Does North/South chipset matter? (AMD)

[Jazzz]

When it comes time to choose a new motherboard, chipsets for Northbridge/Southbridge, audio, network, video, each matter, but each to a different degree. Meaning that, from reading the forums it seems that OSx86 runs quite well on many North/South chipsets, and what matters more are the chips used for audio, network, firewire, USB, etc.

 

But while most peripheral devices can be replaced by adding PCI cards, North/Southbridge chipsets cannot be replaced, except by swapping the motherboard.

 

Some folks (myself included) have become loyal to AMD. Obviously this is not ideal for OSx86, as a P4 Intel motherboard using 915* is going to serve OSx86 better than non-Intel chipsets. So for us AMD-heads, when it comes time to choose a new motherboards, what factors should we consider when choosing a new mobo?

 

Personally, I'm moving to PCI-E from AGP. (I'm tired of trying to find an AGP version of a supported RADEON GPU card, that's also low profile to fit my compact case). Since I want to stay with Athlon64 SSE3, I'm looking at non-Intel motherboards. (With the format and features I want, I'm looking at one with ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 North/South chipsets. Note: high-end, low-profile GeForce cards are plentiful, so this move is soley for lack of available nVidia support). Being on VIA K8M800 now, some things work and some don't, so knowing what North/South chips are good would help enormously in finding a fully working integrated board.

 

So, would a North/South chipset discussion be useful? Perhaps even an area in the Wiki HCL?

 

jazzz