Anybody Need Another DDR-Chipset?
Today it finally happened. From now on Intel allows motherboard makers to couple the
The question now is, does the world need another DDR-chipset for Pentium 4? We have already got products from the Taiwanese core logic providers SiS and VIA. The
Well, we shouldn't forget the good old brand name fetishists. I am not completely free from it either. I will never understand how anyone could even remotely consider driving or even buying a Lexus, this sorry excuse for a wannabe luxury car.
So there are also people who would never buy a system that is not equipped with an Intel processor and of course Intel chipset. You'll find those guys especially in corporate headquarters. We all may agree that i845 with PC133 support was a Pentium 4 performance killer, but it sold like crazy, because its carrying the Intel brand. The same will happen with 'i845D', as little as SiS, VIA and Ali may like that.
Finally, there's another reason why I am personally welcoming Intel's new support of DDR-memory. As much as some of you may dislike Intel, as much you should be aware of the fact that only a strong force is able to bring order into the somewhat chaotic PC-business. None of the Taiwanese chipset makers was ever able or even willing to make sure that provider of DDR-memory stuck to a reasonable conformity. Owners of motherboards with DDR-support were either lucky and the memory they bought actually worked, or it simply didn't. Intel has the will as well as the power to make sure that providers of DDR-SDRAM stick to a regime that keeps owners of i845D-platforms headache-free.
For this article, we took the fastest available motherboards for each Pentium 4 chipset and compared them with each other.