I've Finally Decided!!!!

[CNUCompGuy]

Well, I've finally decided which motherboard I am going to get. It's the iWill XP333-R. This boar is awesome. It supports DDR 333 and it supports ATA133 as well as having 2 Raid IDE ports. If you have any comments about this board or would like to tell me why I shouldn't get it, please let me know. Oh, also, if I do go ahead and purchase this board, then I will also be upgrading to a Maxtor 40GB ATA133 7200RPM harddrive. Along with this board and HD, I will be purchasing the Athlon XP 1800. Quick question....one site that I went to mentioned an Athlon XP 1900, but I haven't been able to find it for sale anywhere, does it even exist, yet not released, yet?? Just curious, lol!! Here is a shortcut to my board specs:

http://www.iwillusa.com/products/spe...3-R&SupportID=

Thanks!!

[mrpcman]

my only comments are, what's a boar? , and why maxtor?

[CNUCompGuy]

lol, sorry, I keep forgettin to change the batteries in my wireless keyboard, that's the only pain with wireless KB's, lol....dayum batteries....Also, for your other question....I chose Maxtor simply because I have never had problems with my 2 Maxtors drives and because this is an ATA133/7200 RPM/40.0GB HD for only $109 + 22 Shipping and Insurance. Great deal, huh, lol....

[mrpcman]

Originally posted by CNUCompGuy
lol, sorry, I keep forgettin to change the batteries in my wireless keyboard, that's the only pain with wireless KB's, lol....dayum batteries....Also, for your other question....I chose Maxtor simply because I have never had problems with my 2 Maxtors drives and because this is an ATA133/7200 RPM/40.0GB HD for only $109 + 22 Shipping and Insurance. Great deal, huh, lol....

that's not bad at all. I've just never had good luck with maxtor drives. I know how ya feel about wireless keyboards. I'm typing on one now.

[Random Nonsense]

let us know how the board performs! im currently torn between the iwill board you mentioned, or EPoX upcoming ATA133 board! i am thinking that the KT266a chipset will be faster overall, as i have a feeling the 333mhz chipset (cant remember who by) will not have any major advantages, as AMD only officially make 266FSB chips.... im hoping to hit 333FSB on my board when i get it! or i could wait for KT333

[CNUCompGuy]

It's not a 333FSB that this board supports, it's 333MHZ DDR SDRAM that the 333 stands for--PC2700, the pronounced overclockable DDR RAM. I probably won't be getting that, because I'm expecting it to be quite expensive at first, so I'm gonna stick with a 256MB chip of PC2100 for about $40 or so, lol. Hope that clears things up for ya. Oh, and about letting you know how it performs, one of my friends has this board and he overclocked his 1.0 T-Bird up to 1.6 if I remember correctly. He has had no stability problems, yet, lol, and probably never will. When I get th board in a couple of weeks I will let you know my opinion from personal experience, ttyl!!

[CNUCompGuy]

Sorry, I was mistaken I just read a review for this board and along with the features that I mentioned....this board, due to revisions in the ALi Magik1 chipset specifically for this board, can easily handle a 333 FSB for the CPU. Also, AMD has 333FSB CPUs, but is not putting it out on the market until more boards support it. I could not find the name of them, but I am assuming that they are a revision of the Athlon XP, just like they have a 200 and 266 FSB T-Bird, they will probably have a 266 and 333 Athlon XP. Hope this helps ya decide!!

[CNUCompGuy]

does anybody know when the XP333-R or the XP333 is expected to be released? I have heard that the raid version will be released in about 2 weeks and the the normal version will be released a week or two afterwards. Any clue if this is accurate? Thanks alot!!

[Hugo 59]

Hey guys I have followed this board since its been on the drawing board so to speak over at the amd.com forums. Right now it doesn't look like this board will be released till late November or early December.

As of right now I don't think I would buy it. In order to get the same memory performance as a board running a KT266a chipset at 133fsb this board needs to be running at 170fsb or more. That's not good. Unless Iwill can fix this with a bios revision or a revised chipset I probably wouldn't spend the money on it.

This board has a lot of overclocking options but if you have to run it at 170fsb to match other boards at default then all the oc'ing options in the world really don't matter.

Kevin (JackieO) from accelenation.com has done a review of the board and has said that if he was buying now it wouldn't be this board. Kevin/JackieO is the person that Iwill asked to get input on the board from the members over at amd.com He had a lot invested in this board and if he isn't willing to buy it either am I.

[Superman]

Well said, Hugo, I was thinking pretty much the same thing. This DDR333 just isn't all it is cracked up to be.

[mrpcman]

Originally posted by Hugo 59
Hey guys I have followed this board since its been on the drawing board so to speak over at the amd.com forums. Right now it doesn't look like this board will be released till late November or early December.

As of right now I don't think I would buy it. In order to get the same memory performance as a board running a KT266a chipset at 133fsb this board needs to be running at 170fsb or more. That's not good. Unless Iwill can fix this with a bios revision or a revised chipset I probably wouldn't spend the money on it.

This board has a lot of overclocking options but if you have to run it at 170fsb to match other boards at default then all the oc'ing options in the world really don't matter.

Kevin (JackieO) from accelenation.com has done a review of the board and has said that if he was buying now it wouldn't be this board. Kevin/JackieO is the person that Iwill asked to get input on the board from the members over at amd.com He had a lot invested in this board and if he isn't willing to buy it either am I.

thanks for the info, I'm looking for a new board right now.

[CNUCompGuy]

Ok, what suggestions would you make for me, then. I am now looking at the following boards, again:

iWill KK266Plus-R
Abit KT7A-RAID
Asus A7A266
EPoX 8KHA+

If you have any other suggestions for a board that isn't ridiculously expensive, then please let me know. I would like to get the AthlonXP, funds permittingand board permitting, but if not then definitely the fastest T-Bird that is out when I do my purchases around the end of November. I am purchasing all at once, so it takes time for me to save up, lol. Also, I'll be buyin a 40-80GB 7200RPM ATA100 or ATA133 HD. If I decide to get a board that supports only DDR RAM, then I will be forced to buy DDR RAM also, I will probably get either 256 or 512, because I expect that they will be practically free by the end of November/beginning of December. Thanks all for all you help. This site is awesome. It has helped me with some many things. Also, in case anybody just happens to know this, I was wondering if the WickedGL drivers work better with the ATI Radeon 32MB DDR video card than the standard OpenGL drivers. This isn't too important, just curious. Thanks again all!!

[dimmreaper]

Originally posted by CNUCompGuy
EPoX 8KHA+

This is a sweet board, not just saying that either. I own one . . . .

[Hugo 59]

Right now I wouldn't go with any board that's not running the KT266a chipset. With the improvements that have been made there is really no since in going with any other boards specially boards using SDRAM like the Iwill kk266(don't get me wrong that's what I'm using now and I love it but if I was buying now it wouldn't be it).

There are two boards that I would go with right now if I was buying either the Shuttle AK31 Rev3 or the MSI K7T266 Pro2.

You can find a review here for the Shuttle and a review here for the MSI

These seem at least to me to be the top boards out right now with great oc'ing options and the Shuttle is only about $80.

[Hugo 59]

Originally posted by dimmreaper
This is a sweet board, not just saying that either. I own one . . . .

Yeah the epox is a nice board too. Those would be my three choices.

[dimmreaper]

Originally posted by Hugo 59
MSI K7T266 Pro2

Seeing as how this board only has a dual-phase on-board Vcore regulator. I wouldn't trust it to handle an overclocker XP. The XP is a high voltage, low current design, which happens to be specifically why some motherboard firms are implementing 3-phase power. Not saying this board wouldn't due for a non-OCed machine with one of the current XP's, but I just wouldn't want to run it with an overclocked XP, and it might not run future XPs.

The EPoX 8KHA+ has a beefy three phase design, with 10 2200mf 10V capacitors. A much better design as far as power goes.

[mrpcman]

don't get the kt7-a. all the other boards are better imo.

[dimmreaper]

From the MSI review Hugo pointed us too:

"This includes clock multiplier alteration up to 15x, FSB speeds up to 164 MHz, vCore up to 1.85V, and DDR voltage up to 2.7V. Not a bad set of options."

EP-8KHA+ has:
Multipliers up to 15x
FSBs up to 199, along with 1/5th and 1/6th PCI dividers, a hacked BIOS should unlock the PLLs 200-233FSBs.
Vcore up to 1.85v, hackable like other motherboards for more.
Vddr up to 3.2V

[Hugo 59]

Originally posted by dimmreaper
From the MSI review Hugo pointed us too:

"This includes clock multiplier alteration up to 15x, FSB speeds up to 164 MHz, vCore up to 1.85V, and DDR voltage up to 2.7V. Not a bad set of options."

EP-8KHA+ has:
Multipliers up to 15x
FSBs up to 199, along with 1/5th and 1/6th PCI dividers, a hacked BIOS should unlock the PLLs 200-233FSBs.
Vcore up to 1.85v, hackable like other motherboards for more.
Vddr up to 3.2V

Yeah but MSI is Red

[dimmreaper]

Originally posted by Hugo 59


Yeah but MSI is Red

Get me a can of Krylon, and some masking tape, and any board can be red in less than an hour! LOL