chipset guide info wanted

[lowenzz]

looking to do my first build and am looking for info on chipsets.

This will be a gaming rig and audio is important. would like to avoid a creative audio card. Mild overclocking at best.

The nforce4 chipsets had great audio way back. Does Intel have any comparable chipsets. in reference to audio quality.

At the moment I'm looking at nVidia 500 series.

If anyone knows of any online resources I'd be all for that.

Thanks, Low.

 

[airk]

I've also been looking for some in-depth coverage of chipsets (and possible motherboards that makes good use of certain chipsets).

I'm going for a Core2Duo E8400 gaming rig. I'm currently looking at a single nvidia 8800GT 512MB or a 8800GTS 512MB.

The P35 seems to be a good value chipset, but I'm unable to find good info on how it compares to X38, X48 and various nvidia chipsets.

Anyone have a concise resource to point at or can give a good rundown on what to pickup? Is P35 still a solid performer compared to newer chipsets?

 

[akhilles]

You're mentioning Intel chipsets which are northbridges while you're wanting good southbridge chipsets. For nvidia, it's called MCP. Not bad for audio. Look at individual chipset for detail. Right now the best nvidia-chipset board for Intel would be 750i & 780i which both do x16 SLI & DDR2 (cheap).

http://www.nvidia.com/page/mobo.html

The Intel chipsets usually go with a different southbridge. In most cases, it's Realtek which is 7.1. Decent. Never had a problem.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=28&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=135