Integrated Chipset Question

[SuperV3K]

Greetings to All,

I'm looking at 3 different Socket A micro-ATX boards, but am not able to find any benchmarks that would distinguish the video/audio chipsets on them from each other.

Anyone have any hard data or care to make a generalization? Board will be used for a mobile system (GPS and MP3 primarily, maybe a game or two):

Abit MV7M - nVIDIA Crush12 video, nVIDIA MCP-D audio

BIOSTAR M7VIG Pro - S3 ProSavage 8 video, C-MediaCMI9739A 6-Channel audio

MSI KM4M-L - S3 Graphics Unichrome video, RealTek ALC655 6-channel audio.

Preference would be a board that's stronger in sound quality than graphics quality, as each board has an AGP slot and I have a GEForce 4 vid card I could use. I don't currently own anything decent from a PCI audio solution.

The Abit board is the oldest of the 3, so my guess is either MSI or BIOSTAR would offer better chipsets?

The MSI board is using the VIA KM400/VT8235 chipsets.
BIOSTAR is using the VIA KM266/VT8235 chipsets.

Many thanx for your input.

Regards,

-matt

 

[Crashman]

Biostar makes an nForce2 Micro ATX board with MCP-T (provides onboard sound processor) I think.

Anyway, if you can't find a board with the MCP-T southbridge, you can at least improve your onboard video with the nForce2 IGP northbridge (integrated nForce4 MX440 video).

Basically the VIA chipsets are garbage, their onboard video was considered VERY WEAK IN 1999!

I've found a few boards with both the IGP and MCP-T, they are:

Biostar M7NCG
Shuttle MN31/N

Take a look around and see if you can find either of those as they are your best solutions.

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[SuperV3K]

Thanx for the suggestions, I'll give those a look.

Regards,

-matt

 

[allanon1965]

im using an MSI KM2M Combo board, with via sound, i will agree, via sound is crap! lol, luckily I have a 6 channel digital sound card that works well

Fat, Drunk, and Stupid is no way to go through life Son.

 

[deadkenny]

For integrated video, I would definitely go nForce2. You might also want to consider the ASUS A7N8X-VM.

That (upgrade) which does not destroy you(r system's stability), makes it stronger. Nietzche