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Bus Speeds

Low
Medium
High
66/33
100/33
133/33
68/34
103/34
135/33
75/37
105/35
138/34
80/40
110/36
140/35
83/31
112/37
144/36
90/30
115/38
150/37
95/31
124/31
155/38
 
130/32
160/40
   
166/41

Since the MB is native socket-370, it supports the Celeron PPGA, Celeron FC-PGA and the Pentium 3 FC-PGA processors. Do yourself a favor: even if you pick up the Iwill as a replacement board, go for the P3 solution. The fun begins after you surpass the 133MHz mark. Can you imagine owning a car so fast you have trouble finding enough road for it? This MB has FSB's all the way to 166MHz. While not the highest in the land, when was the last time you heard of somebody running stable at over 166MHz? When testing began, I toyed with the possibility of hitting the FSB brick wall. Didn't happen, but I got close.

The Intel Pentium !!! 700E FC-PGA Processor

Nothing earth shattering about this chip. Except that it was made in the 22nd week of 2000 and that means not only is it new, but it has the greatest possibility of reaching high speeds as Intel's plants officially churn out 933MHz parts. At stock voltage and speed, the chip runs very cool, say 73-75°F. Also at default settings, the power dissipation is a paltry 18.3 watts and current peak is a reasonable 14 amps. However, extrapolating from those figures (peek at Intel's datasheet) leads to a thermal solution of 25.8 watts and a current draw of 20 amps for the 1Gig mark. Since most 235-250 watt power supplies poop out at 22 amps for the +5 volt line, make sure you run this combo with an Athlon approved 300 watt unit or larger. My personal suggestion is a Sparkle/PowerMan 300 watt supply as that is exactly what I used for the tests.

Top
Bottom

Techworks 128MB PC133 SDRAM

Just when you think you've heard of all the possible memory distributors, another pops up that appears new. A quick glance at the Techworks site reveals that they have been around for a few years and dedicate their products for higher end solutions. (Update) This strip had the tried and true Infineon 7.5nS rated chips and appears to run in a CAS2 or 3 configuration. SiSoft reports this strip as "CL3 PC133U-333-542" but the Iwill BIOS accepts a "SDRAM Cycle Length" of 2 all the way to 140MHz FSB. The slower CAS3 or SDRAM 8nS setting must be chosen for FSB's 144MHz and above. This memory was rock-solid stable: then again so was the entire combo...(End of update)

The GlobalWin FKP-32 Heatsink Fan

Exactly the same unit as reviewed in the Celeron 533A@880 combo, the heatsink is designed to fit crowded MB's. It's rather large and tall and gets the job done. The fan does an equally great job at cooling. Rated at 26CFM, you hear every foot of it, but that's the price you pay for top notch air movement. The nifty fringe benefit of all that air flowing around the CPU is that the FKP-32 naturally cools everything the general vicinity. Noticeably cooler are things like the RAM strips, the VIA chipset itself and the bottom of AGP video cards.

The Need For Speed

DOS tests, if they don't do anything else, at least save the operating system load so you don't corrupt all that precious data. They can be a good indicator of just how high a system can go without strain. Then, shave off 5-10% of the maximum attainable speed and nearly 100% of the time, total stability in Windows is assured without endless, time consuming reboots.

DOS Tests

FSB (MHz)
Speed (MHz)
Vcore (Volts)
Chip Temp (F)
Case Temp (F)
133
933
1.65
84
71
144
1008
1.65
86
71
150
1050
1.73
87
71

Note that these DOS tests were completed with the side cover in the "off" position so as to better reach the "clear CMOS" jumper. Also note the low case temperature. The case in question is the excellent InWin S500 (not A500). The airflow design is totally superior to anything I've experienced to date. Most of the time, the case heats to a figure at least 15-25°F above the ambient air temp and sits 5-10°F below the chip temp. The S500 circulates air so well (with no additional fans, not even a case fan), that the interior case temp is barely above the ambient air temp as noted in the Win98SE tests.

 





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