Whats the best Socket 754 Motherboard?

[BoomAM]

Hi.
I was wondering what were the top Socket 754 motherboards.

And on a side note;
When Via KT8T880 & nVidia nForce 3 250 comes out. And any other chipsets for S754.

 

[Peter]

Don't forget SiS 755. Elitegroup 755-A board hitting the shelves right now. This is the best choice currently, running full speed Hypertransport like the VIA chipset does, and the best I/O throughput of all chipsets currently.

Then there's ALi's chipset which actually is AMD's AGP tunnel chip plus the ATi south bridge. Throughput is excellent, the drawback being that the ALi south bridge doesn't bring as much I/O connectivity as the others. That'll make for the cheapest boards then.

 

[BoomAM]

My supplier for the mobos dont do any boards with any of the chipsets that you reccommend yet.

When are the new chipsets comeing out.
Cos i`ll be buying early Jan. But i`d wait a week or so for the new ones. But no later than mid Feb.

 

[Peter]

As I _just_ said, the ECS 755A is arriving in shops RIGHT NOW.

 

[BoomAM]

But_OC_UK_Dont_Stock_ECS_Stuff_!
They usually only sell stuff from the bigger manufacturers.

 

[Vette73]

If you can wait, try and find a good SiS755 board.

If you can't wait then go with a Albatron K8X800 ProII. It has the VIA Envy soundcard, firewire, SATA, etc... and goes for $129 at newegg.com

 

[BoomAM]

NewEgg are American. I live in the UK.
I dont need fancy on-board sound, or any on-board sound that adds to the cost for that matter. I have a SB Audigy thats serving me fine.

What time frame are we looking at for the new A64 chipsets from Via & nVidia? I can`t imagine them being much longer.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: BoomAM
But_OC_UK_Dont_Stock_ECS_Stuff_!
They usually only sell stuff from the bigger manufacturers.

And that leaves ECS, the second biggest mainboard maker worldwide, where?

 

[BoomAM]

Not on the OC UK mobo manufacturer list for a start!
I`ve never even heard of ECS.

 

[nRollo]

I`ve never even heard of ECS.

You're lucky, they're cheap junk.

 

[nRollo]

Don't forget SiS 755. Elitegroup 755-A board hitting the shelves right now. This is the best choice currently, running full speed Hypertransport like the VIA chipset does, and the best I/O throughput of all chipsets currently.

Then there's ALi's chipset which actually is AMD's AGP tunnel chip plus the ATi south bridge. Throughput is excellent, the drawback being that the ALi south bridge doesn't bring as much I/O connectivity as the others. That'll make for the cheapest boards then.

SiS and ALi?! What kind of sadist are you? I'd never buy crap like that.
My one ALi experience:
The "BXcel" chipset. Besides all the trouble I had getting it to work right, it was slow even when I did. Moving the same parts to a real BX chipset increased my framerates 25% at Q2.
ALi and SiS do indeed make motherboard chipsets, but why deal with a crap motherboard over $30 price difference? Get a VIA or nVidia board, have support, bios updates, driver updates, and a real company behind it.

 

[Peter]

Yes, the BXcel (alias Aladdin Pro II) was slow. However, ALi's Athlon-64 chipset is actually AMD's in disguise - nothing wrong with that.

I won't comment on the rest of your blurb, since it's just bull.

ECS, aka Elitegroup, have a UK branch, and aren't exactly selling nothing there. Whatever OC is, they must be a pretty ignorant shop to not notice that.

 

[BoomAM]

Firstly. Lets not let this dissolve into a flame war......

Originally posted by: Peter
and aren't exactly selling nothing there.

I can name loads of UK suppliers that dont sell either ECS or Elitegroup products.
So i`d say that they`re selling practically nothing there! lol.

 

[JetBlack69]

Originally posted by: Peter
ALi's Athlon-64 chipset is actually AMD's in disguise

What do you mean? AMD built the chipset for ALi?

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: JetBlack69

Originally posted by: Peter
ALi's Athlon-64 chipset is actually AMD's in disguise

What do you mean? AMD built the chipset for ALi?

ALi probably licensed AMD's chipset and threw their name on it.

 

[DieHardware]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Don't forget SiS 755. Elitegroup 755-A board hitting the shelves right now. This is the best choice currently, running full speed Hypertransport like the VIA chipset does, and the best I/O throughput of all chipsets currently.

Then there's ALi's chipset which actually is AMD's AGP tunnel chip plus the ATi south bridge. Throughput is excellent, the drawback being that the ALi south bridge doesn't bring as much I/O connectivity as the others. That'll make for the cheapest boards then.

SiS and ALi?! What kind of sadist are you? I'd never buy crap like that.
My one ALi experience:
The "BXcel" chipset. Besides all the trouble I had getting it to work right, it was slow even when I did. Moving the same parts to a real BX chipset increased my framerates 25% at Q2.
ALi and SiS do indeed make motherboard chipsets, but why deal with a crap motherboard over $30 price difference? Get a VIA or nVidia board, have support, bios updates, driver updates, and a real company behind it.

Rollo why are you such an SIS FUD crapper if you've never even used them? lol what a dumba$$

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Don't forget SiS 755. Elitegroup 755-A board hitting the shelves right now. This is the best choice currently, running full speed Hypertransport like the VIA chipset does, and the best I/O throughput of all chipsets currently.

Then there's ALi's chipset which actually is AMD's AGP tunnel chip plus the ATi south bridge. Throughput is excellent, the drawback being that the ALi south bridge doesn't bring as much I/O connectivity as the others. That'll make for the cheapest boards then.

SiS and ALi?! What kind of sadist are you? I'd never buy crap like that.
My one ALi experience:
The "BXcel" chipset. Besides all the trouble I had getting it to work right, it was slow even when I did. Moving the same parts to a real BX chipset increased my framerates 25% at Q2.
ALi and SiS do indeed make motherboard chipsets, but why deal with a crap motherboard over $30 price difference? Get a VIA or nVidia board, have support, bios updates, driver updates, and a real company behind it.

Sniff...sob...Go**amn it to He!!.....I had a bad experience with ONE ALi chipset YEARS ago so I'm never buying them again. VIA and nVidia have NEVER had any problems! EVER!!!
When will this persecution end?!?!?
WaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH!
WaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH!

 

[nRollo]

Rollo why are you such an SIS FUD crapper if you've never even used them? lol what a dumba$$

Why should I use them when the only people I know who have had less than optimal experiences? To save $20 and give SiS a chance?

Yeah sure. SiS owns the mobo chipset market. Everyone knows for compatibility and ease of installation, you buy SiS, not Intel.

I've heard SiS dominates in AMD motherboard market share as well and that no one ever bothers to buy nVidia or VIA based boards anymore.


It's been a long time since I've used a SiS board, I don't see any reason to go back as long as I can afford their more successful competition.

 

[Peter]

Isn't it fun when someone has the wrong end of their sarcasm? You've been stuck in 1998, dude. SiS have been hugely successful in both Pentium-4 and Athlon markets, biting a solid chunk off the market.

You have five years of catching up to do.

In case you didn't notice, we're all laughing. At you.

MDE, that ALi/AMD thing is one of the benefits of HyperTransport - it's an open standard for I/O links. ALi had adopted this long ago for their north-south link, so now their south bridge can be mixed and matched to anyone's other HyperTransport chips.
ALi didn't bother make their own AGP tunnel chip, and licensed AMD's instead.

 

[BoomAM]

Anyway....Can we get back to telling me whats the best S754 mobo, when the new ones are coming out, and not arguing about manufacturers!.

 

[Creig]

To our surprise, the SiS755 Reference Board is the best-performing Athlon64 chipset that we have tested. AnandTech is therefore pleased to award the SiS755 our Gold Editor's Choice as the best Athlon64 chipset. With 800MHz HyperTransport, the option to fix the AGP/PCI frequency, the ability to run DDR400 at the fastest 2-2-2-6 timings, and a full range of memory timing adjustments, the SiS755 is the only Athlon64 chipset that is not missing one or more of these features. When combined with the 964 Southbridge providing SATA RAID, ATA133, and 8 USB 2.0 ports, it is easily the best Athlon64 chipset that we have seen. Until we see the upcoming nForce3-250 and the rumored update to VIA K8T800, the SiS755 is the best Athlon64 chipset that we have tested.

If it's good enough for AnandTech....

 

[BoomAM]

Whens nForce3-250 coming out then?

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: Creig

To our surprise, the SiS755 Reference Board is the best-performing Athlon64 chipset that we have tested. AnandTech is therefore pleased to award the SiS755 our Gold Editor's Choice as the best Athlon64 chipset. With 800MHz HyperTransport, the option to fix the AGP/PCI frequency, the ability to run DDR400 at the fastest 2-2-2-6 timings, and a full range of memory timing adjustments, the SiS755 is the only Athlon64 chipset that is not missing one or more of these features. When combined with the 964 Southbridge providing SATA RAID, ATA133, and 8 USB 2.0 ports, it is easily the best Athlon64 chipset that we have seen. Until we see the upcoming nForce3-250 and the rumored update to VIA K8T800, the SiS755 is the best Athlon64 chipset that we have tested.

If it's good enough for AnandTech....

I am waiting until they review a retail board

 

[nRollo]

Isn't it fun when someone has the wrong end of their sarcasm? You've been stuck in 1998, dude. SiS have been hugely successful in both Pentium-4 and Athlon markets, biting a solid chunk off the market.

It's nice you're all laughing at me because I prefer proven, mainstream components over bargain basement cheapie parts. Do you buy your clothes at Wal-Mart too?

Tom's doesn't seem to think SiS has set the world on fire for the last five years

But we haven't forgotten that SiS was able to wow us back in mid-2001 with its 735 chiopset for the Athlon. And yet the 735 did not become a breakthrough success as it was only used in low-cost products - nobody really took the chip seriously.

Hmm, he doesn't seem thrilled with this POS (Piece of SiS) either

In terms of memory performance, however, the first work from SiS clearly lags behind the competition in the form of Intel - regardless of whether the 850E or the 845PE is used for making the comparison. The data transfer rate of just under 3 GB/s trails way behind the theoretically possible rate of 4.8 GB/s

And that was this spring, not 1998.

More SiS dissing spring 2003

In view of the great variations in performance, we have to conclude that no one has quite got to grips with the SiS655 - or that the chipset design is simply not yet fully mature.

Therefore, the SiS655 is not a great choice right now. We can't say it clearer than that

Gee, SiS doesn't seem to be the flawless media darling you make it out to be Pete. Saying "don't buy this" isn't exactly subtle.

I'm not even to go into the extremely obscure and seldom reviewed ALi. I'll be selling plasma and begging on a street corner before I buy that crap.

I'm not saying it's impossible SiS has come up with a decent chipset this time, they may have. I am saying their entire history is so checkered and mainly anchored in cheapie motherboards I'm not going to bother finding out if they're good now.

I ordered an MSI Neo board with my Athlon 64. It may not be as good as SiS, but I don't have tons of time to trouble shoot hardware anymore, and VIA is about as mainstream as it gets for AMD these days.
Tom seems to like it too
For $126 minus $20 rebate at newegg, I can't see much reason to try SiS. (or "Elitegroup" for that matter)

 

[Peter]

SiS 735 not a breakthrough success? ROTFL! Then how come the ECS K7S5A has become the best selling mainboard ever in PC history - by a huge margin? And is still a great seller even a good two years after its introduction? The rest of Tom's views is just as off.

But now that you disclosed that Tom's is your one true source of information, we all know where you're coming from ...