??The new SiS 735 Chipset??

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O.K.. Sooo... I've read the reviews of the new SiS 735 chipset... yes, it's amazing,.. yes, it's unbelievable... (up until now, I would even use SiS chipsets to level my kitchen table) BUT... and you know there's always a "but"... The ONLY board that I can find out there with this chipset in it is the ECS K7S5A... (there is a Chaintech available.. but uh... well.. it’s a Chaintech..). Now... I've been able to find a few reviews on this board, and they're all pretty good... just like Tom' s Hardware shows, the SiS beats even the AMD 760's... SOooo... should I go ahead and get this board NOW.. (cause you know I don't wanna wait...) OR should I wait until Asus and Gigabyte's versions come out... now... one thing to keep in mind is price/performance ratio.. and you know that Asus and Gigabyte are gonna be more expensive... so whadya think...? I'm itchin' to get this board, but would it be better to wait until a few more boards come out so I can see a comparison...??? Hhmm..? Hhhhmmm?? Anyone...???

WATYF
 

girish

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yes Asus, MSI and Gigabyte 735 boards will be expensive, but all 735 boards will expensive as compared to others made by the same manufacturer! and if the perforamance and features are anything to go by, it would be well worth it!

girish

<font color=blue>die-hard fans don't have heat-sinks!</font color=blue>
 
G

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Sooo... why hasn't good ol' Tom given us a review of the SiS 735 boards yet... hhhmmmm? :) He musta got a "sneak peak" of these boards by now... I personally would like to see how they stack up. I may just go with the ECS since I have seen comparative benchmarks of it and other boards on other websites and it stacks up pretty well... on top of that,... I'm not a hard-core overclocker or anything... I just want a fast 'puter, so I don't need all the bells and whistles... and primarily because I'm impatient and I want it NOW... :p If he puts out a review and the ECS is shown to have some significant performance issues as compared to the other SiS 735 boards, then I'll just switch 'em out... otherwise... I'm on my way to a shinny new Athlon 1.4GHZ 266FSB DDR system... whoo hoo... quite the step up from this stupid PIII I got now...

WATYF
 

Ncogneto

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Expensive? Where do you get your info? This SIS 735 is the cheapest chipset out there. The ECS K7S5A cost a whopping $61.00.

Now, as to if you want to wait for the MSI, gigabyte, or Asus versions that is hard to say. It would seem that they probably will perform only marginally better than the ECS, but probably offer more Tweak options in the bios. For this you will probably pay a little more as well. Myself, I could not wait and bought the ECS board just to play with ( hell, its only 61 bucks) and get aquanted with the chipset. I very well may by another brand with this chipset when available. Here are some numbers:

ECSK75A
@150/150 (1350)( fast,cas 2.5,6,3)
ALU 747
Fpu 934

dhrystone 3757
Whetstone 1846
@138/138 (1250)(ultra, cas2,6,3)

Alu 684
Fpu 845

Dhrystone 3440
Whetstone 1710


1.2 gig AYHJAR
gforce2gts pro ( gainward golden sample)
256 meg crucial pc-2100 DDR
onboard sound active ( will replace after I am done playing)
onboard lan active


A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!
 

zengeos

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Upec,

I wouldn't necvessarily say that ECS boards are lower quality than Asus, etc...they are usually found in tier 1 OEM systems from companies like HP, Compaq, etc. Now, usually tier 1 OEMS go for price over features of the board, so performance is often lower than tier 2 and local companies offer. But that doesn't necessarily mean lower quality...just lower performance.

With the SiS 735 chipset, ECS is able to build a very reasonably priced board for tier 1 companies AND offer the performance to boot. It performs almost the same as the reference board from SiS.

What ECS usually does to cut costs is minimize the overclocking abilities of the boards. After all, systems the boards go into are usually for your average new user or home user, not the experienced enthusiast.

IF a person doesn't plan to muck around with overclocking and tweaking performance much, the ECS 735 should be an excellent AND inexpensive choice.

Mark-

When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!
 

owais

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When you say "minimize the overclocking abilities of the boards," what does that exactly mean? Can the multipliers still be changed? Cause this board suits my needs real well and is in my budget. I have an unlocked Duron 650 with a Giga-byte 7ZX which does not allow changing multipliers. As you can see, im itching to get a new board to see how far i can push this Duron.
 

JoeHead

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Rally guys how much performance difference could it be? Oh 5 to 10 fps at best!!!!! Overclocking is a different story. An Asus may get you an extra percent or 2, awhhh hell maybe more not to mention some just don't. Hmmm a brank new chip?!!! Good luck!!!

Does anyone care about a stable platform anymore than can take most any components? Hell M$ doesn't even care about that. BUT I DO!!!!!!!

<b><A HREF="http://www.seti.tomshardware.com/" target="_new">How fast is your PC</A></b>
 

JoeHead

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Really guys how much performance difference could it be? Oh 5 to 10 fps at best!!!!! Overclocking is a different story. An Asus may get you an extra percent or 2, awhhh hell maybe more not to mention some just don't. Hmmm a brand new chip?!!! Good luck!!!

Does anyone care about a stable platform anymore that can take most any components? Hell M$ doesn't even care about that. BUT I DO!!!!!!!

<b><A HREF="http://www.seti.tomshardware.com/" target="_new">How fast is your PC</A></b>
 

WATYF

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Owais... don't quote me on this one.. but I did a LOT of looking into this when I was researching the chipsets and boards, and I'm pretty sure the newer BIOS for the ECS board has more options for overclocking.. I can't remember all of them, but I definitely remember reading that it wasn't TOTALLY non-overclockable... just not a tweakable as your higher end boards... I personally can't wait for this thing to hit my doorstep.. I placed the order today and already I'm checkin' the mailbox every hour.. :)

WATYF
 

girish

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yes, it might be one of the cheapest among the whole range of boards, but consider the costing within a family, and among vendors. There is a lot of difference in prices if SiS735 class chipsets, I mean ALi Magik, AMD 761, VIA KT266 that have similar features, from a single manufacturer. Even a ALi Aladdin Super7 board from Asus will cost as much as ECS K7S5A, and ECS Aladdin board will cost much less.

I meant the 735 will be the costliest of the lot among socket A processors.

<font color=blue>die-hard fans don't have heat-sinks!</font color=blue>
 

Ncogneto

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I think your confusing the word chipset with the word motherboard. The chipset price is determined by SIS as all motherboard makers will buy there chipset to make 735 based boards from SIS. The SIS 735 CHIPSET is the cheapest of the 4 now out there. What the motherboard makers choose to charge for there finished product is an altogether different story, but the cost of the chipset is usually the most determining factor..

For those interested the ECS boards new bios offers overclocking with the fsb in the followin manner.

FSB of 138,150, and 166.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!
 

girish

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in that sense there is hardly any difference between the chipset and the motherboard if their costs are proportional.

sorry, I had a hangover of a review on nForce and took it on to the 735. checked it out and it is indeed the cheapest!
SiS735 $27, AMD 760 $40, VIA KT266 $32! SiS has been traditionally delivering the cheapest products that also gave cheapest results. but 735 seems to be different!

girish

<font color=blue>die-hard fans don't have heat-sinks!</font color=blue>
 
G

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I ordered one as well, from 1stClassTech. $118 for a MB, T-bird 900 and a fan. $24 for shipping (yes, I know, they are making some of it back on shipping). I thought it was a good deal for $142 total...

Now, the wait.

Anyway, what are the steps to overclock and what will I achieve? So far I think I have to mark up the L1 lines to get the voltage to 1.85v, and I will have to flash the BIOS to get more FSB options...

I picked Crucial DDR memory, which should run CL2 according to some reviews.

What can I expect to achieve?
 

Ncogneto

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As to its performance scroll back to page one and read my post there. One thing though. I see you have purchased a 900 t-bird. Make sure it is the 266 fsb variety! Nearly all the performance increase's you will expect to see will not materialize with a 200 fsb processor.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!
 
G

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Remember that motherboard manufacturers have to buy two chipsets (northbridge, southbridge) for their motherboards. With the SiS 735 both are built onto one chip which will cut costs tremendously which can be seen in the ECS board. I expect all the SiS 735 boards to run about the same price as an SDR SDRAM board ($85-$100). Of course I would rather buy from MSI, ASUS, or Gigabyte, but for only $61 what is there to lose
 

girish

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yes, thats true and SiS has a long tradition of delivering cheaper chips. 735 is no exception and it wil save board manufacturers the cost of the southbridge chip as well as a few square centimeters of PCB and separate chips for sound as well as LAN!

now they need to put in a graphics core and I wont vote for the 6326.

girish

<font color=blue>die-hard fans don't have heat-sinks!</font color=blue>
 

zengeos

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What about LAi Magick chipset? Any idea on pricing for that? I hear it may be even less expensive than 735....$22? or something like that.

Mark-

When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!
 

girish

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looked for it but dint get it.
and even if it is $22, they will need to buy a southbridge M1535 chip separately and that would make it maybe more than $35 or so.

even then I would go for ALi, its stability and compatibility is well proven.

girish

<font color=blue>die-hard fans don't have heat-sinks!</font color=blue>
 

Oni

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I'm pretty sure this new ECS board does not have multiplier adjustment, only FSB increase in certain increments that are rather large. Like possibly 100 to 110 to 115 and so on (thats only a guess I know the facts are out there)
Which means you can still over clock but you wont get the fastest/stablest speed, you might get say a 900 MHz Tbird up to 1080 MHz (9 x 120 FSB) on the ECS board, when on maybe an Asus with more ability you could reach 1107 (9 x 123 FSB).
For some its a big deal to be that 20 MHz faster and your most stable overclock, because on that Asus board maybe 124 just wasn't stable but 123 was.

Also this SiS chipset is cheap, all boards are going to be cheaper than boards based on rival chipsets. I still wouldn't buy the ECS or PC chips boards for obvious reasons, the companies arn't known for making the highest quality products, and often getting support for them is near impossible.

Oh yea and someone mention Chaintech boards, whats so bad about them? I hear almost nothing from anyone about them, good or bad. I've used a 7KJD and it was nice, faster than an asus A7M266 in fact.
 

Ncogneto

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The bios adjustments (fsb)are as follows:
100,112,124,133,138 and 150.

Also this SiS chipset is cheap, all boards are going to be cheaper than boards based on rival chipsets. I still wouldn't buy the ECS or PC chips boards for obvious reasons, the companies arn't known for making the highest quality products, and often getting support for them is near impossible.
Have you owned an ECS board? Actually their number two right now in terms of production. There getting a bad rap because they recently purchased pc chips. I can tell you this, I have sent three emails since I got this board all were met with three replies within 24 hours. Try that with ASUS! HA!

ECS actually is noted for making high quality products, but they are not known to cater to the retail market and are short on overclocking features. Sure you can spend another 60-120 dollars and get an Asus or gigabyte board with an AMD chipset but if you buy this board you can spend that money on a faster processor and not need to overclock as much......now I ask you which is the better option?


A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!
 
G

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ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI will have boards out soon?
Anyone know how soon?
 

upec

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zengeos,

Asus is the largest motherboard manufacture and they have more mothreboard than any other motherboard manufactures goes to tier 1 OEM. Actually HP usually only use Asus board Dell just order large quantity of p4 motherboard from Asus.

Asus have the reputation manufacturing high quality board. As you said "But that doesn't necessarily mean lower quality...just lower performance." better performance does not come out of nowhere. Better performance comes from better design, higher quality component, or both.
 

Oct_7

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can someone give an opinion for this mb?

I am really looking forward for other mb with 735 chipset.

ELITE K7S5A (SiS 735 Chipset) ATA-100
SiS® 735 Chipset * Socket A for AMD® Athlon/Duron (K7) processors * Two 184-pin DDR DIMMs and two 168-pin DIMMs * with DDR SDRAM or SDRAM support, up to 1GB * 5 PCI slots, 1 4X AGP slot, 1 AMR slot * LAN: MAC integrated in SiS735 & PHY on board * AC97 Audio Codec on board * Special Features: * Suspend to RAM (STR) * Magic Setting * LAN, Modem Wake Up * Keyboard Power On * Hardware Monitoring * Support UltraDMA 100 * Support DDR200, DDR266


Btw, what is the difference between 184-pin DDR DIMMs and 168-pin DIMMs? Is that 168 pin is SDR SDRAM? AND 184 is DDR?

Thx

Oct_7

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