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Iwill BD133 Motherboard Review
Iwill BD133 Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
After the initial introduction of the i815, three more variants would eventually surface to claim differing segments of the market.
 83% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Iwill Jul 25 2001   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Iwill BD133

Microstepping BIOS utility

CPU Throttling
87.5%
75.0%
62.5%
50.0%
37.5%
25.0%
12.5%
The BD133 ships with a fairly standard Award BIOS. Looking at the familiar blue screen nothing really stands out above what Iwill normally offer except for one part of the power management. Curiously it gives the option of throttling the CPU back to as much as 12.5%

When I changed the settings to 87.5% and did some testing I didn't appear to experience any form of this. My guess is that this "option" only becomes apparent when the processor has become overheated overheated (the instructions offer no concrete answer).

Personally, I think it's a innovative feature for Iwill to add, and it shows that they're trying. Of course I'd prefer my computer start beeping and making funny sounds when it gets too hot then to have it slow down, but I can see certain instances where throttling back would be the better option.

There are a couple setting you can alter if you're one of the many who like to try and tweak your memory into better performance. If you've never seen these types of settings before, here's a quick run done of the first four, straight from the pages of the manual.

SDRAM CAS Latency Time
  • Controls the number of clocks between the SDRAM read command and the time that the data actually becomes available. Choices range from 2-3.
SDRAM Cycle Time Tras/Trc
  • Controls the number of SDRAM clocks used per access cycle. Choices will range from 5/7, 7/9.
SDRAM RAS-to-CAS Delay
  • Controls the number of clocks between the SDRAM active command and the read/write command.
SDRAM RAS Precharge Time
  • If an insufficient number of cycles is allowed for the RAS to accumulate its charge before the DRAM refresh, the refresh may be incomplete and the DRAM may fail to retain data. This feature controls the delay clocks after issuing a precharge command to the SDRAM.
The arrow points to the jumper you need to clear the BIOS if the computer fails to post. The usual rule is to turn off the computer and short the jumper for about 5 seconds. Colin calls this jumper "Mr. Lucky."

The name Iwill has chosen for their 1 MHz incremental BIOS feature is "MicroStepping."

It's nothing unusual, 1 MHz increments from 66-200 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB). The really neat part of it is that you don't scroll to the speed you want, you can just press "enter" and input the actual FSB you want!

The MicroStepping utility is also supposed to switch back the default clock settings if you turn out to be too aggressive at your overclocking attempts.

However, I've found that it doesn't really work too well in practice... Let's just say, I know where the "clear CMOS" jumper is really well!

I forgot to take a picture of the BIOS before hand and had given the CPU back already, which is why it looks like PGA Celeron has been dropped in.

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Contents of Article: Iwill BD133
 Pg 1.  Iwill BD133 Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  BD133 Specifications
 Pg 3.  Board layout and components
 Pg 4.  — Microstepping BIOS utility
 Pg 5.  Test System Specs: and benchmarks
 Pg 6.  SiSoft Sandra 2001 SE
 Pg 7.  3DMark 2001 Benchmarks & Conclusions

 
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