with this, then its comparable to nForce.

 

[Peter]

Well SiS have always been pulling their separate graphics chip into their next generation of integrated chipsets ... it started in 1997 with the 2D-only 6205 that got pulled into the 5598 PCI 75-MHz SDRAM socket 7 chipset, then it was their first 3D engine 6326 that got pulled into 100 MHz SDRAM socket-7 530 and Pentium-II 620 chipsets, next came the 2nd generation 3D engine 300 going into 133 MHz SDRAM chipsets 540, 630 and 730, now it's 3rd generation 315 in 133 MHz DDR 650 and 740 ... notice a pattern? You bet they'll pull 330 into a chipset sometime soon - but as with previous generations, that doesn't make much sense until the chipset's RAM bandwidth has grown to become adequate for this graphics engine. Rumour has it that SiS are working on RDRAM and dual channel DDR solutions. We'll see.

You know, SiS has a long history of making pretty decent chipsets and graphics engines ... it's only that noone noticed because they never made it into the spotlight of the online community until recently. The reason is they always concentrated on the large volume business of average to low end systems.

regards, Peter