Motherboard Help Created 18 years ago2006-06-12 17:23:50 UTC by TawnosPrime

In my ongoing battle between a desktop and a laptop, I've periodically been pricing components for my desktop. THe question I have is: does the north/south bridges of the motherboard have to be the same as the chipset in the PCI-E graphics card (ATI to ATI, nVidia to nVidia) or can they be different?

FYI:I tried to get help w/ this question in the IRC channel, but I was either ignored for the mindless music discussion at the time, or I wasn't getting through properly.

EDIT Also which is better: Unbuffered or Fully Buffered DDR2?

It's not an upgrade. I'm getting my own comp soon and it's either a high-end laptop or a DIY desktop.

You mustn't know much about computers as DDR2 is the best right now. DDR3, which IS currently used for graphics cards, isn't available as system memory 'til mid to late 2007, besides the fact that rumors are saying that since both use 240-pin, their won't be a need to upgrade.

Also, I'll check out that site to see if I can find out my question within what's there, but I'm not really keen on join a new community, when there are ppl here that 'know' me and can answer my questions.

Update I was just checkin' out Tweak3D and personally, I wouldn't trust a site or it's community if it's articles aren't up-to-date. After clicking' on the articles link, I saw no article, not even the 'Build Your Own PC' one, that mentioned PCI Express.

Ahhh. Well, S939 is no longer the 'standard'. Recently they released their new chipset, Socket AM2, which isn't backwards compatible (no mobo or cpu recycling again for u), and supports DDR2.

Now, I had a look over the Tom's Hardware site (would have been easier w/ a search option : ) and I didn't find the answer to my question. To all out there with a DIY system, what's the north/south bridge on your mobo and what graphics card are u using? An impromptu servey should provide the answer.

AM2 supposedly is pretty bad, look up some reviews of the proformance of AM2 socket proc's comparted to the older ones

does the north/south bridges of the motherboard have to be the same as the chipset in the PCI-E graphics card (ATI to ATI, nVidia to nVidia) or can they be different?

Certainly not. They're as completely unrelated as a any parts computer can be.

Last time I checked, DDR2 was a bad move for gaming.

Thanx for the info Seventh, and as for the AM2 and DDR2 concerns, they are both more or less flegling technologies so they won't be optimal just yet. Plus since AM2 is the socket that future AMD chips will use, upgrading won't be too much of a hassle, and I don't think any AM2 boards use the old DDR.

Anyway, as always, thanx for the help guys.

DDR2 has been around for years now