VIA vs. BX chipsets...which is better?

Abit makes both...why would I choose one over another for a PIII 500 processor?

BX is faster.
BX is more reliable.
BX is the most universally compatable, VIA is the least compatable.
BX is the most stable chiset ever made by any manufacturer.
BX is the standard to which most hardware is made.
BX has a long history of trouble free operation, VIA has has more problems than any other manufacturer except SiS (who is now a good compnay, surprize!).


Back to you Tom...

The BX chipset consists of two chips - the 82443BX and 82371AB.

The 82443BX chip is the Northbridge wich does not officially support PC133 memory, but you get quite a few board which overclock the BX chipset for PC133 operation. Since it is already overclocked, you cant really go past 133 much as you do with 815 range.

The BX chipset only suports AGP 2X, and most AGP cards today are 4X, they do run in the BX system but at 2X, not too much of problem though, it performs quite well for most games.

The BX chipset PIIX4 Southbridge, the 82371 chip has the IDE controller which supports only ATA/33 when IDE has gone to ATA/100 today. Its not really a problem since you can get ATA/100 controllers cheap, in fact there is one BX board that already has one - the Asus CUBX-E! It supports coppermines, 133 MHz FSB, and 4 ATA/100 devices as well!

The biggest advantage the BX has over the 815 is that it can use large amount of memory, more than 2 GB of SDRAM, while with the 815 you can only have 512 MB!

So overall comparison shows the BX lacking only AGP4X support against the 815, but the ability of using more RAM outweighs this virtue.

girish

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

...and if you use this mobo with a decent gfx card, and decent memory and PCI cards you can get at least 140 MHz FSB out of it.

<b><font color=blue>~scribble~</font color=blue></b>