The 150 MHz Project, Part 3

Chipset Comparison

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Chipset Intel 440BX Intel 815 Intel 820 Intel 840 VIA Apollo Pro 133A
Launch April 1998 June 2000 November 1999 October 1999 November 1999
CPU Platform Slot 1Socket 370 Socket 370 Slot 1Socket 370 Slot 1Socket 370 Slot 1Socket 370
Front Side Bus Clock (FSB) 66/100/133* MHz 66/100/133 MHz 66**/100/133 MHz 100**/133 MHz 66/100/133 MHz
Memory Clock 66/100/133 MHz 66/100/133 MHz 66**/100/133 MHz 100**/133 MHz 66/100/133 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock No Yes No No Yes
33 MHz PCI at 133 MHz FSB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
66 MHz AGP at 133 MHz FSB No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Maximal DIMM/RIMM Slots 4 3 2 4 4
Maximal Memory 1024 MB 512 MB 1024 MB 2048 MB 1536 MB
VC SDRAM Support No No No No Yes
RDRAM Support (Rambus) No No Yes Yes No
Number of Rambus Channels N/A N/A 1 2 N/A
ATA Standard ATA33 ATA66ATA100*** ATA66ATA100*** ATA66ATA100*** ATA66
USB-Ports 2 4 2 2 2
max. number of PCI-Masters 6 6 6 6 6
integrated 3D Graphics No Yes No No No
AGP Speed 2X 4X 4X 4X 4X
ACPI-Features Partly Yes Yes Yes Yes

* overclocked** not officially supported*** ATA100 Support with ICH2 (makes 815/820/840 to 815E/820E/840E)

We already published a similar table some months ago, but the data is still the same. For a detailed platform comparison, please take a look at the article Showdown at 133 MHz FSB - Part 2, The Real McCoy .

Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.