Choosing a Motherboard ChipsetFeb 25 '01 (Updated Jan 03 '02) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line When choosing a motherboard, looking at what chipset it uses is a way to tell what features to expect.
Choosing a Motherboard Chipset, unlike choosing the motherboard itself is much less of a hassle, because you can only choose it indirectly. As of this writing Intel has arranged licensing agreements with all the 3rd party chipset makers, so this should now mean there is no excuse for incompatibility in the future. For Intel, or Cyrix processors (Note that Cyrix processors may not work on Intel Chipsets) you can use Intel, VIA, ALi, and in the future ATI and nVidia motherboard chipsets. For AMD processors, you can use AMD, VIA or ALi Chipsets. Intel - Intel (www.intel.com) AMD - Advanced Micro Devices ( http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/cpg.html Under Athlon) VIA - VIA Technologies INC ( http://www.cyrix.com/products/chipindex.htm ) ALi - Acer Labs (http://www.ali.com.tw/eng/product/index.shtml) The current generation of Motherboard chipsets: Intel Processor: Intel i810*,i810E*,i815*,i815E*,i815P,i815EP,i820, VIA Apollo Pro266, ProSavage PM133*,Apollo Pro133A, Apollo Pro 133, Apollo PLE 133 ALi Aladdin-Pro5, Aladdin-Pro 4, Aladdin TNT2*, Aladdin-Pro 2 Have yet to see on the market: ATI S1-370* (This is a NorthBridge Only) (http://www.ati.com/na/pages/technology/hardware/s1-370.html) AMD Processor: AMD 750 , 760 VIA Apollo KT266(Socket A), Apollo KT133(Socket A), VIA ProSavage KM133*(Socket A), Apollo KX133(Slot A) ALi ALiMAGiK 1 Items marked with an * indicate onboard-video Intel's i8xx series of chipsets utilize their own Hub system, which puts the PCI bus on the southbridge instead of the southbridge sitting on the PCI bus. Intel's Hub system is 33% more efficient than the standard NorthBridge/SouthBridge system on older chipsets. VIA's DDR chipsets utilize their own V-link Hub system that puts the PCI bus on the southbridge chip. This brings it's memory bandwidth up to 2.1GB/sec (When equipped with DDR memory.) HOWEVER, due to some recent findings(late 2001), VIA south bridges do not provide the full PCI bandwidth, If you are using SCSI, ATA100 or ATA133 you may only have 60% of the full bandwidth. ALi uses the standard Northbridge and Southbridge chips, of which the Southbridge sits on the PCI bus. *Onboard Video, no matter what the chipset is, will still be sub-par for 3D performance due to the lack of video memory and bandwidth available. This results in using system memory which is a performance penalty. ALi uses a Trident Video core or a nVidia TNT2 core for their onboard-graphics. VIA's earlier chipsets used a Trident Video core, but the newer ones use the S3 Savage4 3D and Savage 2000 2D graphics core. nVidia's 220 and 420 chipsets provide sub-par performance compared to their full fledged video cousins the Geforce 2MX 200. Most of the chipsets will perform identical, no matter what brand of motherboard they are in. However the individual chipsets themselves do perform differently. A DDR chipset will have more performance than a non-DDR chipset. (A dual channel RAMBUS motherboard will perform better than a single channel, but requires both channels to be filled to get that benefit.) A dual processor chipset can support two processors, however requires an operating system that supports multiple processors (Windows 2000, Linux, Not Windows 98/ME.) In a dual processor configuration you have to have IDENTICAL CPU's in both sockets. This is because there is only one chipset and the cpu's can not run at different speeds, nor can they be run with different stepping levels. If you invest in a dual processor motherboard, keep this in mind. You must buy two of the exact same CPU's to use it. Otherwise you will have to leave a continuity device(dummy plug) in the second socket. The northbridge chips contain the processor interface, memory controller, onboard video if present and the 'PC interface' which connects to the southbridge. In the HUB archtechure this is a dedicated connection to the southbridge. Otherwise this is the PCI bus. The southbridge chips are what make more of a difference. In the different brand motherboards they will choose one chipset, but may offer the motherboard with only a few of southbridge components usable. IDE and USB devices are pretty much always on the southbridge. The newer chipsets now support ATA/100 with 4 channels. Older chipsets support ATA/66 with 2 channels and even older chipsets only support ATA/33. (The Intel BX chipset only supports ATA/33) Many hard drives support ATA/100 however none of them actually transfer 100 megabytes per second. Optional features in the chipset, and thus usually optional features altogether on the motherboard usually consist of onboard-audio,onboard-modem, or onboard LAN. Legacy I/O features can also be optional (ISA slots, Serial Ports, Parallel Ports, PS/2 Ports (Keyboard/Mouse)) The onboard Audio would usually be a AC97 codec. The onboard modem is always some form of software modem(HSP or controllerless modem.) Onboard LAN is typically 10/100 ethernet, but could also be a phone-line network (lower cost networking for only a few computers.)Legacy I/O is also handled by the south bridge (ISA, Serial ports, Parallel ports, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports.) My current recommendations when choosing a chipset is to always get the latest chipset that is compatible with the CPU you wish to use. Unlike video cards, there is not going to be a huge price difference between chipsets, just the implementation on the different brands of motherboards. I highly recommend the DDR chipsets over the older slower chipsets, however do realize that you need to have the more expensive DDR266 memory(PC2100) instead of slower PC133 memory to make use of the DDR capabilities. SiS's new chipsets support DDR333(PC2700). Motherboards with 'Onboard Video' may cost more up front, but they save you from buying a Video card, however the onboard video is always sub-par in the 3D department due to the graphics core being several generations old and lack of memory. Onboard Video will usually have 4MB or 8MB of memory, where as a new separate AGP video card will have 32 or 64MB of video memory. Onboard Audio is usually fair and sufficient providing you have no desire to hear 3D audio. Onboard modems will always be poor performers. Onboard Ethernet is sufficient for xDSL and Cable modems. Most onboard features can be turned off in the system BIOS. I recommend avoiding all onboard features if you plan on buying better parts, as it will save you a little bit of money and hassle. Any questions or comments can be directed at Kisai_Z@yahoo.com  |
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