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140 Chipsets Compared» —>
PC Systems From The Discounter: Castrated Chipsets
For the first time, Joe Blow opens the case of his new PC system. He bought this low-priced computer from a large discounter after considerable effort. What persuaded him to buy the PC were things such as «XP 2000+» and «30 GB,» which were all over the packaging as well as the fliers. Now, he’s pretty disappointed because, despite the faster CPU in his system, his friend Jonesy’s PC is still significantly faster. Joe’s bargain-basement PC’s performance is hurting particularly with 3D games, where the frame rate clearly lags behind Jonesy’s self-built system. Joe’s budget computer crashes the most when he tries to make back-up copies of rented DVDs. By contrast, Jonesy is able to burn two complete films to CD in a single afternoon. Joe Blow is at a total loss — even though he has a modern PC, he’s annoyed by the fact that he invested $1000 for this thing. He has fallen for the discount store’s marketing ploys, blinded by the promises of a fast system. Jonesy gives him the straight dope: in addition to containing components, Joe’s PC is equipped with a motherboard that strongly limits the system’s functionality and upgradeability. This is how a bargain buy often becomes an item for the garbage dump.
Not for Enthusiasts: PC systems from the discount store are mostly based on a motherboard that is equipped with an obsolete chipset and cheap components.
Many users are concerned with how to best configure their PC systems and which components to use. Typically, the analysis of a PC’s performance potential is based on an evaluation of components such as the processor, memory, graphics chips and hard disks. However, the chipset on the motherboard is the most significant factor in determining the upgradeability of the motherboard and which of it’s unused features can be utilized. In addition, it affects features such as Ultra DMA modes, USB interfaces and the compatibility of components.
Pentium 4 systems from the discounter are often with slow PC266 RAM, or even obsolete PC133 RAM.
We’ll show you over 150 different combinations of North and South Bridges with chipsets for AMD and Intel, and we’ll list the individual features, as well. The idea for this article came from Bert Töpelt, who felt that an overview of all chipsets was needed.
Overview: Chipsets for AMD, Intel and VIA CPUs
The following charts bring you an overview of all chipsets that have been available on the market since the end of 1998. Among the AMD processors, we’ve only included the versions for Socket A (Socket 462). The AMD Athlon, AMD Duron and AMD Athlon XP are compatible with this platform.
With the Intel processors, there are three different CPU platforms: Socket 370, Socket 423 and Socket 478. Here, the compatible CPUs are the Intel Pentium III, Intel Celeron and Celeron II, Pentium III and Celeron with the Tualatin core, and the VIA C3 for Socket 370. The new Pentium 4 is available in two different design variations: one with the Willamette core (for Socket 423 and Socket 478) and one with the Northwood core (Socket 478).
Socket A: Chipsets from VIA
Socket A: Chipsets from AMD
Socket A: Chipsets from ALi
Socket A: Chipsets from NVIDIA
Socket A: Chipsets from SiS
Socket A: Chipsets from ATI
Dual Socket A: Chipsets from AMD
Socket 370: Chipsets from Intel
Socket 370: Chipsets from Ali
Socket 370: Chipsets from SiS
Socket 370: Chipsets from VIA
Dual Socket 370: Chipsets from Intel
Dual Socket 370: Chipsets from VIA
Socket 423/478: Chipsets from Intel
Socket 423/478: Chipsets from SiS
Socket 423/478: Chipsets from ALi
Socket 423/478: Chipsets from VIA
Socket 423/478: Chipsets from ATI
The Basics: The Structure of a Chipset
Essentially, each chipset consists of a Northbridge and a Southbridge. Some of the chipsets from SiS are exceptions, for example, the 735 and 645, both of which are based on a single-chip technology. The above scheme lets you clearly recognize how a traditional chipset works. The following components are connected to the Northbridge in a star-like constellation: the processor, the graphics interface, the RAM and the Southbridge. The largest amount of data is transferred between the CPU and the Northbridge — in our example, the maximum volume is 4.2 GB per second. The RAM is second in generating large amounts of traffic (here, we use a dual-channel Rambus interface as an example), with 3.2 GB per second. Less optimized in terms of bandwidth is the data transfer to the graphics interface, which, according to the AGP 2.0 standard, is above 1 GB per second.
The second chip of the chipset is the Southbridge, which is responsible for communicating with the peripheral devices. This includes PCI interfaces, IDE controllers for hard drives and DVD/CD ROMs, and USB controllers, as well as sound and LAN interfaces. The Northbridge and the Southbridge are connected to one another through a data channel. Here are a few examples: the VIA KT133A chipset accesses a PCI 33 transfer mode that achieves 33 MB/s. Starting with the VIA KT266 chipset, the V-Link with 266 MB/s is used, which is likewise accessed by ATIs IGP 320 chipset. At the moment, the highest theoretical data transfer rate is offered by the nForce chipset with Hypertransport and 800 MB/s. Intel’s chipsets (845 and 850) with Hub Link V1.0 provide 266 MB/s. Bringing up the rear is the Taiwanese manufacturer ALi; this company still works with the outmoded PCI 33 protocol today, something which its competitors have long since filed away.
Here, we’d like to address a question asked by readers who use a RAID controller (Promise or HighPoint) in a setup consisting of an outmoded chipset that has much too low a transfer rate between the Northbridge and Southbridge. In this case, the internal data transfer of the chipset is at its limit, so there’s no noticeable performance increase when you create a RAID configuration. In addition, the other components such as USB and sound reduce the bandwidth, as well.
Curiosities: Onboard Memory, Dual CPUs, Graphics Memory
4 MB graphics memory in the form of a plug-in card for the Intel 81x chipset.
While we were making a more exact analysis of approximately 300 motherboards in our Munich lab, several motherboards stood out from the others. These involved curiosities of which even the manufacturers themselves were unaware. Among them was a board from Acorp, which offers a dual system for Pentium III, based on Socket 370 and the Intel 815E chipset. In the specifications for Intel 815, there’s no mention whatsoever of dual operation.
A rarity was the 815 motherboard from TMC, which is equipped with integrated graphics memory. In contrast, all of the latest boards access the RAM. Another curiosity was a board with the Intel 810 chipset that had integrated 32 MB RAM. This allows the motherboard to run without having to install memory modules on it.
Graphics memory (4 MB) integrated on a motherboard with the Intel 810 chipset.
Dual Socket 370 with the Intel 815E chipset: even Intel knew nothing about this.
An absolute rarity: 32 MB RAM integrated on the motherboard.
Conclusion: The Chipset in a PC System Is Decisive
This comparison gives you a clear overview of the various chipsets from individual manufacturers. The most important thing that you should know, however, is that the processor and graphics card alone are not the only factors affecting the performance capability of a PC system. Rather, the chipset plays a much greater role in determining the performance, the features available and, ultimately, the upgradeability of a PC.
This is a problem that faces many consumers who have bought complete systems from a discount store. A fast CPU and large hard disk drive are easily marketable in terms of «MHz» and «GB,» but the fact is, the PC still wimps out on you. The reason for this is that the motherboards used in these systems have been optimized to keep costs low. And this is all in keeping with the motto of OEMs: nothing is cheap enough that can’t be made even cheaper! The result: a system that is this cheap quickly becomes material for the garbage dump.
The benchmark chart above shows the dramatic differences between the individual chipsets: while the VIA KT133A chipset (in combination with an AMD Athlon 2000+) attains 193 fps, the use of a VIA KT333 results in a frame rate increase of 25%!
