i815 vs. VIA Apollo 133

[erub]

Hello all - I'm building a computer for my grandfather. I need advice on a motherboard. I definitely want to go with an Asus solution, as I have had very good luck with their motherboards. Stability is much more important than speed - as well as price. I have noticed that its about $50 cheaper to get a VIA Apollo based board than the i815. I have noticed that they seem to have similar features. The two motherboards I've been looking at are the CUSL2 for i815 and CUV4X for the VIA chipset. All the sites give excellent reviews to the CUSL2 - but then I read many forum posts of ppl having trouble with it - the cold boot BIOS setting loss that some experience particular troubles me. Any feedback would be much appreciated!

 

[NOS]

Since i bought my cusl2 i have had no problems. The board is real stable and all the componets working on it are new. Great board.

 

[TuffGuy]

I...HATE...VIA!!!!

 

[ogn]

Unless your grandfather is running high end games or software, a VIA board should be just fine...You can even use the onboard audio. I have the CUSL2 (i815) and a MSI6309 (VIA), both run great. VIA boards take more tweaking if you want maximum performance, but any enthusiast wouldn't mind taking the time to tweak. A VIA+celeron should make a good enough system.
About the cold boot problem with the CUSL2, it mostly affects 700E users. And I was able to get by that by using jumpered mode on a system I built for a friend. I get by that on my CUSL2 by not ever turning it off. Even if you're planning to OC, then you can still set it with jumpers, but with fewer speed settings.
A would recommend the MSI 6309 if you are looking into a VIA board. It can be found for under 90 shipped at http://www.onvia.com with onboard audio which makes it about $70 cheaper than CUSL2. My system with that board is running a 600E@800@1.70V 24/7 also.

 

[TuffGuy]

via SUCKS!!! if you're not going to OC and want a stable solution, go for a mobo based on the 440BX. nothing will ouperform the bx. i'd recommend the asus cubx or the msi bxmaster. the i815 comes close, but the via does not compare. just because 2 boards have the same features it does not mean that they will perform/behave the same. i have gone through 5 via based boards and they are too much of a headache. and like i said before - via SUCKS!!!

just my 2 cents.

 

[Mem]

TuffGuy,this is my first Via board,I just installed it today(MSI K7T PRO)& it is rock solid,btw tried 3D games,installed those Via drivers 4 in 1 & best of all did not have to do a clean install,so I am very impressed with how stable it is ,like you I was not happy with those Via issues I`ve been hearing ,but I`m impressed with it right now.
And I`m using a Nvidia card(old TNT,until my upgrade next week)

 

[TuffGuy]

sweet! it sure is great when something runs the way it's supposed to. you gonna OC?

 

[Mem]

TuffGuy ,Will try later just running it in for now getting used to a 900 mhz Thunderbird(had a cel-333 before LOL..).

The Taisol fan is very good,slightly loud compared to my old celeron but not a lot.

The temp is 46c for cpu,38c for case,that is just using the standard thermal stuff on the heatsink,no case cooling apart from PSU fan.
I`m using Crucial memory CAS2 PC 133 so will try later on overclocking.Was also going to get the Asus CUSL2 until I saw the problems people had ,plus the big price drop by AMD changed my mind .

 

[theShark]

VIA has a new agp driver that gave me 10fps more in q3...seeing that the 133a was 2fps slower than a bx board before via is now king...

 

[erub]

anybody else have any thoughts on the MSI 6309? I couldn't find reviews of it on anandtech/tomshardware