If you want ISA and Tualatin, then the easy way out would be to find a dedicated Tualatin board with VIA chipset and an ISA slot. Many VIA Tualatin boards were made without ISA but many still have it.
If you can't find one such boards, then using an adapter or pin mod on a Tualatin on a VIA board would be a second option. 3rd option could be by using a BX with an adapter.
Pro:plenty of ISA slots
Con:No official 133Mhz fsb

exactly,
Another suggestion is to keep the Daughterboard on the Vortex 2 and off the SB-16's.

I've had the daughterboard on my Vortex 2 for the last couple of months or so, but I can't say I really like that card. But let's just say I stay with the Vortex 2.
Is the pin mod easy? Does it modify the motherboard or the cpu itself? It sounds like a nice option on the CUSL2 since it's using the i815 chipset.

But the CUSL2 doesn't have ISA either.

If you're not looking for ISA, then you might as well get any Tualatin board.

I don't know about the pin mod though, as I never did one myself. But it's supposedly more a matter of being accurate then it being something that is hard to do. You can mod either the CPU or the socket.

I don't know about the pin mod, but used a so called Lin-Lin adapter myself. These are not to common though.
ISA Slots, even if it is just one, make a system so much more retro.

True about the ISA slot, though I don't use ISA that often, for me it's being able to choose an ISA card, if I wanted 😉

The latest boards with ISA slots were boards with VIA SDRAM chipsets, though I do have an i815 board with one ISA slot, it uses a bridge chip. I still need to pick up that computer at my friends house though, so I can't go take a look, but I did post some info about that board.

Other then that there are some industrial boards with ISA.

Personally I find it more important if a board has a floppy controller (an issue with modern day motherboards).

gerwin wrote:

I don't know about the pin mod, but used a so called Lin-Lin adapter myself. These are not to common though.
ISA Slots, even if it is just one, make a system so much more retro.

But on a Tualatin motherboard, what would you really use it for? Everything you could ever want that was released in ISA was also released in PCI and if you have a Tualatin motherboard you probably also have an AGP slot for video and maybe onboard sound and other devices that are way better than anything you could stick in an ISA slot.

Tetrium wrote:

And about the i815 chipsets, didn't it have the added handicap that it won't work with memory modules larger the 256MB?
If yes, is this chipset compatible with memory modules that are 256MB single sided? Or will they only recognize half of it?

Single side 256mb chips are 128mb chips installed in an i815 board. Also, just like the i810, you have a 512mb RAM limit. However, you do get AGP and faster I/O. If whatever you're doing doesn't need more than 512mb, it's really not a bad chipset. Up until 2007 or 2008, my main box was a Dell GX150 with a 1.2ghz Tualatin and WinXP and I'm still kicking myself for giving it away when I found a faster system.

GXL750 wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

And about the i815 chipsets, didn't it have the added handicap that it won't work with memory modules larger the 256MB?
If yes, is this chipset compatible with memory modules that are 256MB single sided? Or will they only recognize half of it?

Single side 256mb chips are 128mb chips installed in an i815 board. Also, just like the i810, you have a 512mb RAM limit. However, you do get AGP and faster I/O. If whatever you're doing doesn't need more than 512mb, it's really not a bad chipset. Up until 2007 or 2008, my main box was a Dell GX150 with a 1.2ghz Tualatin and WinXP and I'm still kicking myself for giving it away when I found a faster system.

What I meant was: If you put a memory module (be it 256MB SS or 512MB DS) in a board with the i815 chipset, will it refuse to boot, or will it boot but only work with half the memory?
I know i815 will work with DS 256MB DIMM's, but putting in more then 4 banks will make it run the memory at PC-100 (own experience).

I am almost certain that 815 needs the "low density" 16 chip 256MB sticks just like 440BX and 810. I've run into this with upgrading client computers years ago.

My feeling here is that 815 is really just a revised 810 chipset and that they share limitations like this and the 512MB max thing. 810 doesn't have full PC133 support and it doesn't have an AGP slot but otherwise they are similar (especially 815G).

swaaye wrote:

I am almost certain that 815 needs the "low density" 16 chip 256MB sticks just like 440BX and 810. I've run into this with upgrading client computers years ago.

My feeling here is that 815 is really just a revised 810 chipset and that they share limitations like this and the 512MB max thing. 810 doesn't have full PC133 support and it doesn't have an AGP slot but otherwise they are similar (especially 815G).

I'll try a 256MB SS memory module when I get around to it. Sorry for sounding rude, but I never got an answer to my question (what happens if I put a 256MB SS DIMM into an i815).
I know 440BX will work with a higher density memory module, but will only recognize half the amount of memory.

The 512MB memory limit is rather stupid, BX can accept twice that amount (thank you Rambus 😜).
But apart from those limitations, I think i815 is a pretty awesome chipset! 😉

Ok after thinking a lot more about this, I think 815 will take single sided 256MB sticks (8x256megabit). But it will not take a 512MB single sided DIMM (8x512mbit) because the chips are a higher density than it understands. For these you need one of the VIA chipsets or Intel 845.

A 512MB stick will show as 256MB unless it's a double sided stick using 256 megabit chips. This is what I've seen firsthand.

440BX will not take a single sided 256MB because it doesn't support 256 megabit RAM chips. In this case it will show 128MB, I believe.

I use 2x 256MB Single Sided Crucial CL2 sticks on my Soyo TISU (i815) just fine. I'm not at my computer but pics of the system is in the System Spec forum under retro rig pictures. It is the beige DynaPower system.

The 810 and 815 are the same family. They were pushing the MTH system at the time with improved PCI bus and memory hub. Oh, also the 8xx series dropped ISA slots unfortunately. If you only use WinME or below you'd be hard pressed to need anything more than 512MB.

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

I use 2x 256MB Single Sided Crucial CL2 sticks on my Soyo TISU (i815) just fine. I'm not at my computer but pics of the system is in the System Spec forum under retro rig pictures. It is the beige DynaPower system.

The 810 and 815 are the same family. They were pushing the MTH system at the time with improved PCI bus and memory hub. Oh, also the 8xx series dropped ISA slots unfortunately. If you only use WinME or below you'd be hard pressed to need anything more than 512MB.

Thats interesting, I always thought i815 (I purposefully don't mention i810 because for all practical purposes it's just a castrated i815 without AGP) had the same memory density limitations as the BX.

The datasheets are helpful. The 815 PDF specifies up to 256 megabit chips, which means those single sided 256MB DIMMs or double sided 512MB DIMMs.

But the 440BX datasheet says the max is 64mbit chips but that's plainly wrong considering it will read the 16-chip 256MB DIMMs (128 mbit). Makes me wonder if 810 can read the same as 815 (256 mbit) even though the 810 and 810e datasheets say 128 mbit max.

Of course 810 is pretty unexciting so who really cares. Reminds me of the annoying 845 at work with just blank pads where an AGP slot should be. 😵

Since I've got some free time now, can anyone post a link for instructions on how to do the volt mod on my CUSL2 or the CPU itself (Tualatin 1.4 512kb) ?

But the 440BX datasheet says the max is 64mbit chips but that's plainly wrong considering it will read the 16-chip 256MB DIMMs (128 mbit).

Eventually Intel acknowledged this in the spec update to the 440BX.

yuhong wrote:

But the 440BX datasheet says the max is 64mbit chips but that's plainly wrong considering it will read the 16-chip 256MB DIMMs (128 mbit).

Eventually Intel acknowledged this in the spec update to the 440BX.

But I reckon not for the 440LX, which has the exact same memory chip limitations that the 440BX has 😉

Sorry for the bump, but does anybody know if the MS-694T PRO support the 1.4GHz Tualatin? MSI doesn't mention the processor at all 🙁

F2bnp wrote:

Sorry for the bump, but does anybody know if the MS-694T PRO support the 1.4GHz Tualatin? MSI doesn't mention the processor at all 🙁

www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-MSI/694T_Pro_(MS-6309).html
Seems that it does...except the 1.4Ghz?

Edit:Can't get the link to work, just copy-paste the url into your url bar