Amd And Intel

The only reason that I would think twice about getting a Socket A system is the fact that all the chipsets are made by VIA. That is an irrational hatred, by the way - I've just never liked them!

I built a PC for my girlfriend, and used an A-bit KT7A mobo - and had quite a few problems. Mainly with PCI cards, but it was annoying. There was a really helpful site, www.viahardware.com, which was SO useful - but it isn't around anymore. But I know that AMD used to make chipsets, and I just wish that a comany other than VIA would.

Anyway, as I said that is a bit irrational...

But I definitely agree that Pentium's are for people that are prepared to spend a lot. I am using a Celeron (yes, I know...) 1.0Ghz, and despite the fact that the Pentium III platform is quite old (by today's standards) it still costs obscene amounts to buy proper Pentium III's - so I'm not going to upgrade my CPU until I get a whole new mobo - which I have no other need to, as I have an A-bit BX-133 RAID - and I love it!

If I could get whatever I wanted (money no object!) I think that it would have to be a Pentium 4, with the Intel 845e chipset.

But if a company other than VIA made chipsets for AMD's, I would go there instead :)

@geprobert

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But if a company other than VIA made chipsets for AMD's, I would go there instead 

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I don't know where you get your information but VIA is not the only chipset company for AMD systems.

Check out this: http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/200.../nforce-01.html
or this: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=nforce

Anyway VIA chipsets are fine in my view.

Well now, that puts and end to that :lol:

I like the sound of nVidia chipsets very much! When I heard vaguely about nForce, I thought it was just the first on-board graphics chip from nVidia - but the info on the link you gave sounds cool.

I suppose it was just the KT7A mobo I had that annoyed be about VIA, but I do admit it is a bit daft...

But the amount of steps that you were supposed to have to go through to ensure an error-free setup was a bit silly in a way. It was like, first of all update your BIOS, then make sure that you have got your PCI cards in a specific order, try not to use Creative sound cards, then once you've installed Windows you have to install the VIA 4-in-1 drivers and then the VIA USB filter... when I put together my Intel BX based system I had no problems and did none of the above. Having said that, I'm not adverse to a bit of fiddling - and now the machine is settled it is okay.

But anyway, I do like the sound of an nForce based Mobo (preferably Abit!) with a nice big phat Athlon XP :)

The full story on the P4 vs Athlon race here.

What i'd like to know is are all future planned AMD processors going to be socketA? Because it's been around for a long time - but i would like to be able to keep my new motherboard for a while.

What you said about oc P4 and AMD slight correction here the current P4 cannot be pushed as much as an AMD and if you have adequate cooling u can really push your AMD to its limits whereas an Intel just wont go very far at all check it out at overclockers.co.uk

Razz
ps u are right the AMD is harder to cool but it will perfom better when OCed so use a nice great big delta fan setup or a water-cooled kit works well too
:D

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What i'd like to know is are all future planned AMD processors going to be socketA? Because it's been around for a long time - but i would like to be able to keep my new motherboard for a while.

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All Athlon XPs use socket A - including the new Barton core (that's 3000+ and any later ones)

The new 64-bit 'Hammer' chip will need a new socket.

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The only reason that I would think twice about getting a Socket A system is the fact that all the chipsets are made by VIA.

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nVidia are newcomers to Socket A platforms, actually. The established competition is VIA and SiS.

VIA and SiS are just about on equal pegging, with SiS usually a little cheaper and VIA a little more feature-rich. The nVidia nForce2 chipset is also pretty good, very good for a budget computer as it has a decent Geforce4 GPU onboard.

My recommendations for Socket A boards:
Budget: Elitegroup K7S5A with SiS 735 chipset. Very good basic board.
More powerful: Asus A7V8X with Via KT400 chipset. Feature-packed, supports all the latest gear.
With onboard GPU: Asus A7N8X with nVidia nForce2 chipset. Feature-packed, supports all the latest gear, and has an integrated Geforce4.

lamsey, i dunno where u read about the asus a7n8x, but i have heard nothing about onboard graphics with that motherboard.

That is the top nforce2 board, and top overall amd socket a board period at the moment. Supporting dual channel ddr, it will really get the top performance out of your amd. And, it supports 400mhz front side bus... which amd just anounced they will be moving the barton core to 400mhz this year, before the Hammer drops.

I am on a abit kr7a133 raid at the moment. Great board from via, no complaints.

I would get the above board if I were making a system now, the Asus. In fact, I am currently building two gaming rigs, one for a friend, and one for my brother, both with that board, and a ATI 9700 pro for graphics.

I am waithing for the Hammer later this year, (hopefully), then I will build my next system.

Sharkey Extremes Recomendation for the Asus a78nx

:huh: My mistake... I was looking at the spec for the nForce2 chipset, not the motherboard.

I stand corrected.

not a problem. I know when i first heard rave reviews about the board, i was like, yuck, who the hell wants a integrated geforce mx or such. Which was the case of the first nforce chipset, which, isnt for me. But when i got to reading about this specific board, i was thrilled, top notch performance, and what ever vid card i wanted.

Just imagine a nforce board for the hammer.... *sheds tears*

oh yes... please?!?!