Best board with SiS648 chipset?

I've been looking to build me a whole setup (all new, except I may buy a used floppy drive) in mid-next month and have spent this last month looking at all my available choices. I've finally decided on the SiS648 chipset over the intel 845 (E or G) mainly due to the onboard support for ATA133 without using RAID and it's future upgradability (AGP 8X and serial ATA). Also, the 850 with RDRAM is a little over my price range.

I originally thought I only had 2 choices here :

ASUS P4S8X (my original choice)
or
Abit SR7-8X (which only has 2 channel on-board sound)

BUT, I stumbled upon a mobo Shuttle AS45GTR that's half the price of the Asus and has 4 IDE channels! (as opposed to the Asus 2 channel not including serial)

The SiS site actually lists 12 boards with the 648 chipset but I have only seen the Abit, Asus, and Shuttle for sale. (Mwave)

So what do you guys think? I'm VERY new to manufacturer names (who's good and who isn't), but I am very familiar with all the tech lingo so the brands is where I need the most advice. Sorry I'm a little wordy, my main goal though is to get the best I can buy in mid-October that wont be out-dated in 1 year. Some would say wait for the stack DRAM and new Intel chipset but I have a feeling that is going to be even more expensive than the RDRAM setup and mainly suited for servers. I dont plan on over clocking much, most I would want is to take a 2.4B up to 2.8 with DDR400 support.

Kerry (newbie, but doing his best to learn as much as possible in one month)

There is also the Giga-Byte 8SG667 and here is a review on it....

thanx for the link, it also had reviews for the MSI, ABIT, and Shuttle boards, none of which I had read yet. I was wrong about the Shuttle board, it only supports 2 IDE channels on-board, also the Shuttle, Gigabyte and Abit boards only have 2-channel sound (the gigabyte board has no on-board LAN or firewire!) Also, the only boards that I've seen reviewed that can handle ddr400 are the MSI and ASUS boards, both have 6-channel sound as well. The ASUS showed a little more refinement than the MSI though so I'm going to go with it probably (it's also the one that was the latest to be released so you can expect that to some extent). A bios upgrade might fix the DDR 400 support on the older boards but they dont come with all the bells and whistles that ASUS offers, and I should be able to get my 2.4b up to 2.7 or 2.8 even with the boards limited overclocking which is my target anyways. If anyone else has any info I could use, please feel free to post (links to other reviews of the boards from the manufacturers I havn't read about would help)

Kerry

Are you looking for a board with the 648 or the 648DX chipset? I just read over on hardocp.com that Sis and Via are dropping their DDR400 supporting chipsets, you might want to think twice about buying a board with one of them on it.

Here's the link to the story...

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2002/09/17&pages=02&seq=8

I wasn’t happy to read about SiS dropping those two chipsets, but who knows how it’ll affect the 648 line and DDR400. It seems that the JEDEC is the CRUCIAL party here, no pun intended. I think when they set a standard that is DDR 400 the 648 mbs will revise the Bios to support it.

As for the current 648 Mbs, I’m waiting for my Shuttle AS45GT. The versions reviewed so far have been 1.2 with the old A1 chipset revision. The shipping version is 1.3 with the A2 revision. Hoping this makes a big difference in DDR400 support and OCing. If it doesn’t I’m going straight for the Gigabyte.

Kerry, were did you see good reviews for the Asus supporting 400, everything I’ve read says it’s very unstabble, although they’re working on the Bios revision from what I’ve read on the Asus forum. Also, the Shuttle and Gigabyte have a REALTEK ALC650 codec chip for 6-channel sound.

If you go Asus I read one post using 512mb Corsair XMS3200 cas2 running stable at 155fsb and 193.75 (DDR 387) memory with a CAS latency of 1.5,2,2 1t. The vcore was 1.7v and 2.7v for the memory. That’s a damn low CAS. Although he’s the only person I’ve read about having any success.

It looks like Gigabyte is going to be the best one for OCing and DDR400 support according to that review linked above. As soon as I get my Shuttle, which should be tomorrow I’ll let you know what I find out. Hoping for the best…fingers and cooling tubes crossed.

Last thought, if you go for the 9700 pro on these boards make sure to get the newer AE3 stepping chips.

Lycaon

I've read two good reviews on the Asus board:

VIA and SIS chipset comparison using ASUS board

another review for just the Asus P4S8X

wow, the 648 being dropped by SiS is a pain. I was really looking forward to that board too, do you know what might be fixed with the ASUS BIOS upgrade? Why do you think the Gigabyte is the best alternative? The only one I saw had NO features whatsoever, I'll check the Gigabyte site to see if I missed a new model or something.

Kerry

You're right, those are good reviews, but they both have the same problems with running DDR400. I just hope with the SiS announcement that Asus and the rest wont stop tweaking the bios to run DDR400.

I'm trying to find a 648 board that offers the best stability there, and it seems like Gigabyte has that going for it. Although, OCworkbench just told me they are having problems POSTing with their Gigabyte and Corsair 3200. I'm trying to find out if there are differences between their board and anandtech's.

You're also right about the extras. Seems pretty lame that Shuttle and Gibabyte wouldn't put LAN and Firewire on the board, especially since the chipsets provide it.

But if you want to stick with 333 and have raid, lan and fire onboard the Asus looks like a great board for 40 more bucks, and CAS1.5 is just a bonus.

Lycaon

Mwave has the shuttle board listed with

4 IDE channels (ATA133) (2 with RAID)
2 Serial (RAID)
6-channel sound
LAN
Firewire

and its still $40 cheaper than the ASUS, is this a misprint or is this the board you are buying? Have you seen any reviews of the revised Shuttle board? If these are the true specs I'm definitely getting it instead of the ASUS, the 4 IDE's really would do nicely with 2 Hard drives on raid and a CD burner and DVD player on the other 2 channels.

Mwave Shuttle link

Kerry

Mwave is selling the AS45GT version not the AS45GT/R. It's the scalled down motherboard. It's all very decieving if you ask me.

1. The LAN and Firewire are built into the Chipset, but are not installed on the MB. Asus did install them.

2. The AS45GT does not come with 2 x UltraDMA100 / 133 Bus Master IDE from High Point 372 to support RAID 0, RAID1, RAID0+1 function. Therefor, only a total of 2 UltraDMA100 / 133 Bus Master IDE

3. The AS45GT does not come with 2 x Serial ATA connectors from Marvell 88i8030 to support RAID 0, RAID1 function. Although the board can support the serial ATA, but no connectors.

Hope it helps. I'm waiting to here about Gigabyte supporting Corsair 3200 CAS2

Lycaon

it is kinda funny that the Mwave page says AS45GT OR AS45GT/R! So who does sell the GT/R? Does it come with all that stuff?

Woohoo! Asus already has a new BIOS version out for the S8X (1003A as opposed to the 1002). I'm going to download the manual for the 03a and see if it says what all is changed.

Giga-byte does list DDR400 support on their site but only from select companies (WinBond for the 512 MB). Why would Corsairs memory be less compatible at the same speed?

Kerry

Arg.... The Asus S8X sux, there, I said it finally. Today I couldn't take it after I hopped on over to the Asus board site and saw nothing but bad reviews from owners of the P4S8X. Not only are there voltage issues not being assessed by the Asus staff but apparently an entire set of IDE channels is basically useless! The BIOS upgrades do nothing for the instability, in fact, I havn't figured out what they do other than offer more "nifty" features that are useless if you cant even boot up! I dont think I'll ever settle on a board at this rate. But on the plus side I'm learning alot about MOBO's and chipsets in my search, I may venture into the AMD side of the spectrum soon.....pray for me.

Kerry

any one know about the abit board SR7-8X

Here's a review of it:

Abit SR7-8X at Anandtech

it doesn't have on-board RAID so you only get 2 IDE channels, it also doesn't have firewire or Serial ATA, but it does have LAN and AGP/PCI lock (not available on the Asus board). The Abit board DOES SUPPORT DDR400, but only 2 slots at once (which is plenty really)


The Shuttle AS45GTR and the Gigabyte SG667 look like the two best 648 boards, the Gigabyte board is the only one that can truely support DDR400 and it does so very well (all three slots full, ANY reputable brand, Corsair would work). Neither one has on-board firewire or LAN though.

Kerry

Kerry,

Have you read of someone using the Gigabyte board with Corsair 3200 Cas2? Prometheus over on AsusBoards.com just got his. I'm waiting to find out if he can run some Corsair on it.

Lycaon

Great news on the Gibabyte 8SG667:

Here are the results on the shipping version from Prometheus over at the Asus boards tonight:
Bios version F2

With Samsung DDR400, it is recognized as DDR400 and set to 400. At DDR434 (FSB 145) Sandra:
Buffered: 3074, 3074.
UNbuffered: 1659, 1682.

KINGMAX 402, SPD (at 533 FSB):
Buffered: 2886,2907
UNbuffered: 1720, 1735

COSAIR XMS3200C2 402, SPD (at 533 FSB):
Buffered: 2903, 2902
UNbuffered: 1786, 1759

Looks mighty fine...the rest of his Post has some great info on specs and such.

Gigabyte has my vote

yeah, thats where I saw it too. Whats the news on your shuttle board? I really like the 4 IDE channels (2 raid) + 2 serial channels on the AS45GTR, I only hope it's as stable as the Gigabyte board.

Kerry

aaaawww man im confused, need more of a solection none of the boards have what i want in it. Each board is missing 1 or 2 things

Woohoo! Mwave now has the Shuttle AS45GTR for sale!

Product Search Results
The list of products that matched your query of: SiS 648 is shown below.

SHUTTLE AS45GT ULTRA ATA133 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xAGP(8X)/5xPCI/3xDDR W/USB 2.0, 1394, AUDIO
$96.00

ASUS P4S8X ULTRA ATA133 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xAGP(8X)/6xPCI/3xDDR W/RAID, LAN, USB 2.0, 1394, AUDIO(*While Supplies Last!)
$135.54

SHUTTLE AS45GTR ULTRA ATA133 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xAGP(8X)/5xPCI/3xDDR W/RAID, SERIAL ATA, USB 2.0, 1394, AUDIO
$121.00

ABIT SR7-8X ULTRA ATA133 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xAGP(8X)/5xPCI/3xDDR W/LAN, AUDIO
$89.88