VIA and SiS chipsets on Mobos

[Poppa_Meth]

I've seen a lot of recommendations against VIA and SiS chipsets on Mobos. What are some of the issues that are present with them? I'm trying to convice someone to go with an intel chipset for a new PC but he wants the cheaper VIA board. He wants to know what's so bad about the VIA chipsets. I've never used one to know. All my stuff has been Intel chipset so far.

[budz]

nothing really bad about VIA chipsets.....i used a VIA chipset mobo with no problems or conflicts with other software and hardware.....from what i've read the VIA & SIS chipsets sometimes have conflicts with hardware like dvd burners....problems such as enabling DMA mode......although when i had my VIA chipset mobo i didn't have any problems with any of my dvd burners in enabling DMA mode.....but then again i was using windows 98se and then windows 2000 pro.

[redwudz]

I've used several VIA and SiS motherboards in the past few years and haven't noticed any real problems with incompatibility. I would lean a little toward the SiS as I've heard the same comments about VIA MBs.

Still, some MB setups will have problems no matter what. To get any real info you would probably have to do a Google search for the specific MB, and even then when they upgrade or change the BIOS it would probably all change.

It's also probably likely that SiS and VIA chipsets are in a large number of cheaper MBs and just the sheer number of MBs that are produced would make people think they are more prone to problems than some of the smaller chipset suppliers.

Maybe someone out there has specific comments with problems with these two chipsets.

[Soopafresh]

None of them are bad, per se. I've installed systems with all of these chipsets, and they all end up working with the proper tweaks. Just seems like it's a bit more work with the VIA chipset - there are half a dozen versions of the 4in1 drivers, and you have to do some research to find the one that will work the best on your particular system.

BTW, are you still putting that system togther for your GF ?

[Poppa_Meth]

I'm still thinking on it but probably not. She even said she probably wouldn't use a computer all that much. I don't really think its worth dropping $1000 on something that will set in a corner until I come over and fiddle with it every so often. Might build one for my mother though. Something cheap for light office work and internet.

[Faustus]

Never had a problem with VIA other then with a specific chipset that was slow with video. SIS on the other hand I can't stand.

Personally? I use AMDs with nForce chips now.

[LSchafroth]

I've seen a lot of recommendations against VIA and SiS chipsets on Mobos. What are some of the issues that are present with them? I'm trying to convice someone to go with an intel chipset for a new PC but he wants the cheaper VIA board. He wants to know what's so bad about the VIA chipsets. I've never used one to know. All my stuff has been Intel chipset so far.

I've built a ton of systems with VIA chipsets and have yet to see any of the issues people talked about, so I'm not sure what they were doing.

SIS was very flakey back in the Pentium days, but they seem to be building a pretty good chipset as long as you still with the newer ones. 333Mhz bus and faster. I can only go by the reviews on the SIS.

LS

[888888]

I currently have four SiS chipset motherboard computers in my home and can say that I am very satisfied with their reliability, ease of use, and price-performance ratio. I would not hesitate to recommend an SiS chipset motherboard to anyone except those that have money to burn and want to buy the absolute top of the line which would probably be the newest NVidia chipset for AMD.

Have I experienced issues with SiS chipsets? Yes, but all chipsets have "issues". For example some people have a hard time getting their IDEs to work properly with past NVidia chipsets. You will find reports online of people having issues and problems with all brands of chipsets including Intel.

[Craig Tucker]

Personally? I use AMDs with nForce chips now.

Me too.

[Dr. DOS]

I've got a SIS motherboard (fasscom) and it works great... only anamoly I ran across is that I needed updated drivers for MB compondents) vs what was provided on CD

[mastersmurfie]

I have had a VIA chipset MOBO for a long time...still using it now...only issue that I had was the onboard sound...easily fixable with a new sound card...

[sacajaweeda]

I use AMDs with nForce chips now.

What he said.

[Marty2003]

I have a VIA chipset and I can't wait to build a new computer. the VIA gave me tons of trouble when I installed my Hauppauge capture card. My comp would freeze whenever I used the card. Installing the 4in1 drivers fixed this after struggling for a few days. Now my mobo is dying and my computer locks up completely randomly, It seems I can't even keep it running for more than 1.5 hours, so I can't even encode videos anymore. It's about 4 years old, so that might be a factor, but when I build my next system I know I'm staying away from VIA for sure.