Any reason NOT to get the Asus CUC2(i820E) over CUSL2(i815E)...

[SuperVisor]

...if I already have access to RDRAM. Are the 2 boards the same except for the fact that the CUSL2 accepts sdram and the CUC2 does not.

...or to rephrase, is there a difference between the i820E and i815E other than the fact that the i815E accepts sdram? Other than that is one chipset significantly different from the other?...performance wise?

 

[Vegito]

i815 only has 512max memory.. thats all I remember..

 

[AndyHui]

Performance wise the i815E based CUSL2 significantly outperforms the i820E based CUC2.

Although the motherboards have a similar price, the RDRAM will make the CUC2 system cost much more, irrespective of whether or not you can get your hands on RDRAM.

512MB of RAM may be a limit on the CUSL2, but I think you will find your flexibility to get to high capacities on the CUC2 even more limited as you have only 2 RDRAM slots.

In terms of architectural differences between the chipsets, the i820E supports SMP while the i815E supposedly does not. This will not affect you, as both boards are single CPU.

Probably support for the CUSL2 will be a lot better as there is a large number of people who have the board; the i820E chipset has been semi-abandoned by the industry anyway.....don't expect many people to have it or have any questions you have answered regarding it.

 

[Vegito]

It's weird about the SMP on i815.. epox has a board coming out thats SMP s370 and i815.. so it's to be determine...

 

[AndyHui]

Yeah....no one seems to know for sure.

Actually, you might want to look at the new CUSL2-C which has just come out over these past few days. Based on the i815EP chipset, the on-board i752 video controller has been removed and replaced with an additional memory controller for a maximum of 1.5GB SDRAM support.

It's also significantly cheaper than the CUSL2. Why they didn't put this out sooner, I have no idea. Now I need to go look for someone I can sell my CUSL2 to...heh...