there are many chipsets from nforce to intel. what is the difference if you get a SiS chipset over an intel? are intel chipsets better than sis?
what exactly does the chipset do?
- Thread starter dc5
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Chipsets are the "stepping stone" between your CPU and your devices (PCI, AGP, RAID, IDE, Sound, etc, etc...). Different brands and chipsets have different features. It depends on what socket you are buying for and what features you want, as to which chipset to get. Did that help?
Whatever you do... do NOT get a board with a Via chipset. They are absolutely nothing but a Real pain in the arse.
The chipset is the core of a computer. People plug in a fast CPU and say they have a fast computer. That is far from the truth, the same speed cpu running at the same speed on a motherboard with a different chipset. Can have a world of difference in performance. Back in the PIII days I had two 933MHz running the same amount of memory, same hard drives, and same video card. The Intel chipset based computer (Abit for both computers) ran loops around the Via based computer... with one minor exception. Boot time, for some reason the Via based computer booted faster. Probably because I was using a 440BX chipset on the Intel based one.
The Via also had many quirks and system instabilities even tho it was running within spec while the 440BX had a 33% OC. So I replaced the Abit based Via chipset motherboard with a Soyo K7V AMD setup. The computer was still a headache.
NForce... I have nothing against, tho my time behind the wheel on a NForce chipset is limited.
SiS... well people told me to steer clear of them so I did. But I have never tried one so I can not say they are good/bad.
What you will find tho is that SiS and Via chipset motherboards cost less than the NForce/Intel based boards. Which is probably the only reason people buy the boards based on those chipsets, to save ~$30. Do yourself a favor and spend that ~$30 on a board with the better chipset.
The chipset is the core of a computer. People plug in a fast CPU and say they have a fast computer. That is far from the truth, the same speed cpu running at the same speed on a motherboard with a different chipset. Can have a world of difference in performance. Back in the PIII days I had two 933MHz running the same amount of memory, same hard drives, and same video card. The Intel chipset based computer (Abit for both computers) ran loops around the Via based computer... with one minor exception. Boot time, for some reason the Via based computer booted faster. Probably because I was using a 440BX chipset on the Intel based one.
The Via also had many quirks and system instabilities even tho it was running within spec while the 440BX had a 33% OC. So I replaced the Abit based Via chipset motherboard with a Soyo K7V AMD setup. The computer was still a headache.
NForce... I have nothing against, tho my time behind the wheel on a NForce chipset is limited.
SiS... well people told me to steer clear of them so I did. But I have never tried one so I can not say they are good/bad.
What you will find tho is that SiS and Via chipset motherboards cost less than the NForce/Intel based boards. Which is probably the only reason people buy the boards based on those chipsets, to save ~$30. Do yourself a favor and spend that ~$30 on a board with the better chipset.
You just showed you know NOTHING about the current state of Tech. Please leave, as your LACK of knowledge is quite apparent.
<-- Has built stable great systems with VIA, Intel, AMD, SiS, etc... chipsets.
VIA has made some horrible products in the past in the form of KT133,266,266a and possibly more. Their PCI latency problem could also attributed to Soundblaster (another crap company) not adhering to technical specifications.
Their recent chipsets seem to be alot better especially the KT800PRO with the working AGP/PCI frequency lock.
Their recent chipsets seem to be alot better especially the KT800PRO with the working AGP/PCI frequency lock.
kt400 was a step back from kt333 also 
basically on P4 and athlon xp systems, the chipsets are split in to northbridge and southbridge
the northbridge connects the CPU to the RAM, AGP, PCi etc etc, the north bridge also connects to the southbridge (and thus south bridge to the cpu) but the southbridge typically runs less intensive tasks like USB ports, fire wire, and audio
here is an example of the P4 / athlon xp set up
ive drawn it so u can see the role played by the chipset. as u can see in the p4/ xp set ups the chipset is very much the hub of all communication
p4 and athlon xp set up
next i did an athlon 64 board, this is set much like the p4 and xp boards. the via chipset still employs a north bridge --> south bridge set up. as u can see the northbridge chipset is still very much the communication hub except on A64 the memory controller is on the cpu itself allowing it to directly access the memory with out goin thru the north bridge....this improves performance by reducing latency
a64 via boards
last but not least an nforce 3 board.....nvidia had the idea to combine the n/b and s/b on to one chip thus reducing latencies even further, but to be honest it makes no difference to reduce latency to ports like usb and firewire. again the memory and cpu communicate directly improving performance over the intel p4 set up
athlon 64 nforce board
this is a very simple description and hope its of use to you
basically on P4 and athlon xp systems, the chipsets are split in to northbridge and southbridge
the northbridge connects the CPU to the RAM, AGP, PCi etc etc, the north bridge also connects to the southbridge (and thus south bridge to the cpu) but the southbridge typically runs less intensive tasks like USB ports, fire wire, and audio
here is an example of the P4 / athlon xp set up
ive drawn it so u can see the role played by the chipset. as u can see in the p4/ xp set ups the chipset is very much the hub of all communication
p4 and athlon xp set up
next i did an athlon 64 board, this is set much like the p4 and xp boards. the via chipset still employs a north bridge --> south bridge set up. as u can see the northbridge chipset is still very much the communication hub except on A64 the memory controller is on the cpu itself allowing it to directly access the memory with out goin thru the north bridge....this improves performance by reducing latency
a64 via boards
last but not least an nforce 3 board.....nvidia had the idea to combine the n/b and s/b on to one chip thus reducing latencies even further, but to be honest it makes no difference to reduce latency to ports like usb and firewire. again the memory and cpu communicate directly improving performance over the intel p4 set up
athlon 64 nforce board
this is a very simple description and hope its of use to you
I still build computer for other people. When they say they want 'this' motherboard dispite my efforts to pursude differently, they still go for it based on the price ratio. This includes a recent build of a A64 computer based off the Asus K8V. Via still gives a headache. But if you like them, thats your choice. I'll spend the extra $30 and go for a better chipset, thanks. He just wanted to know about chipsets, and I gave my experience from the past through present. If your gunna be a Via fanboi, by all means go ahead. I just gavce a sound peice of advise. But please do not say I LACK knowledge, your stepping into fanboi pretection mode, nothing more.
---Editted to add---
But I do 'LACK' experience on the SiS chipsets
. I myself have never built a computer based on one. Nor have I had any requests. One of these days I might, just might try them out. Some reviews have been good.TRENDING THREADS
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