sis 735?

[debgk]

is the ECS K7S5A the ONLY board out there with the sis 735 chipset??

I've read some good reviews on the sis 735, so why isn't it on other MBs?? (excuse my being niave about this ... "I'm new here"=)

I am wondering because the ECS board "only" allows up to 1 Gig of ram ... <gasP> I NEVER thought I'd see the day when I was concerned about that!!

But ... one thing I'm considering is upgrading OS to win 2000 because of the ability to use more than the 512 of ram ... and with the price of ram so ridiculessly low ... it seems like a MB that allowed more than "just" 1 gig would be a good idea.

I know the ECS board allows using either SDRAM or DDR -- but I don't need the SDRAM -- would just prefer more room for DDR.

Also, if I did go with a board that had more dimm slots, is it true that I would need to use registered memory for anything above 2 slots???

thanks!

deb

 

[o1die]

Your concerns are shared by others as well. The ECS board was designed when ddram was still relatively expensive, so the sdram option made sense. Other board makers may have put their sis 735 boards on hold, waiting to see how successful ECS was, and if the chipset had any serious problems. You may see other boards with this chipset soon, but most people are waiting for the kt266a chipset or the nvidea chipset, both are coming out in the next few weeks; Epox introduced their kt266a board yesterday. And you do need registered ddram to use all 4 slots on the abit Kg7, but the gigabyte board with 3 slots may work with unregistered ddram.

 

[debgk]

Thanks for the info. Everyone seems to be saying to wait for the kt266a .... I am not in a huge must have it immediately rush! Not even sure if I will go with AMD vs. Intel ....

re: registered ram: -- if I have to use registered for 4 slots, does ALL the ram need to be registered? Can the first 2 slots have non-registered?

and WHAT would I need to do with the registered ram to set it up? (vs. just sticking it into the slots! =)

thanks again,
deb

 

[Crashman]

I like the SiS 735 chipset. I would definitely NEVER be amoung the first people to buy a motherboard with a new chipset, especially one with the VIA name attached. And to use four DDR DIMMs ALL have to be registered.

Back to you Tom...

 

[debgk]

thanks for the info ...

I have 3 available dimms for sdram (100) on my present board. Max ram is 768 -- but I only have 512 because I am running win 98 se ...

I am considering upgrading OS to win 2000 on this system.

Can you tell me if I need to use registered ram for SDRAM -- or is it just for DDR??

thanks

 

[Crashman]

DDR is the only memory that has this issue because it takes twice as many memory registers as SDR.

Back to you Tom...