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Is the KK266 an ok mobo?

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Lifer

I need a kind of recent mobo that has ISA and SDRAM slots, and the only one I can think of is the KK266. Is this a relatively trouble free mobo? Also, what is the difference between the plus and the original versions? Finally, can I run XP athlons on the KK266+?
 
Works fine here. This forum is large enough that someone has had a problem with just about any computer product ever released. The vast majority of KK266 owners have been happy. I'm one of them.

The "+" version is the revised board with better on-board sound. RAID comes with the KK266-R board, which is what I have.

For the Athlon XP question, check out this amdmb.com forum thread. The concensus seems to be that even the original board will support the XP, though only the plus version has official support.

I've been running this thing 24/7 for 16 months now, with consecutive days without a reboot at 20 or more at times under Win2K. Historically, I've always stayed around six months behind bleeding edge technology, but I have no real reason to give this one up yet.

And if you're looking for an ISA slot, it may be your fastest option, and last hope.
 
Originally posted by: chansen
Works fine here. This forum is large enough that someone has had a problem with just about any computer product ever released. The vast majority of KK266 owners have been happy. I'm one of them.

The "+" version is the revised board with better on-board sound. RAID comes with the KK266-R board, which is what I have.

For the Athlon XP question, check out this amdmb.com forum thread. The concensus seems to be that even the original board will support the XP, though only the plus version has official support.

I've been running this thing 24/7 for 16 months now, with consecutive days without a reboot at 20 or more at times under Win2K. Historically, I've always stayed around six months behind bleeding edge technology, but I have no real reason to give this one up yet.

And if you're looking for an ISA slot, it may be your fastest option, and last hope.
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Thank you, that was very helpful.

yeah I just have a lot of legacy parts that I feel doesn't need to be replaced. Plus I don't really care to spend double the money to get that last 20% performance increase or whatever.
 
I have two KK266R's and they are the best MB's I've ever owned.

BUT I wouldn't advise anyone to try to run an Athlon XP processor in one. Nothing but problems. Stick with T-Bird processors and you will have no problems.
 
Hmm, XP1600+ in a KK266-R here, no problems. Updated the bios, whatever was the latest when the XP's came out.
 
Great board. I don't know how kgraeme has had nothing but problems with it. The only reason that I have stuck with PC133 and the KT133A chipset is because this thing is so stable and plenty fast for my needs. If you need ISA and SDRAM, this is the only board that I would consider.

 
Originally posted by: OuterSquare
Originally posted by: kgraeme
I had nothing but problems with it.
Click to expand...

mind giving details?
Click to expand...

It was a while ago, but off the top of my head:

- Data corruption due to IDE and 686B bug
- Lots of crashes and lockups (again, mostly the 686B bug)
- RAID ports don't support single-drive IDE (confirmed by Iwill tech support though many people have gotten it to work. I got it to work too, but had lots of problems with stability and data corruption.)
- USB headers went dead
- Data transfer problems with Netgear FA-311 NIC (solved by replacing NIC with different brand)
- Difficulties with Athlon XP processor

Many of the problems were "solved" by switching out components to avoid the 686B bugs. Live! to Santa Cruz, PCI usb card, PCI IDE card, new NIC, etc... Sure I got it to run stable, but it took more work and expense than I consider acceptable. And Iwill support was extremely difficult and rude and refused to RMA my board because they "didn't have any in stock". By the time they did have some in stock, my warranty period was up.

So there you go. Buy it if you want. A lot of people think it's a great board. I will just say don't complain when you have problems. It was amazing really to watch the Iwill forum over at amdmb.com go from extremely excited about the KK266 to extremely pissed.
 
Awesome board. IMNSHO, the fastest board to ever use SDR SDRAM. Best OC'er of all the KT133A boards.
I've owned and/or built more than 5 of these boards and everyone was a snap. Of course, like all VIA boards with the 686B southbridge, I would strongly recommend that you don't use the very-much-known-to-be-a-buggy-POS SB Live!, that if you use a Linksys LNE100TX or Netgear FA-311 NIC that you use the drivers provided by the actual NIC chipset manufacturer (ADMTek) as Linksys and Netgears' drivers are buggy, that you update the BIOS to the latest version (686B bug was fixed with the 4-15-01 BIOS revision) and the 4-in-1's to the latest version, and that you use Win2k/XP and install the VIA USB filter driver.
RAID performance was not the best but it's not like the KK266R is the only board whose RAID ports don't support JBOD (or single drives)... *cough*cough*all newer MSI boards with Promise RAID*cough*.
If you buy one, I strongly recommend the KK266plus version without the RAID. XP incompatibility with the original KK266 versions was mostly due to an unstable 5v rail on the early boards (which was due to improper ATX power connector placement, which was due mobo manufacturers caving into the demands of a less-than-intelligent group of enthusiasts). On the plus versions, the ATX connector was repositioned next to the mosfets, and the board has an extremely stable 5v rail. I personally ran an XP1800+ on one for months, rock solid stable. I have also run an XP on a non-plus board and it ran fine, but I would strongly recommend NOT using a cooling hack, as that causes the 5v rail to fluctuate too much and become unstable (which was probably the reason why so many people had trouble with the KK266 and and XP).

Long story short 😉 : they're great boards. A little more challenging to configure than some other boards, but well worth it.

As for the amdmb.com forums... well, some of the best people on the net post there, and so do some of the worst. You have to take it with a grain of salt. All I can say is that anyone who would run their KK266 at 180MHz FSB with a volt mod for 9 months and then get pissed off about it when it blew is a total idiot.
 
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