Availability: Soon (in limited quantities)

Website: www.intel.com

For two years, the core of Intel's mid-range product line has been their 440BX chipset. Last year, Intel released the i810 and i820 series chipsets, intending them to replace the 440BX. Unfortunately for Intel, they did not realize how damaging the i810 series' lack of an AGP slot would be for mid-range appeal. And also unfortunately for Intel, they did not realize how slowly RDRAM prices would fall to acceptable levels. Of course, this was all quite fortunate for VIA Technologies, who capitalized on both Intel's chipset failures and AMD's processor successes to become a massive player in the chipset market.

But Intel has finally come out with viable replacements for the 440BX chipset. As you probably guessed from the title of this article, the new chipsets are called i815 and i815E. We took the i815E and put it through a few tests to determine whether it is a chipset worth its weight. But first, we will look at the features and technology.