Chip Set...

[Gandalf]

What is the "chip set"?

[Dissolved]

Originally posted by GaDaLf
What is the "chip set"?

theres 2 semi main chips (like cpu) on ur motherboard that do diferent things, i dont know to much, but u have 2 chips in the "chipset" a northbridge and a southbridge.. serch the forum for more info.. thats about all i can explain seeing i dont know how they work exactaly..

[Mike K]

You should be able to find that post in this very forum.
It also has pics of what they each control.

[klosters64a]

The chipset is the heart of the mainboard-if we leave the CPU out of the picture for a moment. A North and South "Bridge" is the rule. SiS makes some chipsets that combine the functions of both bridges into one chip. This saves money, which makes the mainboards with the SiS 730S and 735 chipset less expensive.

Over the last few years, some of the popular chipsets found on mainboards for PC's are the ALi(Acer Labs, International) Magik 1, which started out as a disappointing performer. Now in Rev C, it's quite all right.

Via released the KT-133. This was much improved with the later KT-133A. Via's current chipset for AMD K7 family processors is the KT-266A, which is the best available for Athlon's-- so far. Via's Apollo Pro series of chipsets for P3's are quite good.

AMD released the 750, 760 and 761 chipsets which are all for Athlons.

SiS released the SiS 630, for P3's. And the SiS730 and 735 for AMD CPU's. Their new SiS645 for P4's is well liked. They also will have a chipset for the P4 that uses Rambus, and have the SiS 745 for Athlon's on the way.

Intel's i440BX chipset of ~3 years ago was excellent. Not so the the three P3 chipsets that followed it. The i820vc, i810 and i815's are dogs of the first water. Chipzilla's i850 is a good performer for the P4, yet has the drawbacks of using RIMMS and being overpriced. Intel's i845 chipset for P4's is getting mixed reviews.

[Gandalf]

Where is the chip set located on the mobo?

[Gandalf]

Anyone?

[Yodums]

There are two of them, northbridge and south bridge. Northbridge should be around your heatsink or cpu it should have its own chipset cooler or a green heatsink.

South bridge is located usually to the right of all the PCI and AGP ports.