Looking back at 2000 - Part 1: CPUs, Chipsets, Motherboards

In search of the perfect chipset

A very big problem for Intel throughout the beginning of 2000 was that there was no desirable 133MHz FSB chipset for use with the latest Pentium III processors.  The i820 was too expensive because of its RDRAM dependence leaving only two real Slot-1/Socket-370 chipsets as available options: the Intel BX and the VIA Apollo Pro 133/133A. 

The Intel BX chipset gained a sort of re-birth in the early months of 2000 as users started to discover its ability to run at the 133MHz FSB with a decent reliability record.  The BX platforms that have been popping up since 1998 had finally matured to the point where the 133MHz FSB was a viable option, making running the latest BX boards at 133MHz the latest fad.  The BX133 as it was unofficially called was what the market wanted unfortunately Intel never delivered quite that, so the enthusiast community took it upon themselves to make what they wanted out of what was available. 

One of the major reasons that the BX133 platform was so successful was because at this time, VIA's Apollo Pro 133/133A chipset was not very mature at all.  As we found out in our February 2000 Roundup of VIA Apollo Pro 133/133A boards, these boards still had a lot of maturing to do before they were fit for use.

With the VIA and i820 platforms both disappointing for different reasons, the BX chipset seemed to be the only sensible refuge that existed in the desktop PC chipset market.  Sadly enough, the newest and supposedly the best chipsets that were out in Y2K were being trampled by the two-year-old BX chipset.  Sometimes newer just isn't better.

This put Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers in a horrendous situation.  Intel's flagship chipsets, the i820 and i840 weren't selling well at all, yet Intel was breathing down their necks to push their Intel based product lines more than anything.  With the threat of the BX chipset supply drying up, it was a very nervous time for motherboard manufacturers.  Their only escape was found in VIA, a bedmate that Intel obviously didn't approve of since more VIA boards meant potentially more Athlon motherboards. 

VIA picks up some extra baggage

VIA definitely had it good in Y2K.  Courtesy of Intel's screw ups and AMD's dependency on them to produce chipsets for the Athlon, VIA had the entire desktop PC processor market eating out of their hands.  VIA, historically a low-cost manufacturer was all of the sudden being thrust into the performance market segment and adapted quite well. 

One thing was clear however, VIA needed to return to their roots as a value market segment provider since they were drifting away from that territory.  In an attempt to build the foundation for their next-generation of value PC chipsets, VIA acquired the graphics division of S3.   To make a long story short, VIA had just gained the rights to use the Savage4 and Savage 2000 cores in future chipsets. 

We cringed at this, not only did both of those solutions have some of the worst driver incompatibilities and support, the performance of both solutions was definitely sub-par however for the value PC market segment the performance isn't really an issue.