MicroATX S754 all-in-one: SIS or VIA chipset?

[mamisano]

Hey all, looking to get a S754 board with onboard video for use in a home server. Will be used with a Sempron 3100+. Which would be the better way to go, a board with SIS760 + Ultra256 Graphics, or Via K8M800M + S3 Unichrome2 3D/2D?

Specifically looking at the Foxconn/Winfast K8S760MG and Gigabyte GA-K8VM800M

Many thanks!

-Michael

 

[Boonesmi]

the S3 Unichrome sucks for gaming, but it is excellent for everything else. especially since it has all kinds of hardware decoding (making it great for home theater systems)

if your gonna run linux i would go with the via based boards (much much better linux driver support)

but all in all, if your gonna run winxp and its just going to be a basic server. then you probably wont see much difference in either one (just make sure you get one that has all the features you need. ie. 10/100/1000 lan, etc)

 

[mamisano]

Thanks, will be going with XP or Server 2003, hosting web sites with Apache via DSL. I have an Intel 1000MT NIC that will be used internal with the onboard NIC used for web hosting.

 

[Peter]

The SiS "Ultra256" is taken from the SiS 315 graphics chip - see capabilities there, this at least makes an attempt at being fast in 3D, particularly when paired with dedicated RAM - the 760 chip can have that. The K8M800 chipset's "Unichrome Pro" graphics always shares system RAM, is impressively slow in 3D, but in turn has very good video and DVD acceleration features.