Building a new PC, part 14
Aug. 13th, 2008 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
philmophlegmI've had this nagging doubt that this machine isn't as stable as it should be...
If you remember parts 1 to 13, you will recall that I went for mostly cutting edge kit throughout. Arguably, this is what has bitten me in the bottom. The issue seems to be the motherboard chipset.
It turns out that three motherboard manufacturers are dropping the chipset because of stability and compatibility issues. (For those not in the know, motherboards are actually manufactured by different companies to the ones that design them. My motherboard is an nVidia 790i Ultra-SLI chipset, manufactured by XFX.) So I've decided to make the same decision - I've changed my mobo.
In fact, I've dropped nVidia motherboards completely and moved to an Intel X48 chipset, manufactured by Asus. This is a chipset with a good reputation for robust stability, and the Asus version I have bought is very nicely put together.
A motherboard swap means essentially rebuilding the machine, and I did this earlier this week. I've got as far as installing Vista, and all that is needed now is installing drivers and reinstalling software.
Reasonably trouble-free rebuild. Two silly errors on my part delayed me. Silly error number 1 was noticing that when I screwed the new motherboard in place that I had a screw left over, but not making the connection that this meant that there was a motherboard standoff screwed into the case that would be shorting out the motherboard. Silly error number 2 was trying to set up the RAID array in the wrong order.
If you remember parts 1 to 13, you will recall that I went for mostly cutting edge kit throughout. Arguably, this is what has bitten me in the bottom. The issue seems to be the motherboard chipset.
It turns out that three motherboard manufacturers are dropping the chipset because of stability and compatibility issues. (For those not in the know, motherboards are actually manufactured by different companies to the ones that design them. My motherboard is an nVidia 790i Ultra-SLI chipset, manufactured by XFX.) So I've decided to make the same decision - I've changed my mobo.
In fact, I've dropped nVidia motherboards completely and moved to an Intel X48 chipset, manufactured by Asus. This is a chipset with a good reputation for robust stability, and the Asus version I have bought is very nicely put together.
A motherboard swap means essentially rebuilding the machine, and I did this earlier this week. I've got as far as installing Vista, and all that is needed now is installing drivers and reinstalling software.
Reasonably trouble-free rebuild. Two silly errors on my part delayed me. Silly error number 1 was noticing that when I screwed the new motherboard in place that I had a screw left over, but not making the connection that this meant that there was a motherboard standoff screwed into the case that would be shorting out the motherboard. Silly error number 2 was trying to set up the RAID array in the wrong order.
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Date: 2008-08-13 04:25 pm (UTC)Now, however, AMD is struggling to integrate ATi into its business while nVidia has got itself into all sorts of trouble with unreliable components - especially in motherboards and laptop graphics chipsets. Intel is developing its own high-end graphics chipset to go up against nVidia and AMD / ATi.
Meanwhile in processors, Intel now has the best processor at every price-point. Even Apple had to acknowledge this and start using Intel processors in its machines. AMD probably lacks the R&D budget to catch up with Intel, nVidia is very vulnerable and again probably lacks the R&D budget of Intel. So it's not improbable that in say two years, Intel will have 90% of the CPU market and 70% of the GPU market.