Once the Intel VC820 boxed mobo becomes available, and that won't be until next week according to channel sources, people prepared to pay the exorbitant price of Rambus RIMMs also need to watch out for a number of factors. Although Intel engineers solved the problem by shutting off one of the sockets with a terminator, there is an additional factor which you will need to take into account if you want to populate the beastie. If you use two RIMMs and they are from different manufacturers, you can expect problems, according to very reliable sources. That will mean that if you are buying or specifying a system that uses the VC820, be very careful that you use the right kind of memory. And in further i820 news, dealers are reporting what they describe as "serious problems" with CC820 i820 systems. One dealer said: "One piece PC-100 128MB memory seemed to run file, while two pieces easily crashed the system. Intel engineers vehemently claim that there is something wrong with most manufacturers' memory -- they told me 'most of them are more interested in making a buck than in making PC-100 memory according to specs'". Intel engineers told him that "there are some serious timing issues that will be resolved in later revisions of the chipset". But, the dealer said, systems using BIOS PO5 did not work well, while systems built using the older revision, PO4, worked well with Apacerand Siemens memory. He said that Intel has pulled PO5 from its site and only the production PO4 BIOS is now available, suggesting that the problem may not be with the memory manufacturers at all. But...there is some good news on the Intel front. The channel is now awash with BX chipsets. ®