Question about Asus P4R800-VM motherboard

I am looking at the Asus P4R800-VM motherboard because if provides a
couple of unique features I thought worthwhile. It is ATI
chipset-based, which offers great graphics capability without a PCI
card and an S/PDIF plug for recording directly. Nothing in the
technical specifications or the Internet reviews I have found alerted
me to the possibility that special memory is required.

I think I read somewhere that this board requires memory with a
special type of chip. A memory finder located only Asus P4R800-VM
memory.

My primary question is: Is special memory required for this Asus
P4R800-VM motherboard?

My secondary question: Is there some reason why these ATI Radeon
9100IGP chipsets never caught on?

Thanks

Jethro

"Jethro" <Wilson@somewhere.org> wrote in message
news:gv73035ki22h8k346m0m3c6l2ep2ojil6c@4ax.com...
>I am looking at the Asus P4R800-VM motherboard because if provides a
> couple of unique features I thought worthwhile. It is ATI
> chipset-based, which offers great graphics capability without a PCI
> card and an S/PDIF plug for recording directly. Nothing in the
> technical specifications or the Internet reviews I have found alerted
> me to the possibility that special memory is required.
>
> I think I read somewhere that this board requires memory with a
> special type of chip. A memory finder located only Asus P4R800-VM
> memory.
>
> My primary question is: Is special memory required for this Asus
> P4R800-VM motherboard?
>
> My secondary question: Is there some reason why these ATI Radeon
> 9100IGP chipsets never caught on?
>
ATI grfx are not most peoples favourite.
Although personally I`m still using an ATI Rage plug in
card, and have never had any problems with it.
Except in linux.

Jethro wrote:
> I am looking at the Asus P4R800-VM motherboard because if provides a
> couple of unique features I thought worthwhile. It is ATI
> chipset-based, which offers great graphics capability without a PCI
> card and an S/PDIF plug for recording directly. Nothing in the
> technical specifications or the Internet reviews I have found alerted
> me to the possibility that special memory is required.
>
> I think I read somewhere that this board requires memory with a
> special type of chip. A memory finder located only Asus P4R800-VM
> memory.
>
> My primary question is: Is special memory required for this Asus
> P4R800-VM motherboard?
>
> My secondary question: Is there some reason why these ATI Radeon
> 9100IGP chipsets never caught on?
>
> Thanks
>
> Jethro

Isn't the SPDIF connector for SPDIF_out ? The history on Asus and
SPDIF_in isn't all that good.

The BIOS on P4R800-VM leaves a lot to be desired. Hardly any
tweaks and settings in the BIOS, which means if there is trouble,
there is no way to fix it.

If you read the downloadable manual, you'll also find it has a
rather lightweight memory controller in the Northbridge. Something
about using single sided memory sticks, in order to run at PC3200.
That could be due to mixing integrated video and memory controller
in the same chip - virtually all who have tried it, have some
kind of limitation.

I see reports as well, that it doesn't really like to run stable
in dual channel. One guy in the vip.asus.com forum built multiple
of them up, and noticed that as a problem.

As computers go, the P4P800-VM would be a much better computer,
even if the integrated graphics weren't as powerful as something
ATI or Nvidia would cook up. And there are also more modern
motherboards more suited to standalone multimedia. No need to
dig that far down into the rejects barrel :-) When low end processors
are less than $100, there is no need to be tied to some old
S478 processor.

Another reason I don't appreciate the ATI chipsets, is the
deceptive labelling schemes they use. I wonder if anyone
ever made a table of all the Northbridge/Southbridge
combinations they made, because I cannot keep track of
them. Sometimes they relabel stuff, just to take another
crack at selling it. In the same way that an X1300 becomes
an X1550.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36198

Paul

On Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:17:49 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:

>Jethro wrote:
>> I am looking at the Asus P4R800-VM motherboard because if provides a
>> couple of unique features I thought worthwhile. It is ATI
>> chipset-based, which offers great graphics capability without a PCI
>> card and an S/PDIF plug for recording directly. Nothing in the
>> technical specifications or the Internet reviews I have found alerted
>> me to the possibility that special memory is required.
>>
>> I think I read somewhere that this board requires memory with a
>> special type of chip. A memory finder located only Asus P4R800-VM
>> memory.
>>
>> My primary question is: Is special memory required for this Asus
>> P4R800-VM motherboard?
>>
>> My secondary question: Is there some reason why these ATI Radeon
>> 9100IGP chipsets never caught on?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Jethro
>
>Isn't the SPDIF connector for SPDIF_out ? The history on Asus and
>SPDIF_in isn't all that good.
>
>The BIOS on P4R800-VM leaves a lot to be desired. Hardly any
>tweaks and settings in the BIOS, which means if there is trouble,
>there is no way to fix it.
>
>If you read the downloadable manual, you'll also find it has a
>rather lightweight memory controller in the Northbridge. Something
>about using single sided memory sticks, in order to run at PC3200.
>That could be due to mixing integrated video and memory controller
>in the same chip - virtually all who have tried it, have some
>kind of limitation.
>
>I see reports as well, that it doesn't really like to run stable
>in dual channel. One guy in the vip.asus.com forum built multiple
>of them up, and noticed that as a problem.
>
>As computers go, the P4P800-VM would be a much better computer,
>even if the integrated graphics weren't as powerful as something
>ATI or Nvidia would cook up. And there are also more modern
>motherboards more suited to standalone multimedia. No need to
>dig that far down into the rejects barrel :-) When low end processors
>are less than $100, there is no need to be tied to some old
>S478 processor.
>
>Another reason I don't appreciate the ATI chipsets, is the
>deceptive labelling schemes they use. I wonder if anyone
>ever made a table of all the Northbridge/Southbridge
>combinations they made, because I cannot keep track of
>them. Sometimes they relabel stuff, just to take another
>crack at selling it. In the same way that an X1300 becomes
>an X1550.
>
>http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36198
>
> Paul

Thanks Paul

Jethro