turbo or iwill's kk266?

[lagvoid]

now im really having a hard time deciding what to get. in the hot deals forum i found out that the msi's k7t turbo is 120 shipped so my mind was set for 5 minutes until i read the article for iwill's new kk266 board. u can get that board for 130 shipped from the same store as the turbo but which one do u guys think is the best deal? i dont have any experience with iwll...

 

[Gametime69]

I am also having the same thoughts but it's either the Abit KT7A-Raid or the Iwill KK266 though. I am not sure which is the better raid controller, the AMI or Highpoint? Which Raid controller is best out of the three Promise, Highpoint, AMI? I want to use the Raid only to keep the hard drives on its own controller (is it ATA-100?).

 

[tpetre4322]

promise is best a7v133 baby. check toms hardware reveiw

 

[lagvoid]

i think im going to go with iwll.. ive heard mostly good things about them. its cheaper than the kt7a by a few bucks but a lil more expensive than the turbo.

 

[drjefft]

The Iwill KK266-R uses the AMI RAID controller yes...Iwill claims that they did this because of the lack of support for good quality RAID mirror/stripping on the other chipsets. The AMI chipset allows for the user to mirror THEN stripe, thus preserving your data and then backing it up, not vise versa.

tpetre4322 assertion <promise is best a7v133 baby. check toms hardware reveiw> I believe is ill fated.

This Asus board has trouble to wit:
1. Uses the lamo software based audio AC'97 Codec versus the Iwill onboard hardware CHIP. Thus Iwill uses less CPU cycles to do onboard sound.
2. The Asus cannot handle the upcoming Palomino CPU due to its choice of weaker voltage chips versus the Iwill choice... read here..
3. Iwill has an ISA slot and Asus does not.
4. Iwill uses the A1 stepping of the KT133a chipset versus the A0 stepping that Asus uses. The A0 stepping is reported to be having some troubles doing the 133/266 FSB.

In regards to Abit, they are reported to be having extreme financial troubles and may not see the end of the business year.... if so say goodbye to any BIOS updates.

Read ANAND's very favorable review (dated Feb 22)of the Iwill KK266 here. He rated it 9.0 / 10

 

[Dulanic]

<< This Asus board has trouble to wit:
1. Uses the lamo software based audio AC'97 Codec versus the Iwill onboard hardware CHIP. Thus Iwill uses less CPU cycles to do onboard sound. >>


If you actually use the onboard sound, valid... if you don't (Most of us dont) who cares.



<< 2. The Asus cannot handle the upcoming Palomino CPU due to its choice of weaker voltage chips versus the Iwill choice... read here.. >>


Incorrect the Asus can handle down to 1.1Vcore, and I have seen many 1.2Ghz CPUs running 1.4-1.5Ghz on a A7V133 so it can handle atleast 46-47 Amps... beyond that we don't know right now.



<< 3. Iwill has an ISA slot and Asus does not. >>


Valid if you need an ISA, if you don't its not a problem. I despise ISA myself



<< 4. Iwill uses the A1 stepping of the KT133a chipset versus the A0 stepping that Asus uses. The A0 stepping is reported to be having some troubles doing the 133/266 FSB. >>


The A0 has NO problems running 133/266... I run can run 154 FSB myself on my A7V133 (Never tried Cas3 tho). But I can say for a fact the A0 stepping has no problem running 133-150 FSB... average board should hit 150.

 

[Gametime69]

So does that mean in a &quot;light sense of the word&quot; that AMI RAID does a better job than the others? I mean I just want to use the ATA-100 feature right now and later try the raid. Well I just ordered the Iwill KK266-R motherboard with the Thunderbird 800. I hope it is the right choice.. LOL

 

[SammyBoy]

from what you guys have read and experienced, which board do you think would be the better overclocker?

that goes for all of the kt133a boards, I have heard of a lot of problems with multipliers on the turbo, what do you guys have to say about the iwill?