Via PT880Pro

[NulloModo]

Hey,

I currently have this system:

P4 2.4 Northwood
Asus P4PE
512 MB DDR333 RAM
ATI Radeon 9500pro

I'd like to shorten the time it takes my computer to convert video files when I backup my DVDs, or convert files I have in other formats into DVD video. I figure the best way to do this is a faster processor. For various reasons, I'd rather stay Intel, so that is that.

Now, optimally, I think I'd do best with one of the dual core Pentium4s, or maybe one of the new Cedar Mill versions that are coming out soon. However, I'd like to keep my old graphics card and RAM (well, add another 512 megs). The VIA PT880Pro seems to be a good way to do this, as it has an AGP slot as well as a PCI-E slot, and supports DDR regular as well as DDR2, so if I later wanted to upgrade the graphics card or memory, I could.

Now, I have had some bad experiences with VIA chipsets in the past, but in reading around the net I've seen a lot of positive reviews about this, both in regard to performance and stability. Does anyone here have experience with this chipset? Any particular boards supposed to be very good?

 

[Josh_B]

Get an AMD X2.



/sh1t disturbing.

 

[Eva_Unit_0]

I've used the regular pt880 before and it was actually a very impressive chipset. Performed on par with 865/875 and was stable. I'd say give it a shot...these pt880 boards might just be the intel equivalent to the ULi M1695

 

[E4g1e]

NulloModo,

The VIA PT880 Pro chipset is actually an AGP chipset with limited PCI Express support tacked onto it. (Or put it this way, it has full AGP 8x/4x support but half-***ed PCI-e support.) As such, it performs better with an AGP card than with a PCI Express card.