The Iwill XP333 & XP333-R Review

[AkumaBao]

Ok, well I'm finally going to give my opinion of this board. Please, I'm just posting this to let everybody know what I think of this board, and not to say it's better than any other.

First off, I did the switch from my previous mobo, and had no problem what so ever. The only thing that discuraged me was that so far I have not found a way to change the DDR memory speed independently from the CPU FSB. ( That was a downer, since I have 300MHz DDR ) I did a fresh install of XP, and everything ran smooth. Then I installed the Ali Drivers, and it was even better! Then I did the XP updates. ( since I have the fist version ) After that I had about a 15 second boot-up from POST to User Selection in XP. To most this might not be much, but to me that's a big factor in a PC for me. I then ran a 3DMark test, but of course, it didn't recognize the motherboard. This was another turn off, since I would like to be able to compare with other XP333's. I noticed that it ran a lot smoother than before, and my score had jumped up 1000 points! Usually when I changed mobo's I didn't get that much of a difference. After that I decided to see how much it could handle. First I started playing a SB Audigy HD EAX demo, opened up SETI, opened up about 8 IE's, and ran a game a Diablo II. I played D2:LOD for about 15 minutes, and then did a Alt+Tab number on it. Checked the Hardware Monitor, and it was running at about 38 degrees celcius. ( about 4 degrees higher than my cold boot temp ) I still have yet to do a Sandra test, and so far my handfull of non-compatible ( according to Iwill ) parts are working great! Being that I only have one hard-drive I didn't hook it up to the RAID yet, but plan to soon to give feedback. I would say this is definatly a great stable motherboard, but I think Iwill put more maketing money in than production money. Don't get me wrong, I really trust Iwill boards, and this one was one of the best so far. I didn't try the built-in sound just becuase I know what it like, and if you're a C-media ower running XP, it's a SOB to get to work right. Needless to say I left it alone. One last thing, when I went to check Iwill's site for any issues, they had a patch for ATI cards. I guess they still haven't broken don that wall yet.

Well, to make it short. I really like the board, and I would recommend it to many of people. ( Except possibly ATI users ) It's provided me with a very fast, and stable PC. Installation, and setup was a sinch, and so far no compatibilty issues. So if you were looking at one of these boards, there is my review. Thanx.

 

[panhead49]

hey AkumaBao.......first what rev.board is it ..?? 2.1 ??...sounds like it......i am glad you posted your review and good experiences with this board......as i will be getting one soon ..
as far as i know, there is know way to change the speed of the memory independently of the cpu ...when you o/c to 166..you have a m/b that runs ddr300 memory,... as advertized
they just dont advertize that you have to o/c the cpu fsb to get that speed .......no matter......its still a killer board.....glad you liked it and said so....

 

[AkumaBao]

I forgot to mention one more thing. For all you OC'ers, it allows you to OC up to 233MHz FSB. Just thought I would add that.

 

[StormRider]

Sounds like an awesome board. I just wish it had the built-in LAN like my ECS K7S5A has. This is such a useful feature that I wish all motherboards would adopt it as the standard.

 

[AkumaBao]

I agree, but what's $15 to buy a Ethernet card. That definatly would be nice though.

 

[AllDressedUp]

Nice review, Akuma.

I've had an XP333-R for about 3 weeks as well, and while not all my experiences with it have gone quite as smoothly as yours, I'd still say it's worth a look, and plan on keeping mine.

I'm not sure all the bells and whistles can be used to maximum advantage yet, and don't know if this is the best board for hardcore enthusiasts. But it seems to have alot under the hood and responded well to my modest efforts to push the FSB and CPU ratio to some higher levels. The thermal shutdown in the BIOS was a welcome sight as well.

Version 2.1 boards might be preferable, particularly if you plan to OC, because there's a slightly wider adjustment on the CPU Voltage than on the 2.0 version.

Still fiddling with it though...

If you're seriously considering this one, check out the threads at AMDMB.com. And here's a review of one of the early 2.0s FWIW.

 

[AkumaBao]

I'm glad they updated more when I reseived the board. It had a extra revision page, and yes, it has lots of configs for OC'ers.

 

[happybob]

hi akumabao,

have you tried raid setup? i hooked up two 40gig maxtor ata133 drives in a raid 0. when i ran the sandra lite disk benchmark, it's slower than the score it showed for the ata100 and even ata66 2-drive raid!!! is there a better hard drive benchmark out there? i don't understand, i must be doing something wrong. i checked in the hightpoint bios, and made sure that both drives were set to ata133 (udma mode 6).

any ideas?

 

[AkumaBao]

You know I had that problem with an Iwill KA266-R. It turned out to be that the OS just couldn't run the RAID drivers & utility very well. If you're not using XP, I almost wouldn't use it. I had problems with 98SE, and ME, but never tried on 2K. I tried the RAID when I was first setting up my computer again to see if it worked. It seemed to be pretty close to my original speed since I only have one drive right now. I wish I could afford another Barracuda so I could tell you, but I can't. Sandra doesn't seem to like RAID. It gave me low scores too on the KA266-R. I will try to get another drive as soon as possible so that I can put more input on the RAID feature. All I can say is to make sure everything is correct. The RAID drivers, the BIOS setup, the RAID utility, and that the drives are set right on the RAID config that pops-up before the OS starts. I wish I could give you more info.

 

[AkumaBao]

Just keeping it alive.

 

[AZGamer]

I had one ordered from MWave for a system I built. Upon putting memory in the middle DIMM loot, the system shorted upon boot and fried that memory slot in addition to the memory within it. This is just the most recent of a slew of bad experiences I've had with ALi chipset based products. I am going to have to be the proverbial wet-blanket and not reccoment purchasing this board.

 

[AkumaBao]

Sorry to hear that. Sound like it got shorted somehow other than just "because it an ALI chipset".

 

[WheelsCSM]

Does this board have adjustable PCI/AGP bus dividers to run at those high FSB speeds?

 

[StormRider]

How good is this board if you don't plan of overclocking? At standard settings is the performance still good?

 

[resinboy]

1/5 and 1/6 dividers

Nice for us folks that run scsi cards, so the pci bus can be at 33, when you are running at 166 fsb
Generally what we have been seeing, this board at 166 gives what the Via 266 is at 133mhz( memory performance).

Resinboy

 

[AllDressedUp]

Let's see...

AZ,
Perhaps you got a dud. My first board appeared to have some problems as well, but I've used two since then, and so far (knock wood) they seem to be holding up pretty well.

Gotta be a bit careful about the memory installation on these though. It's easy to close the clips on the DIMM, and have the middle of the module not be completely seated. Don't know if that's what happened in your case, but I can imagine it shorting a socket quite easily. Gotta make sure the entire thing is inserted all the way.

Wheels & Resin,
It does have 1/5 and 1/6 Dividers... sort of. Some users have apparently noticed memory scores dropping when using 1/5, perhaps because the PCI and memory bus are not working asynchronously. To get the full story on this though you oughta check out the threads in AMDMB, and the review at Accelenation. There still seems to be some debate about whether they're working the best way they could.

FWIW, I tried the 1/5 Divider, and it had no negative impact on processing power (my main interest) that I could see. But I couldn't really assess it's reliability because my Corsair 2400 memory was near it's threshold of stability at 166FSB.

If your sole reason for getting the board is to use the Dividers, you might want to hold off a bit until more results are in with some true PC2700 memory.

Stormrider,
Most of the performance issues with this board seem to be related to OCing features in BIOS, and whether or not their operation could be tweaked a bit better. At the default settings, I think the board probably runs more or less on par with the KT266As, based on reviews I've seen. Youghta check 'em out yourself though in case I may be mistaken on this.

 

[Cancer12]

Ok, I don't know much about the Iwill XP333, but it sure seems to be a grassroots movement among everyone here. Does it use the new Alimagik chipset because I know the first one was horrid. Are there any known stability problems? Did Via find a way into this board like it did the AMD760? Just some general questions.

 

[Bovinicus]

If the stock speed performance is made equivilant to that of the KT266A or close to it, I think this could become the ultimate overclockers board. Looks intriguing, but I think I will hold onto my 8KHA+ for a while to come. =)

 

[resinboy]

pretty sad that on Xmas morning, I still have to check the posts

This board uses the Ali Magic C revision- no stability problems, and no sign of via.


Merry XMAS to all!!

Resinboy

 

[AkumaBao]

Well, yes it has independent PCI/AGP adjusting. As for how it does without overclocking, that's what my review is based on. I have to agree, the first two ALI chipsets were bad, but I still liked the Iwill board because of their stability. The B0 chipset rocks! Definate improvement!

 

[senior guy]

Admitedly, I don't know a heck of a lot about this latest incarnation of the Ali Magic chipset, so what's with the 'BO' and 'Rev. C' terminology?

I found AkumaBao's review a good read, but I'm left wondering how well the board performs in comparison to KT266A boards in the same price range, such as Epox 8KHA+ (both at their optimized default settings)?

Finally, without any overclocking, what (if any) performance gains are realized by using PC2400 compared to PC2100?

Thanks, and Merry Christmas!

 

[Bingo13]

Senior Guy,

1. The XP333 will lose to most KT266a boards in the major synthetic benchmarks (few percentage points overall) but is equal to or better than the same boards in most application and gaming performance. The board is very stable and runs very well except in some overclocking conditions. As with most boards different people have different results but so far for me this board has been a breath of fresh air in compatibility and stability compared to most of the VIA boards I have used (although the KT266a is very good in this regard).

2. There is no performance gain using PC2400 over PC2100 at stock bus speeds.

3. The revision "C" indicates the current revision the ALi MAGiK 1 M1647 chipset is at with the North Bridge chip having a "B0" level change. The south bridge is using the ALi M1535D+ chip.

later...

 

[senior guy]

Bingo~ Thanks very much for that info. I'm planning to get (but will NOT be overclocking) an AthlonXP1800+ and 1GB of memory (?) for the board. Which memory modules (brand/model#) perform best at the BIOS' most optimized memory settings?

Merry Christmas!

 

[IntelConvert]

Well, Santa (wifey) gave me a nice 'envelope' for Christmas - like I always say, 'when you think enough to give the very best, give cash'.

XP333 here I come! ...BTW, is it available in 2 versions - with/without RAID? ...Also, I noticed that newegg lists them, but doesn't have any in stock, who does?

Wishing you all a merry Christmas.

 

[AllDressedUp]

At the moment, the 2.1 RAID looks pretty good. A new BIOS was just release for the 2.0's though. Here are some thoughts on where to get.

Before you get too enthusiastic though, better see if it's gonna work the way ya want. The board can rip, but not all have found the configuration of OCing controls precisely to their liking.