new P4 chipsets

[buckchoi]

Well i've been looking to put together a new P4 for a little while but am overwhelmed by the amount of new chipsets coming out!

I was thinking about the SiS 645 DX chipset but then that doesnt have USB2 on most boards.

Now Intel come out with the 845E and 845G. I think i saw at tomshardware.com that the 845G has DDR333 support where as the 845E doesn't. Ive been looking at boards from various companies and they dont say anything about 845G boards supporting DDR333. So what does it really support?
:confused:

And out of those 3 chipsets which is best for performance??

[Albinus]

OK :)

The 845G "unofficially" supports DDR333, so that's why you won't find any references to it. I love the P4X266 chipset in my system, and would highly recommend a board based on the new P4X333 chipset from VIA. My board (the AV40R) is made by Shuttle and has been faultless, please consider their P4X333 options :)

The benchmarks I've seen have the P4X333 at the top performing DDR chipset for the Pentium 4 - only the 850E with RDRAM scores higher.

[buckchoi]

yeah the VIA chipset looks interesting but then i hear stuff about how them and intel having a big biffo about some legal crap and how as a result the major manufacturers are not using it yet

So to use DDR333 on the intel chipset 845G u would need to go into the bios and twiddle with the memory clock to fully utilise the ram?

[Albinus]

I wouldn't worry too much about the legal stuff - VIA has promised that they will pay the legal fees of any motherboard manufacturer who uses their Pentium 4 chipsets ;)

My money is still on the P4X333, remember the 845 series don't support AGP 8x *yet*

[buckchoi]

Alright thanks for that Albinus ;)

Will go shopping for bits and pieces as soon as the new P4 chips with 533 FSB is released in Sydney :D

[Soverign]

Another chipset to consider is the SiS 645DX

This chipset has DDR-333 and "unoffical" DDR-400 support.

This chip when coupled with SiS 961B or 962 Southbridges makes a super effort on the market, and its offically licenced by Intel