A few questions about Nforce and the sis 745 chipset

[Gulzakar]

For the nforce boards, whats the difference between the 415 and 420 chipset?

As for the sis 745, are they faster than the 735?

I see that I can get a Leadtek brand 735 board with overclocking features for 100 or so, I also can get the MSI 745 chipset board in the 70 dollar range...any difference between the two? I really like the sis chipset, but would like to get something with more options than the bland ECS board...

 

[XMan]

The 415 doesn't have onboard video. The 420 does. A "D" following the numeric, imples onboard Dolby Surround Sound.

 

[Gulzakar]

ok, so, sis 745 , sis 735 or nforce?...

 

[arynn]

Gulzakar,

The nforce 420 has the integrated GeForce 2 Mx graphics core. The nforce 415 does not. The both have integrated audio and LAN.

 

[Athlon4all]

Personally, I like nForce and would definately take it although, the SiS 735/745 are cheaper, but slower. I would avoid the leadtek 735, I heard some bad things about it. I dunno about MSi's 745. I'd take Asus A7N266-C if you need more than K7S5A.

 

[Klosters]

From what I read, the SiS 745 chipset offers very little of a performance boost over the SiS 735 chipset. It's only benefit is that it handles (DDR333) PC-2700 DDR RAM. However, there is no boost in performance when using the faster memory--as far as ECS's K7S6A mainboard is concerned. For a few more dollars, the Asus A7S333 is a superior choice--if one is determined to go with the SiS 745 chipset.

The ~12% hit in Memory performance(as measured by Sandra) of the SiS 745, when compared to the Via KT266 chipset is no longer acceptable, personally speaking. The ECS K7S5A in my box is slightly broken, my fault. I'm replacing it with an Asus A7N266-VM. This is an all-in-one(built-in Sound, LAN and GF2 MX)MicroATX mainboard. It sports the nForce 220-D chipset, which is a bit rare, AFAIK.

 

[Athlon4all]

From what I read, the SiS 745 chipset offers very little of a performance boost over the SiS 735 chipset. It's only benefit is that it handles (DDR333) PC-2700 DDR RAM. However, there is no boost in performance when using the faster memory--as far as ECS's K7S6A mainboard is concerned. For a few more dollars, the Asus A7S333 is a superior choice--if one is determined to go with the SiS 745 chipset.

Exactley. It benefits from DDR333 even less than KT333 does.

The ~12% hit in Memory performance(as measured by Sandra) of the SiS 745, when compared to the Via KT266 chipset is no longer acceptable, personally speaking. The ECS K7S5A in my box is slightly broken, my fault. I'm replacing it with an Asus A7N266-VM. This is an all-in-one(built-in Sound, LAN and GF2 MX)MicroATX mainboard. It sports the nForce 220-D chipset, which is a bit rare, AFAIK.

Yes. The A7N266-VM uses 220-D. Its a good board, although, I am not certain on whether it has any overclocking features.

 

[WetWilly]

However, there is no boost in performance when using the faster memory

Yes and no. Since SiS unfortunately hasn't gotten the async memory bus in the 7x5 chipsets to work as well as the 645 chipset, any FSB:Mem ratio greater than 1:1 is useless. However, MSI 745 Ultra boards seem to be doing a pretty good job of running the FSB at 166MHz and higher (with memory at 1:1) with properly implemented the PCI/AGP dividers. I haven't heard of any 735 boards (or nForce boards for that matter) that would consistently hit a FSB of 166MHz or higher.

For a few more dollars, the Asus A7S333 is a superior choice--if one is determined to go with the SiS 745 chipset.

Last I'd seen, the Asus had virtually no overclocking options, making the MSI the only 745 overclocking game in town. Has there been a BIOS update for the A7S333?