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CES 2005: Chipsets, Motherboards, and Memory

 by Wesley Fink on January 13, 2005 12:05 AM EST
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22 Comments

ATI RS400/RS480

After the initial outpouring of love from the press, the RS480 chipset from ATI for AMD Socket 939 has gone almost silent. ATI tells us that enthusiast boards based on this chipset are still coming, and as proof they had a test rig set-up running 24/7 at DDR630 - a CPU frequency of 315.

The ATI demo system was water-cooled and ATI tells us that they have actually pushed their new chipset even further, but the system runs day and night, rock-solid, at a Clock Speed of 315. Where are those Radeon Express 200 motherboards?

MSI was showing a micro-ATX board based on RS480 and so was Asus. These boards bring great DX9 integrated graphics to the micro market, but they are not the enthusiast boards for which we have all been waiting. This is not to take anything away from the Athlon 64 integrated graphics versions, since RS480 is one of the few decent integrated graphics solutions for Athlon 64.

RS400 for Intel

We also saw the upcoming Intel version of the new ATI chipset at Asus and MSI.

Asus was showing an enthusiast version of the ATI chipset for Intel, but had no plans to do an enthusiast RX480. Apparently, they put so much work into the outstanding (but very late) Asus RS350 that they decided to recycle their work in an RS400 reincarnation. We will take a closer look at what Asus has delivered in the near future.

ATI has pooled a lot of help from ULI with the newest SB400 southbridge alternative, and a lot of help from unnamed partners to get their memory controller up to snuff. Hands down, ATI has the best IGP solution out there, but will the new RS400 chipset be enough for the enthusiast market as well?

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  • SlinkyDink - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    "The single-chip nF4 is cooled by a new super low noise, long-life magnetic induction fan."

    Is "magnetic induction" just a fancy way to say typical? Isnt all ordinary fans powered by magnetic motors?

  • gordon151 - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    Aren't they afraid that motherboard will fall =/?

  • shinotenshi - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    Hey wesley dont forget to test the thermalright xp-120 on the dfi-sli motherboard when you get it in for testing

  • bupkus - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    "More please," about the new MicroATX IGP releases using ATI chipsets. We have a number of desktops using the ASUS A7N266-VM/AA that we may want to upgrade.

  • Avalon - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    Holy voltages batman! DFI for the win. I can't believe their nf3 board still isn't in final production yet, but their nf4 board is. I don't need PCI express. I've already got a softmodded and highly overclockable 6800NU. I can't get a $200 PCI-e card that will be anywhere near as good.

    :(

  • Wesley Fink - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    #3 - We have a DFI SLI on the way and we will post a First Look as soon as we get our hands on the board. DFI assures us you will be able to buy the board by the end of January.

    #4 and #5 - Maybe the best indication that the nForce4 are starting to hit the market in volume is that we just received nForce4 boards for review from both Foxconn and ECS.

    $6 - The taxi drivers seem to get ruder each year, and I'm a decent tipper. Anand had the same experience. I have to confess that I did have one taxi driver who was terrific. He must have been left over from '99.

  • Filibuster - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    >DFI will own the enthusiast market in very near future.

    I knew DFI has been coming along well lately but when I read your comment I sort of laughed until I read the article.

    Hot damn DFI! That SLI board looks great.

    >Damn this was lame. Am I the only one waiting for an Nforce4 939 board without the SLI from Asus?

    I found it interesting that the Vegas taxi drivers are rude now. In 99 for Comdex they were all really great to me.
    Oh... Asus?

  • Sammy911 - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    Damn this was lame. Am I the only one waiting for an Nforce4 939 board without the SLI from Asus?

  • Zebo - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    "For those still in the AGP camp, DFI also had the nForce3 250 socket 939 LanParty on display, but not in final PCB. "


    Forgot. ANAND pics please.. I've been though 4, yes four, 939 boards waiting for this!!!!

  • Zebo - Thursday, January 13, 2005 - link

    DFI yummy:)

    DFI will own the enthusiast market in very near future.

    4V vdimm OMG!! 2.1 Vcore ROTF all you preteners and so called "tier one" board makers better take notice.
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