Re: [APML] computer video card

[Duncan Munro <dmunro@sfu.ca>]

In my experience, and based upon my research into different AMD 
chipsets, I would have to say that  SIS makes the most stable AMD 
chipsets. My ECS K7S5A MB (SIS 735) with a Duron 750 CPU is about 2 
years old and has been extremely stable and is quite a good performing 
board. In most published tests the authors usually comment on the 
stability of the SIS based boards.  SIS chipsets typically incorporate 
all controller functions onto a single chip which runs much cooler than 
an equivalent VIA chipset. This very high level of integration allows 
SIS chipsets to be much cheaper than other designs  yet remain 
competitive or superior in performance.  My K7S5A was (and still is) one 
of the least expensive MBBs on the market  but typically outperformed 
its rivals. SIS controllers usually offer the best HDD performance as 
well, which is often an overlooked factor when working with very large 
files.

Having said this, I also have a Gigabyte  GA-7VRX MB with a VIA KT333 
chipset which has an XP-1800 CPU and 1.3gigs of ram. I initially had a 
lot of problems with stability which I later traced to a failing power 
supply and to a bad HDD. The combination of these two was enough to 
drive me batty and I cursed the day I bought the MBB as it seemed to be 
the problem, but in fact the MBB was blameless.

clear skies

Duncan Munro


Richard Crisp wrote:

>I hate to disagree with you Craig, but my experiences with the VIA chipsets
>has been spotty at best. It has been about three years since I last used a
>motherboard with a VIA chipset, and after that experience, I doubt I will
>use them again. It is possible they finally figured out how to make their
>stuff work, so again my experience may not be representative of the status
>quo today.
>
>In a nutshell their PC133 "compatible" chipset would not boot up until the
>BIOS was set to let the SDRAM run at 66MHz, exactly half of what it should
>have run. I returned the motherboard twice and all three of them worked
>equally bad. I finally just exchanged it for one using the Intel chipset and
>never had a problem again.
>
>Back in the '60s there was a saying among IT managers that "no one gets
>fired for going with IBM". In the modern world of the cost driven PC, I
>would modify that to say "no one gets fired for going with Intel". I will
>stick to the name brands and let someone else gamble with AMD and Via, the
>second string in my book.
>
>Richard
>
>
>  
>


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