Understanding chipsets for Intel Processors
Mar 17 '01
The Bottom Line An uniformed consumer isn't likely to make a good computer choice. Do your research, then buy.
Choosing the chipset for your Intel processor used to be easy. From the days of the Pentium II and the introduction of the Slot 1 form factor. When Pentium II's first came out, if you wanted one, you got an FX chipset board. With the introduction of AGP, Intel introduced the LX chipset. This made LX the only game in town. In April 1998, Intel introduced the 100MHz FSB and the BX chipset was the choice for performance systems.
Things pretty much stayed that way for a while. However, as processor speeds rapidly increased, the performance of the CPU to memory interface ( same as the Front Side Bus speed ) began to become a performance bottleneck. For example, on a Pentium II 266, the 66MHz bus speed exchanges data with the processor at 24.8% of the clock speed of the processor. A Pentium III 350 with a 100MHz Front Side Bus speed exchanges data at 28.5% of the processor speed. A 100MHz Front Side Bus Pentium III 800 exchanges data with the CPU at only 12.5% of the processor speed.
In addition to memory bottle necks, competition, as well as the introduction of 4x AGP lead to several changes in the past 1 1/2 years in Intel motherboard chipsets. Instead of having only one choice, there are a variety of options available for the consumer. This epinion will attempt to help you understand the various chipsets, their strengths and weaknesses, and the best application so that you can make an informed decision. It will start with the BX chipset and work forward.
BX Chipset
The BX chipset had one of the longest lifespans of any motherboard chipset in recent memory. It was fast, cheap, and stable. The only real downside is the AGP interface. BX chipset motherboards only support 1/1 and 2/3 multipliers. No 1/2 is available. This means that in all practicality, you won't be able to run your BX platform at much more then a 133MHz or so Front Side Bus. (Depending on graphics card. Quality Geforce 2 cards are stable at 140MHz FSB on a BX motherboard, but much faster bus speeds lead to graphics problems in 3d applications). The BX chipset is still a good choice for people who want to put together a cheap Celeron system, or take a cC0 stepping Pentium III 700 or 750 and overclock to 933 or 1GHz. If you are going to go this route, make sure your motherboard supports the required CPU voltages for Coppermine CPUs before buying it.
Via Apollo Pro 133
Keep moving. Nothing of interest to see here.
But seriously, the Apollo Pro 133 was the first Intel compatible chipset that supported 133MHz Front Side Buses without overclocking the AGP chipset. It also natively supported 4x AGP. However, memory performance was terrible, and the chipset was somewhat buggy. (Note: This should not be confused with the Apollo Pro 133A chipset)
Via Apollo Pro 133a
What a difference a letter makes. Via improved the memory performance of their chipset and fixed several bugs. Quality motherboards (Asus, Soyo, Tyan,....) based on this chipset are very stable, however, performance is not stellar. Although the memory performance of the chipset is better then the 133's, Via chipset motherboards lag behind Intel chipsets. This was an interesting choice before the i815 came out, but I would be hard pressed to recommend this chipset today(Note: There are inexpensive dual processor motherboards based on this chipset. If you want to build a budget server for home use, I can see reason to purchase, but my original statement stands for single processor systems).
i810
The only real niche this serves today is budget machines. Motherboards based on this chipset have integrated graphics chips instead of AGP ports, and typically come with integrated sound as well. The only thing really interesting about the chipset is that it was the first Intel produced chipset that used SDRAM instead of RAMBUS and supported 133MHz FSB speeds without overclocking the AGP bus.
i815
Currently the chipset of choice for new Pentium III purchases. The memory performance is slightly slower then a BX motherboard, but it does support 4x AGP and 133MHz FSBs. Things like asynchronous memory to CPU speeds help overclockers push their systems a little further.
i820
Not a lot of reason to go this route. Originally, RAMBUS and SDRAM (via MTH) were supported, but ALL SDRAM versions of the chipset were recalled. Although RAMBUS offers incredible bandwidth advantages over SDRAM, the latency is higher then SDRAM and the i820 implementation of RAMBUS did not support dual channels. (A way to double the bandwidth of RAMBUS that requires pairs of chips). After all was said and done, this chipset was generally regarded as an Intel mistake.
i840
At the same time the i820 was released, Intel released a much more interesting chipset. The i840 does take advantage of dual channel RAMBUS and offers significant performance benefits over the BX chipset and i820 for Pentium III owners. Unfortunately, the high initial cost of RAMBUS combined with expensive motherboards prevented this from becoming to popular. If you can find an i840 motherboard, they make good servers.
i850
This is the chipset that the Pentium 4 runs on. Like the i840, it takes advantage of dual channel RAMBUS. Combined with the new processor architecture, memory bandwidth has soared. However, you may want to hold off on any i850 motherboard purchases. Future versions of the Pentium 4 are rumored to not be compatible with the Socket 423 interface that current Pentium 4's use.
GX/NX
These are basically variants of the BX chipset motherboards. The GX supports 2 processors, but in addition to Slot 1 form factors used by Pentium II's and III's, the GX also supports Slot 2 used by Xeon processors. The NX chipset supports up to 8 processors on one motherboard. Unfortunately, it is only compatible with EDO RAM (slower and way more expensive the SDRAM), however, the number of processors do make it a good choice for servers.
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