SIS chipsets

[bladephoenix]

My boss asked me to purchase two new systems for a couple data entry personal at our company. Believe it or not, they are still both working with Celeron 600's (but then again we are a small company). Neither of them work with intensive applications (mostly a custom VB access applet which was written specifically for our company), so I recommended the most inexpensive P4 available right now -- 2.8 or so, and even that I felt would probably be overkill, but it is the lowest end right now.

However, I specifically insisted our supplier get an Intel chipset. I left the choice of Intel board up to him, but he was TOTALLY pushing SIS, saying that for the extra money spend to get an Intel board is simply not worth it. I'll admit I rarely have worked with SIS boards, but I had heard numerous issues with it, so I have been a Intel person myself. I have always been under the impression that SIS are not very well integrated. Anyways, he was saying that SIS did have issues a couple of years ago, but all those bugs seemed to have worked out and that they operate along the same efficiency level as any Intel board.

So what do you guys think? Is SIS up to the same quality level as Intel now?

 

[Dman877]

SiS is fine. And if it's a cheap data-entry machine you're looking for, why not go celeron or sempron? No need for a P4 unless you're running large databases locally and even then, thats more memory intensive then cpu is it not?

 

[bladephoenix]

True, I originally was looking into getting a Celeron, since I don't imagine these machines will need that much cache, but the difference was only $5 - 8 between the lower end Celerons and the lower end P4s, so I just went with the P4s.

 

[xrax]

He probably has some SIS motherboards lying around. The main difference is the onboard graphics. Intel's graphics is better then SIS by a small amount. I would spend the extra money on Intel or go with AMD.

 

[eplebnista]

Good deal :thumbsup:

 

[ChiPCGuy]

SiS makes VERY good chipsets. I would not hesitate to use a SiS based board assuming the board itself is a good one and has a reliable track record.

 

[abs0lut3]

Originally posted by: bladephoenix
My boss asked me to purchase two new systems for a couple data entry personal at our company. Believe it or not, they are still both working with Celeron 600's (but then again we are a small company). Neither of them work with intensive applications (mostly a custom VB access applet which was written specifically for our company), so I recommended the most inexpensive P4 available right now -- 2.8 or so, and even that I felt would probably be overkill, but it is the lowest end right now.

However, I specifically insisted our supplier get an Intel chipset. I left the choice of Intel board up to him, but he was TOTALLY pushing SIS, saying that for the extra money spend to get an Intel board is simply not worth it. I'll admit I rarely have worked with SIS boards, but I had heard numerous issues with it, so I have been a Intel person myself. I have always been under the impression that SIS are not very well integrated. Anyways, he was saying that SIS did have issues a couple of years ago, but all those bugs seemed to have worked out and that they operate along the same efficiency level as any Intel board.

So what do you guys think? Is SIS up to the same quality level as Intel now?

I'm using an SiS chipset right now. Actually I had used one in the past as well. Overall it is a decent board especially for working. Don't waste your time getting one with onboard video right now because AGP V/C is so cheap. I mean you are going to use it just for data entry right? I'm sure your supplier can get FX5200 for well under 50 bucks each. Back to the board, I'm using Foxconn 655FX-A01 and I got it pretty cheap too at about less than 40. It's a stable board with limited chip upgrade option: 2.8 Prescott is max but for data entry, that's more than enough. Just go heavy on the RAM, it should handle it just fine.

 

[CrispyFried]

Sis may be OK but I would still demand Intel, this is a business - I imagine those machines will be in use for years. Why take a chance?

Not worth the few bucks in saving, it just sounds like he has a pile of sis boards hes trying to unload.

 

[AmberClad]

I've used both Intel and SiS chipsets in the past. They both seemed fine, especially for just office type work.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: xrax
He probably has some SIS motherboards lying around.

This is a good point.

Myself, I'm an AMD man. However, I will say that the Intel boards I was supporting until recently were rock-solid. In a year, I replaced two out of hundreds of jobs.