Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe NYC who wrote (64633)	11/29/2001 6:13:08 PM
From: ptanner	Respond to of 275872

Joe, Re: uATX mobo options I agree that the options are all a bit dated. I built a system on the SiS 730 (an Asus A7S-VM motherboard) and it has worked just fine. While looking for a more recented integrated video solution, the best I could find were boards based on the Via KM133A chipset which allow for 200/266 FSB. Two boards based on this chipset are the DFI AM75-TC and Chaintech 7AIV5. I believe the former is the board of choice for a planned build of ten systems for a school by a friend of mine but the plans will keep evolving until the parts are actually ordered. <g> The hardest part in budget pricing for the systems were the HDD (we only need 5+GB but the cheapest found was $70 for some 20GB and for only $10 more we could move up to 40GB - a lot of fixed cost here) and the OS (of course). While I have seen word of SiS 740 based boards (DDR & integrated video) I haven't seen any reviews or PW listings -- but haven't really looked in the last few weeks. I do try to stay aware of progress in components for low-cost systems as these are all that most people really need. -PT

To: Joe NYC who wrote (64633)	11/29/2001 6:20:09 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

RE:"I have to say that I was a bit dissapointed when I saw the previews of nForce motherboards on Anand's site. None of them were MicroATX. If there is a chipset that calls for a MicroATX design, it is the nForce chipset. You have video, sound and Fast Ethernet onboard, so the need for additional cards is minimal" I recall seeing one mATX nforce motherboard. I will see if I can find it. Jim

To: Joe NYC who wrote (64633)	11/29/2001 11:38:40 PM
From: fyodor_	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Joe: I have an old MicroATX computer which I wanted to upgrade, and the best thing I found was the motherboard based on the integrated Sis chipset (730?), which at this point is a little bit outdated, given all the new motherboards now are DDR. SiS is coming out with a new integrated chipset (SiS740) very soon. This is what SiS has to say about the integrated graphics: The Integrated GUI features a high performance 3D accelerator with 2 Pixel / 4 Texture and Geometry Transform/lighting engines, and a 128 bit 2D accelerator with 1T pipeline BITBLT engine. It also features a Video high quality DVD playback. A 12 bit DDR digital video link interfaced to SiS 301 package in 100-pin PQFP is incorporated to expand the SiS 740 functionality in support of the secondary display, in addition to the default primary CRT display. The SiS 301 Video Bridge integrates an NTSL/PAL video encoder with Macro Vision Ver. 7.1.L1 option for TV display, A TMDS transmitter with Bi-linear scaling capability for TFT LCD panel support, and an analog RGB port to support a secondary CRT. The primary CRT display and the extended secondary display (TV, TFT LCD Panel, 2¡¦nd CRT) features the Dual View capability in the sense that both can generate the display in independent resolutions, color depths, and frame rates. (source: sis.com ) This is a better graphics chip than the one featured in the new SiS650 P4, new socket (Socket478, not 370). From the feature list (which doesn't list things like pixel fill rate), it can address twice the amount of memory (128MB vs 64MB for the P4 graphics chip and now has a T&L engine (which the P4 graphics chip doesn't). (Sources: sis.com sis.com ) In other words, you can safely take SiS650 graphics performance as a lower limit for the SiS740. -fyo