How fast of an AMD XP cpu can you put in a Iwill KK266 KT133A chipset?

[Farwalker1]

Hey all,

I have had my hand assembled gaming system for about 15 months now. I want to upgrade the cpu and videocard to extend its life for another year.

System specs right now: 1ghz AMD Thunderbird, Iwill KK266 motherboard, Leadtek Geforce 2 32 mbs, 512 mbs of pc-133 sdram, 30 gig ATA-100 IBM Deskstar and a 330 watt Enermax Power Supply.

I can play any game on the market now, but games like Morrowind are taxing it to the point where I need to take off some graphical options. Plus, I want to prepare for games that will be coming out in 2003.

The real question is how fast of an AMD cpu can I put in this aging chipset (VIA® ApolloTM KT133A chipset) I have? Here is a link to the KK266 motherboard I have:
http://www.iwillusa.com/products/ProductDetail.asp?vID=38&CID=93

Personally, I would like to a throw an AMD XP 2000 or 2100 in it. The question is, can my motherboard handle the power requirements and other changes the cpu has undergone? If anyone can clear this up for me it would really be helpful.

Lastly, I am almost certain, but need this boards advice - can I throw a Radeon 9700 PRO 128MB in the APG slot without any conflicts?

Also, if you have any other ideas for upgrades for this system, pass them to me.

Thanks for your time and help!

Justin

 

[microAmp]

According to the online PDF manual it says TBirds 1.2 GHz or higher, not XP.

 

[weeber]

Oh boy, you've got yourself a question with no real answer there. The problem is the KK266 was designed before the Athlon XP was introduced, and apparently there are some timing issues between the XP and KK266. It's a gamble putting an XP in this mobo because some people have gotten it to work fine while others couldn't get it to post at all.

Personally, I would recommend heading over to amdmb.com because they have a forum devoted to IWILL motherboards. In this forum there is a huge thread along with many others to getting the XP working on this mobo. Like I said, some have gotten it to work while others have had no luck.

I was in the same boat as you not long ago, but decided the gamble wasn't worth it. Instead of an XP, I went with a 1.4 T-Bird that works fine. You may want to go this route as well to hold you over. I'm not really sure if it's worthwhile trying to pair a high speed XP CPU with SDRAM. With a fast XP, you may seriously want to consider getting a new mobo just so you can have some fast DDR memory was well.

Sorry I can't give you a a definite answer on the CPU, but like I said it would definitely be worthwhile heading over to amdmb.com and looking in the IWILL forum. Go ahead and ask this question there too, there's some real helpful guys over there.

Lastly, you should be able to put a Radeon 9700 in this board, but you'd probably wouldn't be able to get all you could out of it. I think for your system a G4 4200 or 4400 would be better. However if you want to make a serious gaming machine using these fast CPUs and video card you really should look into a new mobo. The KT133A just isn't on par with alot of the newer stuff and you'd be holding back alot of potential from these components.

 

[Farwalker1]

Weeber: Thanks a ton of the excellent reponse you gave! I will be over at amdmb.com and look at what they have to say about the Iwill Xp issue.

Really appreciate you taking the time to write such an insighful reply!


Justin

 

[The Sauce]

In my experience the KK266 is a POS anyway...I have it running my backup system now. I say splurge an extra $60 and get a KT266A board...that alone will get you an extra %15 performance.

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: Snatchface
In my experience the KK266 is a POS anyway...I have it running my backup system now. I say splurge an extra $60 and get a KT266A board...that alone will get you an extra %15 performance.

Yeah, the KT266A really dose trample the KT133A/KT266 chipsets.

 

[Rainsford]

Look on the board and see what revision. According to what I've heard, 1.2 and above revisions seem to work with AXPs, and the revisions below that are spotty at best. You will need the latest BIOS update (October 22 2001, IIRC). If you look in my rig profile, you'll see I have a KK266 (revision 1.2) with the latest BIOS running an AXP 1800+ (with no problems).

However...you are looking at some high end video cards and processors, and I wouldn't really put them in the KK266. There is nothing wrong with the board, but it is just SDR and the newer AXP boards give quite a performance boost, and the boost gets better the faster your video card and processor are. The only reason I'm running it is because I don't have the money right now to upgrade to a DDR board. But if you have the money, the performance should be worth it.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

loved my iwill kk266(had 2 of them) ..had flashed to the Oct BIOS ..then the Biostar/xp1700 deal came up from tcwo..my cousin loves me..her machine running the iwill kk266 w/ an Athlon 1.2 MP proc ..the other running my former retail 1ghz 266FSB proc..still going...

 

[Vic]

The KK266 is an awesome board, IMNSHO, the best SDR board ever made, and I've owned and built a ton of them.
In theory, a KK266 rev1.2 can handle up to a 2000+ XP, but you might have some issues. Do not use vcool or any similar STPGNT style cooling hack, as you will get lock-ups. Non-plus KK266's suffer from 5v rail issues, a problem that gets worse with faster cpus. Just get a good power supply and pay no attention to the rail as long as everything runs fine. KK266plus models have possibly the best 5v rail stability I have ever seen in any board and work absolutely fine with AXP's, but once again, only to 2000+ (12.5x multiplier).
I've since upgraded my system from my KK266 (wanted 1/5 divisor and DDR finally), but for the board's naysayers, check this out:
9417 3dMarks on an SDR PC133 board, and this is with the 29.42's not the 3dQuack 40.41's. Maybe I could have gotten an even better score, but the AXP 1800+ I was using in that particular test was locked and didn't OC well.

 

[weeber]

To add on what Rainsford said, the board revision may be important. I haven't heard anything particular about the 1.2 version, but I have heard that the KK266+ (plus revision) does seem to have better luck with the XP. This may work in your favor, if you have the plus version that is.

 

[alluu]

the kk266 is probably the best sdr board. most stable and great overclocking. and for those in the socal, they are located in irvine making rmas very easy.

that being said, i had stability issues when i upgraded from a 1 ghz athlon to an xp1600. the kk266 (correct me if i'm wrong) doesn't officially support the xp. my system would run fine be would lock up here and there. it was probably more stable than an ecs mb but not as stable as my old athlon 1 ghz at 1.4 ghz. i have read that many have there systems running fine but others just have problems.

the kk266+ works fine with xp. i ended getting the 8kha+ from newegg.

 

[Farwalker1]

Awesome, really appreciate everyone's input and help. Very helpful! Lots of knowledgeable people on this board for sure.

I now have to think about what option to take.

Thanks again.

Justin

 

[kgraeme]

Worst board I've ever owned and terrible support when I tried to get an RMA.

But the answer to the question is that it's a crapshoot with the odds against you. That's based on my own experience as well as many others over at amdmb.com.

 

[McCarthy]

XP 1600+ been working fine for me for, well, however long it's been since the XP's came out.