The Intel LGA775 platform has almost been in circulation for six month now and in that time it has settled in a number of new technologies. This new platform is the first to feature the processor pins on the actual motherboard rather than the processor itself. While this is an interesting move by Intel, it is certainly not what all the fuss has been about. Rather everyone has been captivated by the revolutionary new connectivity interface known as PCI Express. This new bus interface is set to change the way computers work, making them more flexible and more importantly, more powerful.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year there is a good chance you have heard of PCI Express by now and have a reasonable understanding of what it means for computers. There is also a good chance that you have also heard of DDR (Double Data Memory) Technology which has become the primary memory standard of todays computers. The Intel LGA775 platform also gave birth to second generation DDR support, this new memory is appropriately called DDR2. Unfortunately, even till this point in time the DDR2 memory technology has been somewhat of a disappointment.

Although the DDR2 specification features much higher clocked speeds than that of original DDR memory, the performance gains have been minimal. Furthermore, in many cases DDR-400 has been seen out performing DDR2-533 which is the first DDR2 stepping. The disappointing performance has been a direct result of much weaker CAS latency timings of the DDR2 memory. While many DDR400 modules are shipping with a CAS latency of 2, most DDR2 modules are rated at 4 which is a far weaker timing. Despite the poor timings DDR2 has shown signs of strong performance through extreme frequencies.

When clocked at 667MHz and above DDR2 begins to show viable performance gains over original DDR400 memory. This being the case, DDR2 has been slow in gaining popularity at 533MHz and as a result most users are sticking with their current DDR400 modules. However, this year should see DDR2 sales gain more ground and the same can be said for PCIe products. Currently only Intel platforms offer support for DDR2 and until recently the same could be said for PCI Express. This was the case up until late 2004 when AMD was blessed with PCI Express from NVIDIA with the nForce4 series.

The PCI Express support for AMD based platforms has boosted the sales of PCI Express graphics cards as enthusiasts rush to build the ultimate SLI fragging weapon. However, the mainstream market has been somewhat left behind in all the excitement of DDR2 and PCI Express. While, there have been a number of attempts to deliver affordable solutions based on the LGA775 platform, there are still better ways of getting the best bang for your buck. Nevertheless, well know chipset manufacturer VIA has stepped up to the plate once again in an effort to restore order to the mainstream market.

Today, VIA are announcing three brand new chipsets built for the Intel Pentium 4 LGA775 processors. These new products are designed to compete with the likes of the Intel 915P and 925X chipsets on a performance level. However, VIA not only hopes to offer impressive performance with these new chipsets but also aims to provide the markets most affordable LGA775 solutions. These new chipsets are quite flexible in what they can do. Although they do not provide the Pentium 4 platform with SLI technology, there is a number of interesting graphics card configurations supported.

These chipsets have been named the PT880 Pro, PT894 and PT894 Pro and are really the first viable third party alternatives to the Intel chipset series. The PT880 Pro provides the perfect upgrade path as it allows the motherboard to support both AGP and PCI Express. Furthermore both can be utilized at the same time. The PT894 is really an i915P equivalent featuring much of the same technologies at a more affordable price. The PT894 Pro is a more advanced version of the PT894 and is capable to supporting dual PCI Express graphics cards for quad monitor support.