Intel 815E Or VIA 694XDP? Continued
The direct comparison of both chipsets reveals many similarities. Both chips support variable clock speeds for the front side bus and memory speed. Overclocking proponents can (depending on the particular clock generator used) clock the memory up to 166 MHz, although in most cases system stability is not guaranteed. The score was level concerning functions such as AGP4x, UltraATA/100 and 4 USB ports, with both chipsets offering these features. Intel 815E's standard version is also offering onboard graphics, which is hardly worth mentioning because of its limited performance. The VIA Apollo Pro 133A also offers a unique selling point: It works with VC-SDRAM memory which you will hardly find on the market. This memory technology brought to life by NEC turns out to be rather unsuccessful. So much for theory - one glance at both test candidates reveals the details.
Acorp 6A815D is based on the Intel 815E chipset and also offers, in addition to AGP 4x and Ultra-DMA/100, variable clock speeds for the FSB and memory. Please note however that this board is a pre-production sample.
The Asus CUV4X-D has similar attributes: AGP 4x, Ultra-DMA/100 and numerous clock speed settings.