3DVelocity would like to thank Iwill for their help and courtesy, in particular Kathryn at Freecom UK and Michael and Eileen at Iwill PR Taipei.

 

 

Looking for the best SDR motherboard utilising the VIA KT133A chipset? 3DVelocity attempts to discover if the Abit KT7a still holds the SDR crown, or if the new version of this overclocking champion has finally dethroned it. Read on as we get the measure of the Iwill KK266+R.

Part One: First Impressions & Board Layout.

The first striking thing about this product is its very professional yet attractive packaging. I was surprised to see such a beautiful box when the sample board arrived. The function and style doesn't stop at the cardboard though with Iwill opting to move away from the rather ugly static proof bags and preferring instead to encase the board in a static proof plastic. The overall affect was excellent and ensured I was thinking 'quality' before the board was even housed in my case, a vital dynamic of sales strategy.

But I wasn't reviewing the packaging so lets move on to the overall board layout to see what stance Iwill has taken in another vital area.

Above we can see the placement of the atx power connection, a vital part of the board design in my view. It seems Iwill have placed it behind the serial ports which I would suggest is a good and a bad idea. Firstly it shows Iwill's commitment to the overclocker; the placement renders the socket quite open for any large heatsink you wish to utilize on this board but it makes for somewhat untidy cabling. The leads have a tendency to stick underneath the powersupply thus reducing airflow. Some use of appropriately placed zip tags would be in order here then. As long as you are willing to put a little more thought into installing this board in a neat manner this design should cause you little trouble; and it's always good to know that whatever heatsink you choose to utilize, the KK266plus-R will it handle with ease. (Something not always guaranteed on a KT7A)

Overall, the board layout is a very good one. It makes use of one AGP 4x slot, six PCI slots and one ISA Slot. Although some don't wish to see the inclusion of legacy devices, I was impressed as I am still stuck with an old ISA 56k flex modem! The board also sports four IDE ATA-100 ports, two of which can be used in a RAID array increasing the value of this board even more.(AMI Raid chip) Below we see a glimpse of the boards AGP and PCI slots

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Performance is almost assured as the board's chipset is the 'tried and tested' VIA KT133A. It utilizes a 266 front side bus, however to increase compatibility the Iwill KK266 plus R uses jumpers that can also set the board at a 100mhz fsb. Perhaps most importantly in this extremely fast paced industry, the board also supports three phase power for all those power hungry, future AMD CPU's of higher frequencies. In my view, a vital inclusion for all motherboards that support the Athlon / Duron combination.

The northbridge's heat production has sometimes been a limiting factor in the VIA chipset's overclocking potential,with that in mind, Iwill started to send out preview boards of the KK266plus that included a fan,a very good one, but it increased the cost of the final retail board. Iwill informs me that they are constantly seeking to drive down the cost of their technology thus the decision to fit a standard heatsink instead was taken. The situation currently stands thus: Iwill will allow users to purchase the high quality fan for a low price of $10. (No word on uk shipping, yet.) This is a cost price and we understand Iwill won't be making money from this decision. If you need one please order from here. We will see how much this effects the overclocking potential of this board a little later. Below shows the first HSF design and the final heatsink design.

NB: Our sample board came equppied with the newer heatsink. (A big thank you to 'HardwareAnalysis' for their picture of the HSF.)

Page Two: The Retail Pack - 'What Do I Actually Get?'

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