VIA Pro 133 and 133A

Alternatives to Intel chipsets

Thinking about a new computer or motherboard upgrade?  A growing number of users are considering alternatives to Intel's latest motherboards and chipsets, in light of cost and compatibility issues related to Intel's choice of RAMbus memory on its soon-to-be-mainstream motherboards designed for the Pentium 4. These Intel systems include those based on the i820 "Camino" chipset and higher-end workstations based on the more expensive, but technically superior, i840 chipset.

With the distinct lack of enthusiasm many users have expressed over the idea of spending almost five times as much for the RAMbus memory required by Intel's i820 and i840 chipsets,  the VIA Pro 133 and 133A emerged in 2000 as alternatives for performance enthusiasts on a tight budget.

Perhaps a little background is in order. Intel's processors require additional circuitry on the motherboards they are used with, to control hard drives, video cards and other input/output related tasks. Thus, a support chipset such as the "EX" chipset designed only for the Celeron family of processors only supports a 66 MHz bus used by those processors; more expensive mainboards from Intel and other manufacturers use other chipsets such as the Intel 440BX or the newer i820 or i820 to deliver improved bus speeds and, in the latter two cases, better hard drive performance via support of the latest Ultra ATA/66 specification as well.

However, Intel decided, when designing the i820 chipset, to support only a new type of memory, called RAMbus Direct, or RDRAM, memory. This RD RAM, discussed in more detail in a separate article, offers better performance than that of previous generations but is much more expensive, and not all that far ahead in terms of its maximum throughput, than the high-performance PC133 Synchronous Dynamic RAM supported on the VIA Pro 133 -- and PC133 SDRAM, unlike RDRAM, is usable in most other standard Pentium II/III designs.

As Thomas Pabst explains on Tom's Hardware, with the VIA Pro 133, "you can take advantage of PC133 SDRAM, which is available right now and not much more expensive than PC100 SDRAM. The memory peak bandwidth of PC133 SDRAM is 1.066 GB/s and thus less than the bandwidth offered by RDRAM"

Moreover, mainboards based on the Pro 133 are also attractively priced. Thus, the Pro 133 is an economical alternative for many users. There are, however, some caveats. As Pabst demonstrates with a series of benchmarks, the VIA chipset's primary weakness is in AGP performance. There are many documented examples of users finding VIA chipset-based computers less capable than Intel-based ones when attempting to use today's newer AGP4x video cards. And, even after you download the BIOS updates and firmware patches to allow AGP to work as expected on a VIA-based system, the performance isn't all that great. Even the ageing  Intel 440BX chipset outperforms the Pro 133 in 3D graphics tests, particularly when a lot of texturing and 3D operations are performed, as you might when running games.

So, let's say you are planning to get a P3-500 or 550E. A little research on sites such as those mentioned in this article will reveal that boards like the Asus P3B-F don't supports the "E" (0.18 micron process) chips. And you might want a board that supports a 133 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) and ATA/66 hard drives -- that counts as a strike against boards based on Intel's BX chipset, unless you want to go for a potentially troublesome kludge such as Abit's BE6, which marries a BX chipset to an integrated ATA/66 controller -- a board that, although it can technically reach 133 MHz bus speeds, tends to cause problems with graphics cards as these speeds are approached. Your best 133 MHz FSB and ATA/66 motherboard choices are (A), those based on the Intel 820 chipset or (B), those built on the foundation provided by VIA's Pro133.

In the Intel camp, there's the VC820, which uses "RIMM" sockets, requiring expensive RDRAM. The company, until May 2000, also offered a motherboard design dubbed the CC820, which used lower-bandwidth, lower-cost PC100 memory. Intel, however, pulled this model off the market after discovering that the chipset could cause data corruption. Owners of these mainboards got a bonus: Intel, recalling the defective boards, said it would replace them the RDRAM-compatible version.

And, in the other corner, we've got boards based on Via's Pro 133, which supports PC133 SDRAM and, soon, faster DDR (double data rate) SDRAM.

There are several sites that have given the VIA chipset thorough reviews.
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/hardware_mb.shtml (bottom of page)
http://www.anandtech.com/
Hot Hardware: Shuttle VIA Apollo Pro133 Motherboard review
Anand's review of the VIA technology is the best I've seen.
http://www.anandtech.com/html/articledisplay.cfm?document=1061

...And there are reviews that demonstrate its weaknesses:

www.tomshardware.com: A preview of the VIA Pro 133
www.anandtech.com: review of the Tyan Trinity 400
www.gamersdepot.com: review of the Tyan Trinity 400

Note also that the Rev. A of the Pro 133 supports AGP4x; early revisions do not.

Our take: Despite its slightly lower AGP performance (even in its Rev. A incarnation) and occasional trouble with newer AGP 4x video cards, the Pro 133 chipset is not a bad choice -- and certainly more economical than most i820 or BX-based solutions. With that said, we've learned that betting against Intel chipsets usually doesn't usually pay off in the long run. Indeed, as Anand notes, "Unless DDR-SDRAM becomes a quick reality, RDRAM will probably be the trend Intel pushes the market towards and, although it won't be cheap at first, it will most definitely become more affordable. "

(DDR stands for double data rate.)

In short, PC Buyer's Guide agrees with that assessment. Remember VESA local bus vs. PCI?
But what if you can't afford a "Coppermine" PIII chip with 133 MHz support? The system also supports Celeron processors, which can save you a couple of hundred dollars, bur run at a slower 66 MHz bus clock rate (unless overclocked beyond their official specs, of course). Slot 1-based PIII/500 models start at around C$385 at this writing; by comparison, a similarly clocked Celeron (retail) can be had for $145.

Thus, if you need to cut costs on your computer system, we recommend the following money-saving reductions.

Consider an Abit VA6 Slot 1 motherboard designed for a PIII (or PII or Celeron) and a 500 MHz Celeron. This mainboard includes onboard AC'97 sound, eliminating the need for a separate sound card. That should save you $40 or more. If your local dealer cannot supply a VA6, or if you prefer to have a better sound card, the Gigabyte 6VXE+, at about $115 Cdn, is a reasonable alternative without onboard audio. These Slot 1 motherboards can be used with Socket 370 Celerons with the addition of a $15 Slot 1-to-Celeron adapter "Slotket" board from MSI, Iwill, Abit and other manufacturers. We've used the MSI adapters with good results.

An even more flexible alternative to these boards is the Tyan Trinity 400. The latest revision of this motherboard has support for the Coppermine FCPGA "Flip Chips" right in the on-board socket 370.  This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first board of its kind that will take anything from a Celeron to a Slot1 PII, PIII or FCPGA Pentium III. (www.hothardware.com and www.anandtech.com have details.) There are, however, a few caveats; most notably, the Socket 370's inability to set the FSB speed of a Coppermine Flip Chip to 133MHz+ --  levels of performance attainable when this chip is used with a Slotket in the Slot 1. Also, the Trinity 400 has optional on-board sound (using a Creative Labs PCI set), but the fact that this feature cannot be disabled in hardware makes it less than ideal for those who someday might want to upgrade their system's audio configuration.

These boards all have the faster hard drive support and the latest Pro 133A chipset with support for the newest PIII models, with 133 MHz bus. Going with a Celeron doesn't give you quite the same "bragging rights" as you might get with a PIII, but it's the next best thing -- and it saves over $150 per unit.

In fact, at this writing, it will cost about C$165 extra to get a real PIII chip in there. In short, we don't think it's all that important. Both systems are running at 500MHz and yield about the same overall system performance, unless the applications you are running are optimized for the SIMD extensions found only in the Pentium III series chips.

We'd also recommend

At least 64MB of RAM. Although RAM is expensive, having more than 32MB of memory tangibly increases overall system performance, especially under Windows 98, NT or Windows 2000.

Consider a ATA/66 drive (the 8.7GB model from Maxtor is currently our pick for best value overall). Even slower 5400 RPM hard drives don't suffer terribly from their slower spindle speeds, although performance buffs will definitely achieve better results from faster 7200 RPM (or more expensive 10,000 RPM!) models with a 1024K or larger buffer. The only HD brand we don't recommend right now is Seagate; we've seen a lot a of failures recently in Seagate's IDE models, although the company's SCSI drives continue to be reliable and speedy performers. Maxtor drives, by the way, currently have the lowest cost  per gigabyte on the market: about $11.  Thus, you may be able to get an 8.7GB Maxtor for about the same price as a 6.4GB Fujitsu drive. See our tutorial on Adding a Hard drive or Thresh's "Hard Drive Installation Guide" for information on how to add a second or third drive to your system. It's easy!

Other Money Savers

At this writing, the leading contender for best non-Intel choice of chipsets is VIA's Apollo Pro 133 chipset. However, users who want to spend less for RAM and hard drives may find that systems based on the now-ageing BX chipset are less expensive and actually offer comparable (and in a few cases, superior!) performance. Users preferring to bet on the winning team might be well advised to stay with Intel chipsets. If this inning plays out anything like the way the game has run in the past, Intel (with a 2.4 billion dollar profit in Q1'2000!) continues to be the safest bet.

For Further Reading

Tom's Hardware: A showdown of 12 Socket 370 Motherboards using VIA's Apollo Pro 133A
Compatibility issues and patches galore are the main order of business at VIAhardware.com