i815?

[Med]

Would i be presuming to much to buy a P3800 100FSB, with an Asus CUSL2 i815 133fsb M/B?
Does that mean I HAVE to run it at 133? Can the m/b be clocked down in case the CPU cant handle it at 133?

 

[Ulysses]

Yes. That's why the CUSL2 is such a great board - it is extremely flexible as to FSB settings. Also, the memory bus is asynchronous. I.e., it can run at a different speed from the system bus so you can use PC100 SDRAM with a CPU running at 133 FSB.

See the chart at http:// [url]http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1274 [/url]
also
http:// [url]http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/cusl2/default.asp [/url]
or
http:// [url]http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/reviews/mainboards/asus_cusl2/ [/url]

That said, you might be just as well to get a P3 750 for a few bucks less. Both the 750 & 800 should probably top out around 933 to 1000 MHz.

 

[Med]

Very interesting. So according to that, I wouldnt really need to upgrade my memory, since i already of 196 meg of crucial pc100. Do you think that would cause a significant speed difference than going with 133 memory?

 

[Painman]

The speed difference between PC133 and PC100 RAM in real world applications isn't that huge, not enough for me to recommend that you go out and trade in your PC100. Unless you're a speed freak, an 800/100 system should more than satisfy you. Depending on what you're upgrading from, of course.

-Pain

 

[Med]

Cool beans. Thanks for your input.

 

[Painman]

Try overclocking the bus speed to 112 or 115 when you get it all together. PC100 usually can handle that kind of increase and so can a PIII 800. You may net yourself another 100 MHz or so and increase system bandwidth a little.

-Pain

 

[Phatswalla]

You might try an Asus P3V4X or other Via board. That way you can run your ram at -33mhz from your fsb and not have to trade your 196megs in.

 

[Painman]

Phatswalla, you can do the same on an i815 board like the CUSL2. Ulysses already pointed this out. Besides, geting 1066 (133 MHz bus) out of a PIII 800 without peltiers and stuff is far from guaranteed.

-Pain

 

[mschell]

I've found from testing my Abit SE6 that while choosing the 100MHz memory option allows most any memory to run up to the processors highest overclocking speed, there is a substantial performance hit. For example, running the 150MHz FBS with the 4/3/1(100MHz memory speed) setting gets a 29.3 Winstone Content Creation score. Choosing the 4/4/1 option(133MHz memory speed gets a 31.5. 2.2 Winstone points is quite a performance difference for that benchmark. I haven't tested differences with graphical apps but Winstone is a decent measure of overall system speed.
I would say if you want top performance from your present CPU, you should invest in some good 133+ CAS2 memory.
I've had good luck with the rev.1.5 Mossel from Mushkin, it's cheaper than the rev 2.0, - M.

 

[Coki]

Stick with a BX board man. Don't go with the crapy intel 8xx chipset.

ASUS P3BF.

 

[CamaroGuy]

Come on Coki! Why are you including the i815(e) in the statement "crappy intel 8xx chipset"??? This chipset has yet to produce a major flaw that would characterize it as "crappy." The only minor design flaw, in my opinion, is the memory limitation, and this was most likely done not at the hands of the engineers who designed the board, but at the hands of the marketing department.

The i820 was only "crappy" when Intel decided to put the MTH on the board. The i840 with PC800 RDRAM is still a great solution for building an enterprise or clustering server. The i810(e) is a decent chipset, especially for OEMs who want to supply onboard video, but I guess it was "crappy" in your opinion since it didn't include an AGP slot in the design.

Sure the i810, i820, and i840 boards are not a good solution for the home PC builder, but the i815(e) is a good solution. You have to realize that Intel does not design all of their chipsets for the home PC builder in mind, and the i810, i820 (orignal design w/o MTH), and i840 (RDRAM design) are not "crappy" if they are used in their intended environments.