VIA has come into the dual-channel game a little late for it to make a major impact immediately. It needs to ensure that partners utilise the best parts of the chipset and price it aggressively. It'll then be considered a real contender to Intel's crown. We can see that system integrators may want to get in on the cheap(ish) dual-channel act. VIA may just have provided the means to do so. We'll examine just how well partners have lived up to the promise shown by the reference board in a look at retail examples shortly. Until then, the VIA PT880 rivals the best from Intel - and that's quite a compliment in itself.