FAMICOMASTER wrote on 2021-06-09, 10:53:
cyclone3d wrote on 2021-06-09, 08:49:
So the PC Chips motherboards branded as PC Chips with fake cache were not actually made by PC Chips?
Not to mention that they also put stickers on their chipset to try to make people think that these chipsets were made by bigger companies.
While that may be true, I still wouldn't put down the engineering of their chipsets. There is nothing wrong with the chipset itself.
No, but that's the one part they didn't engineer. The rest is very, very cheaply built (compare PCB thickness of a PC Chips board with that of any Asus or FIC or... well basically almost any other brand), and even once they had stopped defrauding people over cache, almost every detail they could be misleading on is. It's not just the chipset "names" but also the fact that all support chips are relabeled too, even to the point of relabeling the BIOS EEPROM. Frequently what's on the chips is also incorrect - take the CMI-8330 audio chip on many of their boards. It's actually quite good IMHO (one of only two full SB16 clones), but to call it "PCI Sound Pro" is nonsense, it's an ISA chip:
The attachment soundpro.jpg is no longer available
Now after that diatribe, as I'm interested in obscure chipsets I actually end up with PC Chips boards a lot, as they definitely were more creative there than just about the rest of the industry, and some of those boards I actually like (the M560 for example, which is clock for clock the fastest So7 board I've come across). But I'd consider them about the worst possible choice for someone just starting due to pretty much every text on them being wrong, intentionally obfuscating or downright misleading. If you don't know your SIMMs from your DIMMs, you want well-documented clarity, not the exact opposite.
A board with i430TX (the real one...) would be a good choice, but given we're talking DOS-only here the USB consideration is pretty irrelevant. For DOS the added value of the i430TX over older i430FX, VX or HX is very limited, and indeed the added value of an Intel chipset with solid Windows support is limited too. So instead I'd advise choosing based on two things:
1) Brand name known for solid quality and good documentation. Gigabyte and Asus still have support pages up for their So7 stuff, you can find reams of documentation for FIC, Abit and MSI boards. Choose one of them, or failing that at least something with a solid manual available online.
2) Price and availability. No point in paying a massive premium for *that one board* if you're going to run DOS and basically need to learn the ropes before getting massive preferences anyway.
Just one pitfall: beware early SDRAM chipsets (i430VX, Via VPX). DIMM compatibility is very tricky. If you get a board with these chipsets it will invariably have 72p SIMM slots too. Get some EDO to use in those instead if you choose a board with one those chipsets.
As for cache, tbh for a Pentium DOS system you want to run pre-Pentium software (Doom) on, it really doesn't matter in the bigger picture. Still want to dive in? A matrix of two RAM types vs three cache options:
- EDO + no L2 cache: worst performance.
- EDO + async L2 cache: about 2.5% better than EDO and no cache
- EDO + PLB L2 cache: about 5% better than EDO and no cache
- SDRAM + no L2 cache: (hardly ever seen) about 2.5% better than EDO and no cache
- SDRAM + async L2 cache: never seen in wild, by SDRAM introduction cache was all PLB.
- SDRAM + PLB L2 cache: about 10% better than EDO and no cache
Async cache: multiple little DIP SRAM chips (usually 4, 8 or 16 chips)
PLB cache: 2 or 4 bigger rectangular SMD chips (onboard or on COAST card in brown slot)
But we're talking max 10% difference between best and worst cases in DOOM performance, which would run smoothly on a 486 anyway. This really doesn't matter here.
AngryByDefault wrote on 2021-06-09, 13:14:
Hezus wrote on 2021-06-09, 08:58:
I'd go with a board with Intel 430TX chipset. Those are fast and reliable and the software for it is easy to find. If you can, try to find a board that has a USB as well. This will make it a lot easier to copy files over. 430TX also has great USB support.. the ALi board with Alladin IV+ I had was a nightmare when it comes to USB.
So, just to be clear, you're suggesting me to look for a board that has Intel branded chipset and not those "TX Pro"?
For what I read "TX Pro" chipsets are "ALi M1531 (Alladin IV+)" relabeled by PCChips and their subbrands, so they are not 430TX at all?
No, it is not an Intel i430TX. It's an ALi Aladdin IV+ (which is actually a better chipset than i430TX for most things - such as cacheable RAM limits, divider support for higher bus speeds and raw memory performance - but different and USB is not its strong point).
This intentional confusion is the biggest reason I would not recommend starting with a PC Chips board.