solidus wrote on 2020-08-30, 01:13:
Horun wrote on 2020-08-30, 00:56:
Hmm looks OK. There are many Pentium Board+cpu+ram combo's on the market that could be great. One thing, before you buy one: make sure you can identify the exact make/model of the board or else you could troubles down the road.
Yea Ive been seeing some with no board info.. just generic 'INTEL'. I am looking at some of the really close up photos, and I am not able to identify anything. Do most of these not have clear markings on the board itself with model #s? In the case of the above, is that marking 'PCISet SB823...' on the chip the actual chipset and model of the board?
Intel makes CPUs, chipsets and motherboards. Other people also make motherboards with Intel chipsets.
So no, no info on the chipset is going to tell you which board it is. Good boards tend to have clear brand+model names on the board. Bad ones (like this...) tend not to... The recommendation was for Intel-made boards, not boards with Intel chipsets. They're not the best out there, but they are relatively easy to find, relatively affordable and have rock-solid stability and good components, which makes them a good choice for beginners. Note that ATX was also recommended so you can use a modern case and PSU and this is an AT board. The difference is the external connectors. AT only has a single DIN port for AT-style keyboard, ATX has multiple connectors for keyboard, mouse, serial, parallel, USB and more. The keyboard connector is also PS/2, which is electrically identical to the old AT DIN, but means you are less likely to need adaptor cables. So go with ATX form factor to keep life simple - an advice I'd wholeheartedly concur with.
The chipset determines basic functionality and performance, but it doesn't tell you anything about build quality or options. That's what you need the board name for.
As for price, eBay prices are overinflated at best. I'd recommend looking on whatever local Craigslist-like sites there are, you're more likely to find good deals there.
MMX support is a combination of factors. Most important is that MMX CPUs require a lower core voltage (2.8V instead of 3.3V) so boards that support it have voltage regulators on-board to generate that lower voltage. If you know what a MOSFET is, a board with a couple of big ones will almost certainly support lower voltages. But best method remains getting positive ID on the board and looking it up, particularly if you're not experienced at 'reading' the components on a board. This board does have voltage regulators - those two big orange heatsinks around the CPU socket with two large MOSFETs connected to each. This is an old-style inefficient linear voltage regulator, which essentially dumps excess voltage as heat, hence the heatsinks. The i430VX chipset also supports MMX, but again, this is a bad board.
A couple of good Intel boards to look for:
- AN430TX
- ML430HX
- TC430HX
Other good choices:
- Asus XP55T2P4
- Asus TX97-X(E)
- Asus TXP4-X
- Gigabyte GA-586ATX
- MSI MS-5148
There are many more, but these are known good quality, good support and even today fairly readily available.