Mike Andrawes gave Iwill KK266 9 points. A highest rating for KT133A mobos so far. What do you guys think?

[Charles]

Who has any experience with this board?

This is interesting:

<<...Iwill knows these facts well and it shows in their entry to the KT133A market. The result of their hard work is the KK266, a board that's better than all the others we've seen so far....>>

I'm really surprised and confused. I don't know which board to get now IMO the layout is better than MSI's or Asus'.

 

[Biggs]

And the plot thickens...

 

[Dulanic]

I still think anyone planning to OC a 100FSB CPU to 133+ needs to think before they buy ANY board with the 100-132 133+ jumper.

 

[sd]

Man, I change my mind everyday on which mobo to get I was all set to get the AV7133, and now I'm finding out it might not support the palomino.

 

[Charles]

Dulanic is right! Overclocking my friend's 1Gig Athlon was a pain in the @ss using Epox 8KTA3!

I still want Asus A7V133-Raid

 

[Dulanic]

<< Man, I change my mind everyday on which mobo to get I was all set to get the AV7133, and now I'm finding out it might not support the palomino. >>



Read my reply to your thread.

 

[BenG3000]

Dulanic (or anyone else that can explain this)-

can you elaborate on this

>anyone planning to OC a 100FSB CPU to 133+ needs to think before they buy ANY board with the 100-132 133+ jumper

thanks,
ben

 

[Charles]

Dulanic,

How do you like your Asus A7V133-R?

 

[Dulanic]

Charles I am very happy with it, check out my box in my sig to see the details. But basically Im running 7x150 right now.

BenG I've posted this before so Ill just copy and paste what I said from another thread.....

The problem is.. at POST for a very short while before the BIOS can change the CPU settings, it will run default multiplier x default FSB.... with the Asus and Abit this is not a problem since they are fully jumperless 100-166 (Or close to that).. Lets take a 1.2Ghz.. even if you set 10x133 they would start at 12x100 then switch to 10x133.... but since the MSI, EPoX, and Iwill have a jumper 133 now becomes the minimum.... so instead of starting at 12x100 then switching to 10x133, it starts at 12x133 then switches, so unless that 1.2Ghz can POST (Doesn't need to be stable, just needs to POST) at 1.6Ghz your screwed and you won't beable to run 133 unless you change the default multiplier with the L6 bridges.

The real problem is that for softmenu to change the CPU it has to start the CPU first, normally this is not a problem, until you combine it with the 100-132/133+ jumper. Running a Athlon C (133 FSB) everything is 100% ok.... its only when trying to run a 100FSB chip at 133... and some CPUs will work... but surely not all.

 

[sharkeeper]

<< you cant run 133 unless you change the default multiplier with the L6 bridges. >>



That's a pain in the anus.

Cheers!

 

[pinecone]

Another issue with the Iwill is distribution. Very limited amount of dealers to buy this board from. Micro Pro has lousey ratings on Resellerratings.com. What to do???

 

[heng1028]

OT: anyone used and can recommend the AMI Raid of Iwill KK266??

 

[delray]

It's really no big deal--On my Iwll KK266 and 1200 Thinderbird[Thanks DaddyG], all I did to get it to boot was close one bridge on the L6 with defogger kit which set it to 11x ,lowered multiplier to 9 and it booted right up---1st boot was at 1463[11x133] and then bios changed to 9x---great MB--Fast, stable up to 162 w/ mushkins Rev2 ram Cas3 Turbo settings---using Turk's OC'd bios with advanced memory timings---highly recommend this MB especially coming from the stable MSI PRO2A!!!

Delray

 

[DaddyG]

Dulanic, have you followed Compuwiz's posts regarding overclocking some 1 gig BIRDS on the MSI and ABIT. ABIT had issues as well as MSI, although not as bad.

L6 bridge connection is no more difficult that connecting L1s. The problem comes with 1.1 and 1.2 gig CPUs (never my first choice for overclocking). All the other CPUs can have the default lowered easily.
Even the 1.2 gig can be lowered to 11X to give it a chance at 133, connected L7s for the extra Vcore kick at power on helps also. The real b@stard is the 1.1, all the L6s are connected already. Some shellac or nailpolish on the corresponding FID3 pin on the cpu will work just as well as cutting the bridge.

Some 'new-old stock' Blue cored 650s are ideal cpus for this mobo. Most are hitting over 1 gig with high FSBs.

 

[Biggs]

Can this issue be fixed by a BIOS update?

 

[Nastimus]

If I have a Athlon 'C' I don't even have to worry about any of this correct? Just making sure.

 

[j24u]

Another issue with the Iwill is distribution. Very limited amount of dealers to buy this board from. Micro Pro has lousey ratings on Resellerratings.com. What to do???

Newegg has the non-Raid KK266 for $129.99 with FREE FedEx

Link Here

 

[Henry Kuo]

Guys, concerning the 100/133 jumper issue, I have done some tests together with the help from Iwill.

If you put in a chip designed for 100MHz (and not able to run at 133MHz), set the jumper to 133MHz, boot it up, it's gonna be disaster for sure.

But if you put the jumper in 100MHz position, boot up the chip at default multiplier, lower the multiplier, and make sure it boots at 100 x lowered multiplier, then shut down. Change the jumper to 133MHz position and boot up, it should work.

We together with the companies have tested two chips, a 800MHz (8x100) that can't do 1064 (8x133), and a 1000MHz (10x100) that can't do 1330 (10x133). Take the 800 as an example and the Iwill KK266 and the EPoX 8KTA3 as test bed.

With the jumper in the 133MHz position, we couldn't boot up the chip at all, simple coz' the chip couldn't stand the clock speed. We then put the jumper in the 100MHz position, and boot up at 800MHz no problem. We then lowered the multiplier to 6, and booted up the machine at 600MHz and entered Windows (just make sure it finished boot up). Then we shut down the system and change the jumper to 133MHz position. Boot up the machine, BIOS shows 800MHz (6x133) and entered Windows without a hitch. Continued to reboot and system and never had a problem as well.

We are not sure if that's the solution to all the cases yet, simple coz' we are dealing with a small number of chips and boards here, but using the above method we were able to deal with the problem (both AnandTech and Iwill).

We currently don't have the K7T Turbo so we couldn't do any further testing, but once we have the board back we will work on it.

if the above method is really the solution, things aren't that bad. Even if the above method turns out not working, the method discussed by DaddyG (Thanks DaddyG) should work flawlessly as well, except for 1.1GHz and 1.2GHz chips.

We will keep you guys posted on the issue.

 

[Henry Kuo]

Nastimus - yes, if you have the C type chip, you are good to go

 

[Henry Kuo]

And BTW, I think this board is not as widely available as those by ASUS, ABIT, or MSI, BUT it is not that bad as well. I was still able to find them in stock in a lot of on-line stores, so if you like the board and want to get one, you should still be able to find it at a reasonable cost.

 

[Charles]

Good to see you here again, Henry. Your solution to overclock those Athlons is totally possible. And this is very useful and might be the only way for those who own the 1.1G and 1.2G Athlons.

It seems that the CMOS is always overwritten by the default CPU multiplier reading, and only can be saved once you totally shutdown the system. Please correct me if I'm wrong, Henry.

 

[Henry Kuo]

ummm, not really. When the jumper is in the 100MHz position and the multiplier was changed from 8 to 6, every time a reboot (without a single shut down) the system always booted at 600MHz (without any problem).

Now we were forced to shut down the computer once coz' we had to change the jumper from 100MHz to 133MHz (before the thing caught smoke ), and after that, the system booted at 800 (6x133). And we even tried to reboot the system at that configuration several times the system stayed at 800 (6x133) without any problem as well.

 

[Henry Kuo]

To discuss it further, I think the problem is during the first few cycles of booting up the machine, does the system look at the default multiplier or the modified multiplier. We haven't gotten any words from VIA about the issue, so all we could do now is guessing.

From what we have tested so far, the system seems to look at the modified multiplier right at the beginning, but again, we just don't have enough samples to say it for sure yet.

If you guys have anymore links or info, we'd love to hear them.

 

[Charles]

I really want to hear from people who actually own and used this board. Can you please give us your opinion?

I used Iwill BD100Plus a few years ago, and I was quiet satisfied with it.

 

[Charles]

I'm curious:

MSI K7T Turbo, Asus A7V133-R and Iwill KK266 got 0 crash in 48 hours of torture test.
<<...average crash rate on the torture test is 5 to 6 times in 24 hours.>>

I can't find such ratings in older Anandtech Motherboards reviews, and I can only find this in the recent KT133 and KT133A reviews. Actually does average means all motherboards reviewed in Anandtech, or just VIA's Athlon chipsets?

What about Socket 370 motherboards using i815E chipsets? Do they also as stable as these boards?