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IWill DVD266-R Dual Socket370 Motherboard


Date
: 06/13/01 – 03:13:13 AM

Author
:

Category
: Motherboard

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: IWill
Price: $250

Introduction

Lately SMP or Symmetric Multi Processing has become quite popular. Of course the launch of AMD’s 761MP chipset and AthlonMP has something to do with that.But unfortunately, dual Athlon boards are not widely spread yet, and the ones that are available are very expensive for home users. Intel on the other hand has been into ‘duallies’ for quite some time now. My first dual CPU rig was based upon the Abit BP6 with two PPGA Celerons mounted on it. That was a very popular setup and I believe many people still use that configuration as a server or even main workstation.

Before that, Intel already had the Pentium Pro, which never quite made much of itself.Later on, P3 SECC2 CPU’s became quite popular in the SMP market, as they performed smoothly when combined with a decent dual slot 1 board such as the Asus P2B-D or Tyan Tiger 100/133.

Skipping forward, Slot 1 motherboards have run their course, and the FC-PGA format has succeeded them nicely.O has already covered several SMP boards intended for socket 370 PIII’s, as a matter of fact.

We reviewed the MSI Master-S, and before that the Abit VP6. Both boards performed very well, but are targeted at a different market. The VP6 is aimed more towards overclockers with IDE devices (Highpoint RAID onboard), while the Master-S is aimed towards the semi-pro user, with it’s onboard Adaptec U160 SCSI controller and AGP Pro slot.

Today we are looking at a board aimed more towards the former market, as it also has an onboard RAID controller, a lot of overclocking options, and DDR memory support. Those who keep up with the dual CPU market probably have a pretty good idea of what board I am talking about. And when I tell you that IWill is the designer, you all know I am talking about the DVD266-R! The DVD266-R is the only dual socket 370 board around that features DDR memory and the AMI RAID controller, so if you would like to find out if those two are an advantage over other boards, just keep on reading.

Page 2 : Specifications

The Specifications

Lets start by showing you the ‘list’, and then we’ll discuss it.

Specs according to IWill:

• VIA Apollo Pro266 Chipset
• Supports Dual Intel Pentium III Processors from 500 MHz to 1 GHz and higher
• Supports Single Intel Celeron Processors from 300 MHz to 733 MHz
• V-Link Technology (266MB/sec low latency bus between the Northbridge and Southbridge)
• Dual ATA 100/66/33 IDE Channels
• AMI 80649 ATA/100 IDE RAID Controller (RAID 0, 1, 0+1)
• C-Media CMI8738 Sound Chip
• 4 x 184-pin Sockets to Support a Maximum of 2GB(non ECC)/4 GB(ECC) of DDR Memory
• Vcore Adjustment
• 1 MHz FSB increments ranging from 66Mhz to 200 Mhz

  The IWill DVD266-R uses the VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset, which is the most popular DDR chipset for Intel based systems at the moment. Some single CPU motherboards like the MSI Pro266 also use this chipset.

  

  Here are the specs of the Pro266 chipet:

  - Supports Intel Pentium III, Intel Celeron & VIA C3 Processors
  - 66/100/133MHz FSB Settings
  - Support for AGP 2X/4X
  - Supports up to 4.0GB DDR200/266 SDRAM as well as PC100/133 SDRAM and Virtual Channel memory
  - 266MB/sec high bandwidth North/South Bridge V-Link
  - Support for Advanced Communications Riser (ACR) Card Standard
  - Integrated 6 Channel AC-97 Audio
  - Integrated MC-97 Modem
  - Integrated 10/100 BaseT Ethernet and 1/10MB Home PNA controller
  - Support for ATA 33/66/100
  - 6 USB ports, UHCI compliant
  - Advanced power management capabilitiess
  - 552-pin BGA VT8633 North Bridge
  - 376 -pin BGA VT8233 South Bridge

  VIA has already launched a new DDR chipset to replace the Pro266, and it is called the Pro266T. According to the VIA website, the only difference is the support for Intel’s Tualatin processor, which is the new Pentium III. Rumors say that there are some bugs in the Pro266 chipset and that this is the main reason for the Pro266T chipset to show up this fast, but I have had no problems with the chipset whatsoever, so I can neither confirm nor deny rumors.

  
  

  To return to the DVD266-R, the board has (heck it is an SMP board) two socket 370 sockets installed at 90 degree angles, just like the Abit VP6 and the MSI 694D. IWill supports Pentium III processors starting at 500MHz reaching all the way up to 1GHz. If needed, you can also use
  one
  Celeron CPU, but that totally defeats the purpose of buying a dual CPU board, unless you are strapped for $$$ and awaiting a pricedrop.

  

  IWill has recently built up a pretty good reputation concerning overclocking: the KK266, KA266 and as seen in our review, the BD133, are featuring interesting BIOS options for overclocking enthousiasts and tweakers. The DVD266-R is no exception, and features voltage adjustements up to 2.05v.

  Unlike with other boards, you can not set the voltage seperately for each CPU.So if one needs 1.80v to reach a certain speed and the second CPU only needs 1.70v, both CPU’s will have to operate at 1.80v. This is not a biggie as good cooling can overcome the problem, but it still adds unneeded heat to your system.Next to vcore adjustements, IWill implemented front side bus speed adjustements starting at 66MHz (for that possible Celeron/VIA C3 CPU) up to a whopping 200MHz). The best part is that you can select the desired speed in 1MHz increments, which will allow you to get the most out of your processors.

  

  Expansion shouldn’t be a problem with the DVD266-R, as it comes with 5 PCI slots and one AGP slot. IWill engineers made a good move by not installing a CNR or any other wasteful slots.Although most people will have enough breathing room with 5 PCI slots, I would have loved to see a 6 PCI config on a duallie for once. I guess they left it out because of the onboard AMI RAID controller.Another PCI slot could cause sharing problems if all slots were to be filled.The AGP port is a normal 2x/4x port, not the AGP Pro port installed on some of the more professional boards such as the MSI Master S. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as no video card out there requires an AGP Pro slot and installing one would only add more to the retail price.

  
  

  Like I already mentioned, IWill has put RAID on this board (the version without RAID is called DVD266), but unlike all the other motherboard manufacturers, IWill did not use a Highpoint or Promise controller. Instead they opted for the AMI MegaRAID controller, a RAID controller we have been before on IWill boards. Personally I am a fan of the Highpoint controller, but that might be because it was my first expierence with RAID. The AMI MegaRAID supports both RAID0 (striping) and RAID1 (mirroring) and lets not forget the top of the pie: RAID 0+1 or RAID10. If you don’t need/want RAID, you can use the RAID controller to connect extra hard drives, as you would do with normal IDE channels, resulting in a total support for 8 IDE devices. The board also has a jumper to let you disable the RAID controller, but I don’t think many users will ever use that jumper. If you don’t want RAID just buy the non-RAID model as it will save you some $$$.

  

  Now that we’ve covered both slots and IDE expansion options, the time has come to check out memory expansion. Running a SMP system with 64MB or even 128MB of memory is silly. That’s like driving a 300HP pick-up truck with 14′ wheels.Memory is more important on a dual system than CPU speed, because you have two CPUs humming in your case.And if they are awaiting memory for data, all that raw power is going to go to waste.

  Personally, I would suggest going with at least 256MB for an average dual CPU system, but more is always better; especially if you plan on doing some heavy duty CAD or Photoshop work. The DVD266 also supports ECC memory, which is a necessity in server environments.

  

  The DVD266(R) uses DDR memory, which should give a nice boost to the memory scores. To fullfil all of your needs, IWill has equiped their board with 4 memory banks for a total support of 2GB(non ECC)/4GB(ECC) of DDR memory. At the present time, you will not be able to install 4GB of memory because there are no 1GB DDR sticks around. Crucial and Mushkin only sell 128MB and 256MB sticks and Corsair also sells 512MB sticks, so the best you can do is 2GB of raw DDR power.

  

  Another thing I want to talk about is the onboard sound that the DVD266-R has installed. IWill uses the C-Media CMI-87383 onboard soundcard, which tries to distinguish itself from other onboard sound solutions by supplying the user with true 4.1 sound. Although it won’t be a contender for a powerful high-end soundcard like the Creative Soundblaster Live! or the Turtle Beach cards, the sound emitted through the speakers was more than enough for playing mp3s, an occasional game, or even a DVD. If you are a true audiophile, though, I do suggest buying an add-on card.

  

  To keep a close eye on your beloved CPU’s, the DVD266-R comes with a WinBond onboard monitoring chip that will enable you to monitor all voltages, 3 fans (4 fan connectors) and of course the case temp and both CPU temperatures.

  

  Last but not least, I want to say something about the heatsink that sits on the northbridge. Mine came with a greenie (with pushpins) but I have seen boards with the better looking silverish heatsink with DDR written on it. The sad part is that the silver one does not come with pushpins so it is a matter of looks vs efficiency.

  
  Page 3 : In The Box & Setup
  

  In The Box & Setting It Up

  
  

  The package is very complete as it contains everything a man can ask for:

  - DVD266-R
  - IDE Cables
  - Floppy Cable
  - Motherboard manual
  - RAID manual
  - Driver disk for RAID
  - Cdrom with drivers
  - 2 TaiSol heatsinks

  

  Like I said … very complete. I want to point out that IWill puts their motherboards in a very strong plastic housing which is much better to protect the board from getting damaged during shipping. Most manufacturers use a regular box with some foam in it … I recon they should follow IWill’s lead.

  

  IWill includes a very detailed manual for the motherboard, but also for the AMI MegaRAID controller. No questions remain unanswered with this kind of lecture!

  
  
  
  

  The two TaiSol heatsinks that are included for FREE are nothing special. They’ll do the job but nothing more. My two 700E cpu’s were not stable at 933MHz while using these heatsinks so I switched to FOP38 heatsinks and later I moved to the Blizzard watercooler. Below are some pictures of the setup.

  
  

  I love watercooling! Don’t you? The performance of this setup is about 8 degrees better than with the FOP38 coolers installed. Compared to the TaiSol heatsinks, the performance is 12 degrees better!! With the watercooling, temps never passed 33 degrees celcius under full load!

  

  To get optimal cooling power, I installed copper shims and of course some Arctic Silver II. The shims make sure that the waterblocks aresitting perfectly flat on the cpu’s, the paste takes care of optimal heat transfer.

  
  
  
  

  
  Page 4 : Layout
  

  The Layout

  A good layout is essential for a motherboard to get optimal airflow and a high efficiency. Unfortunately IWill has made some big mistakes while they designed the layout of the DVD266! For starters the ATX power connectors sits right above the AGP slot and underneath the first processor. This makes it impossible to remove the power plug without removing the AGP card as well.

  

  Apart from the ATX power connector, the first two DIMM’s are in a bad spot as well. If you have a large videocard installed (I used the Hercules GeForce GTS Ultra) there is no way to remove the DDR memory without running the risk of damaging them. The handles can not be opened all the way with a video card installed which means you have to pull the memory out in some ‘risky’ way.

  
  
  

  I’m not done ranting about the layout folks because there are some more problems left: for one the floppy drive connector. This one is placed at the bottom of the board instead of next to the IDE connectors (just like on IWill’s BD133 mobo) This is no biggie, but if you have a server case with the floppy drive on the top (like the AOpen full towers) you might need a longer floppy cable than the one you have.

  

  Last but not least I want to mention that there is very little space around the CPU’s for installing killer heatsinks. I had to squeeze in my two waterblocks + clamps but I finally managed to install them. Maybe this is one of the reasons why IWill includes the TaiSol heatsinks? Anyway if you want to use other heatsinks, make sure they fit before you order them!

  

  That’s it for the layout … some of the things I mentioned will not bother you if you close your case and leave it closed, but if you are like me and you swap hardware pretty often, these small things may become annoying obstacles. Please note that IWill will be releasing a new revision of this board at some point and they told us that the layout would be one of the things they will work on.

  
  Page 5 : BIOS
  

  The BIOS

  A BIOS can make the difference between a good and a bad motherboard, and that is also the case with the DVD266-R. When I first received the board I had major USB problems. The mouse cursor would move really slow no matter what drivers I installed. Luckily, the IWill support people hooked me up with a beta BIOS that fixed this problem. In the meantime a new BIOS was officially released and the USB problem has been fixed hopefully for good.

  

  Next to stability, a BIOS should also allow you such tweaking options as memory interleaving, CAS settings, and voltage options. IWill is aware of this, and they have done their best to include all the necessary features in the DVD266-R BIOS.

  

  Nothing special here.Note the ‘IWill Smart Settings’ on the top right side!

  As soon as we enter the ‘Advanced Chipset Features’ we can adjust the memory and AGP settings. Apart from the memory settings, this is just like every other BIOS so I won’t discuss the other things.

  If you look at the ‘DRAM Clock/Drive Control’ menu, we can adjust memory performance by using the several settings like memory latency, DRAM Clock (by SPD, Hst Clk, Hst Clk+33/-33), DRAM Timings (By SPD/Manual) which lets you set the CAS (2 or 2.5) and the bank interleave settings (2 or 4 way interleaving). However the most important option is the one listed at the top: System Performance. This can be set to values like Normal – 2T, Normal – 1T, Enhanced – 2T, Enhanced – 1T, etc, with Enhanced – 0T being the fastest setting.The gap between Enhanced – 2T and Enhanced – 0T was fairly large, as Sisoft Sandra’s Memory Bench was 100MB/s faster with the 0T setting.

  Now lets look at the ‘IWill Smart Settings’.

  This is where the overclocking is taken care of. Apart from a list that gives you information on your processors (CPU ID, default speed), there is the ‘IWill Micro Stepping’ at the bottom. This is IWill’s version of SoftMenu and it lets you alter the front side bus, core voltage, CPU multiplier (not important unless you have Intel Confidential CPU’s that are unlocked), and the last option decides whether or not the BIOS is flashable (to prevent unwanted flashes).

  

  The FSB can be set in 1MHz increments between 66MHz and 200MHz. 66MHz is listed in case you want to use a Celeron CPU (only one) but since most of you will be running P3′s in this board I don’t think you will be using anything less than 100MHz FSB. Because you can select the FSB in 1MHz increments, you can get the most out of your CPU’s and get the best bang for your hard earned money.I used an FSB of 133MHz, and since my CPU’s wouldn’t go higher, I was unable to test stability at any higher memory speeds.Unfortunately the Hst Clk + 33 option is not selectable at 133MHz and is only used for lower FSB’s.This feature lets you run your memory at 133MHz when the CPU runs at 100MHz but it would have been nice to run my memory at 166MHz (yes it can go that high!). Maybe something for IWill to implement in a later BIOS update?

  

  The vcore option lets you change the voltage that is provided to the processors. This ranges from default voltage all the way up to 2.05v in 0.05v increments. One thing I want to point out again is that you can not set the voltage seperately for each CPU! Both CPU’s run at the same voltage so if one needs 1.80v and the other one needs 1.70v to run stable at a given speed, both processors will have to run at 1.80v. Unfortunately anything above 1.85v resulted in a blank screen no matter what I tried.I have no idea what the problem might be here, but nothing I did fixed it. Other reviews of the boards don’t discuss this problem, but I did notice that none of the reviewers used a higher core voltage than the 1.85v I got out of it.Of course, setting the voltage over 1.85v might be overkill and dangerous without good cooling, but if you have good cooling the extra voltage might give you more speed. Lets hope IWill can sort this one out in a BIOS update.

  

  
  Page 6 : Overclocking
  

  Overclocking

  Although SMP motherboards are not really intended for overclocking (SMP boards are used in server applications most of the time so stability is an absolute must and makes overclocking out of the question) I decided to give the DVD266-R a run for its money to see if it meets up to IWill’s reputation.

  

  To make sure cooling was no problem here, I installed the Blizzard watercooler onto the motherboard (thanks to Overclockers Hideout).

  

  After applying a thin layer of Arctic Silver II and installing the waterblocks firmly (this was a bit hard due to some layout problems on which I will return later on) the overclocking adventure could begin. The CPU’s I used are two matched Intel PIII 700E SL45Y processors that run at a default FSB of 100MHz. I’ve previously tested these CPU’s on other boards like the MSI 694D and the Abit VP6, and just as on those two boards the best they would do on the IWill was 933MHz each. Not to shabby as that equals a 33% speed increase. I used a vcore setting of 1.75v which was sufficient to let Prime95 cruise for hours in a row without lockups.

  Stability was 100% ok just like I expected it to be. I threw several torture tests at the board and none of them caused the DVD266-R to go bezerk on me, which is very good of course!

  We know what the board can do and what speeds to expect, so how is the performance on the benchmark suites?

  
  Page 7 : Testing
  

  The Testing … Or Should I Say Torturing?

  In order to test the full potention of the IWill DVD266-R several tests were run on the board. Here are the specifications of the test setup:

  - IWill DVD266-R
  - 2x Intel PIII 700E @ 933MHz / 1.75v
  - 2x 128MB Crucial PC2100 DDR memory
  - Hercules GeForce GTS Ultra
  - 2x IBM 30GB 7200rpm hdd’s
  - Windows 2000 + SP2 + VIA 4.31 + Detonator 12.60

  First we’ll start with the usual Sisoft Sandra Benchmarks:

  Sisoft Sandra CPU Benchmark

  

  Nothing special here. The CPU’s are performing just like we’d expect from a dual 933MHz setup. Do note how the 6-way and 8-way Xeons are beating me up here ;). I guess my dual AMD based system needs to teach them a lesson eh?

  Sisoft Sandra CPU Multimedia Benchmark

  

  Same story as with the CPU Benchmark you saw above. The processors are keeping up pace well and perform just the way we want them to!

  Sisoft Sandra Memory Benchmark

  
  

  The memory scores are quite good with the IWill dual socket370 and beat the hell out of the scores I attained on the Abit VP6 and the MSI Master-S. The reason for all this is the DDR memory of course! Although scores are around 200MB/s higher than what I got with dual socket370 systems using PC133 memory, an AMD system with DDR memory will still perform 100MB/s (or even more) better than this setup. Why? Because AMD CPU’s were designed with DDR in mind (look at their internal DDR bus) and Pentium III’s were designed when DDR was still undisclosed future talk.

  ZDnet CPU Mark 99

  

  The CPU benchmarks puts itself nicely where a 933MHz system should be. Not too shabby but nothing special either.

  ZDnet FPU Mark 99

  

  AMD CPU’s will score way better on this benchmark because they have a stronger FPU (Floating Point Unit) than the Intel processors.

  Quake 3: Arena

  
  

  We know that Quake 3: Arena has support for SMP systems, but there often were problems with getting it to work. With the 12.60 drivers I am using here, these problems seem to have dissapeared and all went well. Unfortunately the SMP is only helping when the resolution is low because as soon as you reach the playable resolution (1024×768 and up) the video card is the bottleneck and not the processor(s).

  CliBench MK III SMP

  

  One of the most used benchmark programs on dual processor systems, this one measures memory scores, floating point calculations, whetstone and dhrystone calculations and also throws in some mathematical problems for the setup to figure out. Pretty sweet heh?

  
  Page 8 : Conclusion
  

  Conclusion

  Aside from the voltage problem I experienced, this is a decent dual socket 370 motherboard. It comes with the IWill Smart Settings BIOS, onboard RAID, a good onboard soundcard, tweakable options for the memory and let’s not forget the 4 DIMM’s supporting a total of 2GB(non ECC)/4GB(ECC) PC1600/2100 memory. Stability was optimal, though I think the MSI Master-S had a has this down a little better. Should you buy one of these DVD266-R DDR boards? If you already have a good SMP board using PC133 memory, I don’t think paying all that money is worth the increase of memory bandwidth. On the other hand, if you are looking for a sweet duallie, the IWill DVD266-R might just be what you need!

  Good

  - DDR memory
  - Tweakable BIOS
  - IWill Smart Settings (aka SoftMenu)
  - Onboard RAID
  - Good onboard sound
  - Free heatsinks ;)

  Bad

  - Layout
  - Voltage problem