John said:
Any compatibility problems with new Intel chipsets and Windows XP?
I'm not worried about difficulty setting things up as in installing
extra drivers and such, just concerned about real functionality
problems after stuff is set up.
My concern specifically is the P35 Express chipset and its ICH9 I/O
controller, as in the BLKDP35DPM mainboard. I realize that specific
chipset is not state of the art new.
The only practical reason for worrying about what chipset is used,
is "max FSB". For example, the fastest FSB available now, is
FSB1600. There are a lot of mainstream processors at FSB1333 and
the Q6600 G0 at FSB1066 is still good value for money (in terms of
potential for overclock). So while there are more expensive chipsets,
P35 is still right in there (good mainstream value for money).
http://compare.intel.com/pcc/showchart.aspx?mmID=54987,29003,22754,29001&familyID=10&culture=en-US
As for the Intel motherboard you are buying, Intel doesn't make the
motherboard themselves. They have a design center at Folsom, that
does design stuff. But as far as I know, Intel doesn't have a
board shop or production line for making motherboards. They
contract to Asus or Foxconn to make the boards. The most
interesting part, is not the soldering part, but the testing
part. In order to make a quality difference, a company would
have to spend more on testing, in order to make an impression
on the customer (fewer DOAs).
For Intel motherboards, I believe there are two types of packages.
If you buy "bulk", that is close to a bare board. You may not
get much more than the motherboard with that. A "retail" package
might come with the obligatory ribbon cable, couple SATA cables
etc. So if you buy "bulk", remember to buy the extra odds and
ends to go with it. Or at least check the description carefully,
to see what accessories are included.
For "bulk", I suspect they come in larger lots. The person
selling it to you, gets a box with like 10 units inside it,
and they extract one and that is what you get as a "bulk of 1".
If you examined the SKUs, you might only see something like
"bulk 10" or "bulk 50" or whatever from Intel themselves.
I'm not trying to scare you or anything, merely suggest you
double check what you're getting.
Just like "retail" versus "oem" processors. The Intel OEM
processor, doesn't come with a heatsink and fan. The retail
one will include those items. If you aren't planning on
overclocking, the retail package is good enough for a 65W
processor, and will save you having to hunt for an aftermarket
heatsink/fan.
Paul
