VIA Motherboards

Early this month we saw the first PT880 motherboards show up; VIA's new northbridge with a dual channel memory controller. The new, dual channel memory controller is a first for VIA, but the chipset is still a "value" chipset in the Intel arena. We are more excited to see the next evolution of VIA's Athlon XP chipset; KT880. Dual channel memory on Athlon XP platforms from VIA looks very promising. Look forward to these boards showing up in retail channels before the end of the month.

This week we added several VIA AMD mainboards to our tracking engine.

We do not necessarily recommend buying a new K8 motherboard so close to socket 939's announcement. However, if you have no other option there are some good boards available right now. Our inexpensive favorite, the MSI Neo-FIS2R is a great stable board. If overclocking is more your thing, our own Wesley Fink recommends the AOpen AK86-L.

Intel CPUs NVIDIA Motherboards
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  • b4417 - Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - link

    The Price Guide shows the 3.4 GHz Intel Prescott CPU available at Essential Computers. Going to Essential's website, it shows the processor "In Stock", and "Available to ship in 24-48 hours." I tried to order one, only to be greeted with a "Cookies Must Be Enabled" message. I HAD cookies enabled, and even double-checked my IE settings to be sure. So I called them, and was told that they don't have the 3.4 Prescott in stock and have no ETA, regardless of what the website shows.

    This appears to be a ploy to get their name in the listing without having the item available as stated. I find that pretty offensive, and would like to see their listing removed from the guide.

    Thanks,
    Bill
  • justly - Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - link

    Why aren’t any SiS based motherboards listed for either Intel or AMD platforms. I mean if you can list a board from XFX (who the heck are they?) that only supports FSB speeds up to 333MHz (socket A) and a board from ECS (a company that is not popular with the enthusiast crowd) why not include a SiS motherboard that can at least run a 400MHz FSB (socket A) from a well known company like Gigabyte, or the Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe (SiS 655TX chipset) that Anandtechs own Wesley Fink commented highly about in a review.
  • KristopherKubicki - Monday, March 15, 2004 - link

    ehanneken - Yes, youre correct. I meant more along the lines of wait till the leaked samples hit reviews :-p

    Kristopher
  • ehanneken - Monday, March 15, 2004 - link

    Sorry, I didn't realize that this forum doesn't interpret HTML.
  • ehanneken - Monday, March 15, 2004 - link

    <blockquote></i>Keep in mind that the upcoming Socket 939 launch is later this month, so for those of you looking for an enthusiast purchase may wish to hold off a new purchase for a couple weeks.</i></blockquote>

    According to your <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1985&q... update</a> on AMD's Athlon 64 roadmap, the first Socket 939 processors won't be released until May. Has something changed?

  • Pumpkinierre - Monday, March 15, 2004 - link

    No 3.4 Prescott yet? Coupla of extra layers on the N'wood core Xeons. Who's betting on a 3.6 or 3.8 Northwood release?
  • CrystalBay - Sunday, March 14, 2004 - link

    Thanks, for puting out some news on the weekend..

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