Iwill DVD266R Apollo Pro266

After reviewing so many VIA KT133A based boards, it is time for a change. Today, we are extremely delighted to be one of the first sites to preview this board, a Dual Processor SMP mainboard featuring the latest VIA Apollo Pro 266 chipset here at OCworkbench.com. - an engineering sample of the DVD266R

We have already seen the growing interest in SMP machines in server applications like NT/Windows 2000 Server running Exchange, Notes. Lately there has been a craze to get that performance in the gaming world too. Performance and Stability is the main issue. Although gamers will go all the way to overclock it. Well, you will be interested to know that I am now running this machine at 150Mhz FSB for 2 X Coppermine 800EB on Windows 2000 Professional.

Iwill DVD266R isn't a DVD player but a SMP capable mainboard using DDR SDRAM designed around the VIA APOLLO PRO 266 chipset. Earlier, we have already seen how well the ABIT VP6 (based on VIA 694X) performs and now let's a look at the Iwill DVD266R.

So what is so special about this newer VIA Apollo Pro 266 chipset compared to it's earlier brothers ? Let's have a look here as obtained from VIA website :

The VIA Apollo Pro266 brings unrivaled features, performance, and scalability to mainstream Intel® Pentium® III, Intel® Celeron™, and VIA Cyrix™ Joshua processor-based platforms. Key features include the following::

Ultra-Fast 266MHz Memory Bus
Through its advanced V-Link memory controller architecture, the VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset supports up to 2.0GB of the latest high-speed DDR200/266 SDRAM at a peak bandwidth of 2.1GB per second. These advanced memory technologies provide the bandwidth and performance necessary for even the most demanding Internet and 3D graphics applications at a minimal cost premium over PC133 SDRAM.
Low Power Consumption
DDR266 SDRAM lowers memory power consumption to 2.5 volts, providing the ideal solution for small form factor desktops and notebooks
High-Speed 133MHz Front Side Bus
With its 133MHz Front Side Bus, the VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset optimizes the performance of the latest Intel® Pentium® III processors as well as VIA's forthcoming Joshua processor. The VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset's highly scaleable asynchronous bus design also makes it the ideal solution for Intel® Pentium III and Intel® CeleronTM processors running at FSB speeds of 66 and 100MHz.
Vivid AGP4X Graphics Performance
The AGP4X interface on the VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset ensures vivid 3D graphics and video performance.
ATA-100
The ATA 100 interface on the VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset helps boost system performance by providing a high-speed connection to the new generation of ATA 100 Hard Disk Drives, delivering maximum sustained data transfer rates of 100MB/sec.
V-LINK BUS is a new high-speed low-latency V-Link bus that doubles the communication bandwidth between the North and South Bridge to 266MB per second. This definitely speed things up.