AMD + DDR *Chipsets*

[Guest]

Motherboards aside, what do you guys think is the best AMD+DDR chipset? I've been reading motherboard comparisons and chipsets reviews, but I still haven't seen anything that compares the AMD 760, Via KT266, and the SIS735. (I don't fee like waiting for nForce).

Or should I forget the particular chipset in question and pick a board based on it's features and it's speed/reliability compared to others with the same chipset?

 

[girish]

yes, first decide on the features and upgradeability you want, then get the specs that satisfy those.
then look for the chipset that offers all those features.
then you can have a look at the reviews of various boards based on those chipsets. forums like this one can provide more inputs which is not usually seen in official reviews, the problems regarding the boards, their incompatibilities and quirks.

currently, I would rate the chipsets in the following order
ALi Magik1
AMD 761
SiS735
VIA KT266
nVidia nForce

and the Asus A7A266 as the best board!

girish

<font color=red>No system is fool-proof. Fools are Ingenious!</font color=red>

 

[Ncogneto]

Interesting that you placed the worst performer right up there on top....could it be you own one? Only the new stepping of the ALI chipset is worth owning and it is very hard to find and chances are if you order one now you wil get stuck with a board using an older stepping.

Video editing?? Ha, I don't even own a camera!

 

[Guest]

Your order of chipset preference interests me and doesn't jive with your "best board". Could you please explain? I politely ask, did you list them in reverse order?

I appreciate girish's input, but I'd still like more input. What's YOUR favorite chipset - not motherboard? The SiS 735 kicks everyone's butt according to SiS. Anyone like to counter that argument?

 

[Guest]

I do not know why you would think that the Ali is the worst performer. Even if it isnt as fast as some of the other chipsets... its probably the most stable. And I rather have a smooth running, realiable, fast compter than a slightly faster computer that never works. But again, these are all just opinions.

 

[arsend]

Chipsets aside, I agree with Girish in how you choose the MB you want. Besides the fact that you wnat an AMD + DDR setup, what other features do you want to have? the feature set is just as important as the speed set, as most MB preform simular, although not as stable. If the board you buy doesn't have the features you want, or may need in the future, you are out of luck. I would buy a board as if you planned on using it for 2-3 years, and then judge accordingly to what you may need within those years. If you think you are going to be doing Web based stuff, with games and maybe vidoe editing, I would pick a MB that at least has RAID on board. If you plan on overclocking, make sure that the board allows this and that it has plenty of fan headers, etc. What do you plan on doing?

If it works for you then don't fix it.

 

[Ncogneto]

Almost all onboard raid solutions are nothing more than a software raid solution...period. If your really serious about raid then get scsi...the only possible exceptions being the k7 master and the tyan thunder. The ali boards are ok just not top performers, if you want Ali Iwill's boards are the best not ASUS. This leaves VIA ( need I say more) AMD, and SIS. Gigabyte, Asus, and Epox have to notch boards using the amd northbridge but make sure you stay away from the via 686b southbridge. This leaves the SIS 735 board which I have been playing around with and to date have found no issues with at all. Stomps on the ali chipset boards and for half the cost offers performance only equalled to by the best amd chipset boards ( but then again you have to deal with the via southbridge).

Video editing?? Ha, I don't even own a camera!

 

[kaz]

http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q2/010611/sis-01.html

This is a good chipset review.

 

[upec]

I think both ALi and VIA will have an new step coming out soon.

 

[girish]

reverse order? I rated them using certain parameters I stick to.

ALi Magik1: the most stable and compatibile chipset. no problems reported so far, and I havent had a single one till dat. I own a A7A266 with older rev of Magik. its perfectly the way you said: <font color=blue>And I rather have a smooth running, realiable, fast compter than a slightly faster computer that never works.</font color=blue> you must have heard the tortoise and the hare story. well, the Magik is certainly not the tortoise. I could give up that tiny ~5% performance for stability. and if i do get a chance to upgrade to a rev B0 chipset, I'd place it even higher.

AMD 761: a good performer but not with its share of problems, driver updates and most 760 board come with the crappy VIA 686B southbridge.

SiS735: i have seen the 730 chipset on a Jetway 830CN board, and found it a good one. I might have placed the 735 higher but for my prejudice. SiS chipsets have never been performing well although problems regarding them are few. I am talking of SiS chipsets form 486 times, the slower southbridges and other SiS products. I cant really get into me that a company with a tradition of underperforming products could all of a sudden come out with a winner. not enough motherboards and data is available to really rate this board to the final word. maybe a little later.

VIA KT266: same as SiS. VIA has the tradition of making crappy chipsets, especially the crappy southbridges. KT266 isnt tested enough and you might expect problems from memory compatibility to hardware incompatibility to instability. Hardware reviews just give an insight into the chipset, testing by the masses reinforces it.

nVidia nForce: is it out there? should I rate it the highest just by reading paper reviews and their factsheets? it might move up on my list after I test it myself. or either Anand or Tom does it for the rest of us.

All in all this is how I rated the chipsets. I had expected such responses from you guys, really.

girish


<font color=red>No system is fool-proof. Fools are Ingenious!</font color=red>

 

[Ncogneto]

The amd 761 has no problems other than its southbridge it is possible to stear clear from the 686b as several boards now come without it.

The sis 735 can be believed, to bad about your prejudice. It is keeping you from owning a board that out performs yours at a fraction of the cost. By your analogy the same could have been said about AMD when they first introduced the athlon.

The ali had its issues as well ( and by the way ali stands for Acer labrotories incorporated do you remember Acer computers? Now what was that you said about Sis?) it has the worst memory performance of the lot barely nudging the kt133a chipset. Visit Amdzone and you will fine not many users have anything good to say about it, stable but sub-par. 9 out of ten will tell you that the a7m is a much better board.

Video editing?? Ha, I don't even own a camera!

 

[alc101ma]

Jeremy:

It is generally considered (atleast from all the websites I've seen) that the AMD760 is the highest performing chipset available. The ALi chipset is generally considered the worse. The Via offering started off poorly but with the new bios revision is much better. The Sis735 is still new so it's hard to say. But many websites say it beats the AMD760, including this one, Tom's. The only thing is that right now there are only a few motherboards with this new chipset and most of them have few overclocking options. That isn't a problem if you don't intend to overclock, though. Personally, I have the Epox board with the AMD760/Via686 combination. In the mail I have an ECS board with the Sis735 coming. The Epox is great and I hope the ECS will be too.

 

[pvsurfer]

The amd 761 has no problems other than its southbridge it is possible to stear clear from the 686b as several boards now come without it.

<font color=green><b>Really? ...would you be so kind as to point them out (i.e., AMD761 northbridge boards with other than a VIA southbridge)???</b></font color=green>

 

[pvsurfer]

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=1520" target="_new">Here</A> is what Anandtech thinks (hint: SiS735 is for real)!

 

[FatBurger]

Your order of chipset preference interests me and doesn't jive with your "best board".

He said the Ali Magik chipset was the best, and the A7A266 was the best board. The A7A266 uses the Ali Magik chipset, in case you didn't know. What exactly doesn't jive?



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[Guest]

I'm in the process of comparing some of the different boards that are available. Right now I'm testing the Iwill KA-266 Raid board. I bumped the FSB to the max allowed by the BIOS which is 146. I think it would be stable at higher speeds. Anyway, I'm using Sisoft's Sandra software as a benchmark. All this is to say that the Ali chipset is fine.

 

[Guest]

Right Now here's how they are on my list:

SiS 735 (Just as stable as AMD 760 but faster)
ALi MAGiK B0 Stepping (Hasn't proven itself yet but benchy's are promising)
AMD 760
VIA KT266

We haven't seen nForce, KT266 v2 benchy's yet so they are left out.

 

[girish]

I did rate the SiS735 above VIA KT266. maybe one day I would be able to test it and place it higher. But I seriously doubt its position above the ALi Magik and AMD 760!

girish

<font color=red>No system is fool-proof. Fools are Ingenious!</font color=red>

 

[Ncogneto]

Pvsurfer you misunderstood me, I did not mean to say that they do not have a via southbridge, but that they do not ahve the 686b southbridge.

Video editing?? Ha, I don't even own a camera!

 

[Ncogneto]

So I guess we should ignore all the reviews done on this board which have all come to the same conclusion? I ask you this...have you tried it? If not how can you possibly say what you say?

Video editing?? Ha, I don't even own a camera!

 

[IntelConvert]

VIA will be VIA. :redface:

 

[Ncogneto]

agreed, thats why I don't have one.

Video editing?? Ha, I don't even own a camera!

 

[FatBurger]

Ncogneto, two things.

First, I have not seen any boards with the 761 Northbridge that do not have the 686b Southbridge. Please point them out, I would be interested in them.

Secondly, girish is one of the few people on this board who go by first-hand experience, not just what he thinks he heard someone say on a webpage that might've been a good one or something.
See what I'm saying? I look at reviews all the time, I couldn't go on without them, but there is aboslutely no substitute for first-hand experience.



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[Ncogneto]

FatBurger

First, I have not seen any boards with the 761 Northbridge that do not have the 686b Southbridge. Please point them out, I would be interested in them.

I know chaintech has a board of the top of my head, and I remember others as well.

Secondly, girish is one of the few people on this board who go by first-hand experience, not just what he thinks he heard someone say on a webpage that might've been a good one or something.
See what I'm saying? I look at reviews all the time, I couldn't go on without them, but there is aboslutely no substitute for first-hand experience.

I have no problem with this, well actually I do. You cannot say something is the best unless you yourself have tried it. I have built systems on all three, the ali, the amd, and the SIS. Admittably the ali board I built was made by Iwill, but at least I have built a board on this chipset, so I ask you then, How can girish make such a statement that the A7A is the best without building a SiS board? By your definition he can't.

Don't get me wrong the Ali is a good chipset. But thats it just good. Disapointing in terms of performance, but stabil. I don't think it is even the best Ali chipset board out there, in my opinion that would go to the Iwill.






Video editing?? Ha, I don't even own a camera!

 

[FatBurger]

So then, before he uses it, where should he put it? He said himself it's only at the bottom because he doesn't know anything about it. Should he leave it out completely, and have people upset because he's not even taking it into consideration?

Yeup, <A HREF="http://www.chaintech.com.tw/PRODUCTI/mainboar/SocketA/7KJD.htm" target="_new">here</A> is the board with the AMD761/VT8231 combination. Thanks. Too bad it's not a decent MB maker, though.



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