Value Dual Socket-370 Motherboard Roundup - August 2001

Iwill DVD266u-RN

Just days before this roundup was set to be published, we got word from Iwill that they would be releasing a new revision of the DVD266, which introduces quite a few impressive new features. While we were not able to test the board in time for this roundup, we were able to gather quite a bit of information on this upcoming board, known as the DVD266u-RN.

Inheriting the DVD266-R, the DVD266u-RN features a DDR dual Socket-370 motherboard using VIA's Apollo Pro266 platform - Iwill is still the only one in the industry to implement this to date. There are quite a few layout modifications on the DVD266u-RN. For starters Iwill finally moved the power supply connector to the right edge of the board. On the DVD266, the connector is located between the AGP slot and one of the CPU sockets, making it extremely difficult to install or remove the connector. Moreover, the IDE connectors are also moved towards the left side of the board.

In term of features, the DVD266u-RN offers even more than the DVD266-R. The DVD266u-RN is based on the VIA Apollo Pro266T chipset, which supports the new Intel Tualatin processors. Instead of the AMI IDE RAID controller that Iwill has been using on most of their products, the DVD266u-RN features the common Highpoint HPT370 IDE RAID controller. The controller most likely will support the three most common RAID functions, RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1. The board will feature an AGP Pro slot instead of the normal AGP slot we found on the DVD266-R. The board will also have an integrated LAN controller for complete network support out of the box.

One of the big things Iwill is pushing is the C-media's CMI8378 six channel hardware sound that has been included on the DVD266u-RN for on-board audio support. Although this setup has been seen on several other boards, the DVD266u-RN is the first to properly support SPDIF through the included SuperAudio module. Iwill is the first in the industry to include this new feature.

Since we did not receive the board in time for publication, we cannot report on performance, stability, or overclocking, although we are confident that the DVD266u-RN will live up to the high standards set by the original DVD266-R.