Author Topic: IWill kk266 - tips or tricks (Read 403 times)

Eagler · « **on:** July 16, 2001, 02:52:00 PM »

I have a IWill KK266 (non-raid) board coming with the AMD 1.33 t-bird & DUO462-7 cooler. Anyone using this board? Any tips or advice? It is a change for me as I was an Intel/Abit man for the last eight years.
thanks in advance

[ 07-18-2001: Message edited by: Eagler ]

bloom25 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 16, 2001, 03:09:00 PM »

My advice for all new AMD Tbird and Duron users would be to be careful mounting the heatsink and fan. AMD has an article on the proper way to do so on their website. I would also recommend scraping off any thermal pad that comes on the heatsink and applying a VERY THIN layer of heatsink compound (Artic Silver 2 is the best) to the die itself.

Once the heatsink and fan are properly mounted the rest of the job is really no different than any other system. If you are loading win2k there is a registry entry (Large Page file patch) on AMD and Microsoft's site that should be loaded. You should also definately load Service Pack 2.

I've not used that particular board before, so I don't any specific problems with it. (It has a pretty good reputation though.)

As with all MBs that uses a VIA chipset, immediately after loading windows (before anything else), you should load the newest 4 in 1 drivers from www.viahardware.com . If you have a CD burner I would download them now, unzip them, and have them ready to go. (You will need winzip to uncompress them.)

Here's my usual order for doing AMD systems with VIA chipsets: (note Windows 2000 somewhat different)

1. Go into system bios and make sure temperatures are acceptable and make any changes here you wish too. I would personally take the time to set the AGP speed to 2x and turn off sidebanding and fastwrites. If you have pc133 ram, I would also make sure 133 Mhz is the RAM frequency.
Save and exit.

2. Prepare HD with fdisk and format. Make a folder called win98 on your harddrive. Copy win98 (or win98SE) directory from windows CD to harddrive.

3. Remove win98 CD, reboot, and install windows by going to the directory you made and running setup. (This cuts the install time in half and you will never need the windows cd again in the future.)

4. After loading windows, install via 4 in 1 drivers. Reboot after install. Now load DX 8a. Now go to windows update and install all relevant critical updates as is practical. Now you may load video and sound card drivers. (Reboot after each one of course!

)

5. Enjoy the new computer!

Eagler · « **Reply #2 on:** July 16, 2001, 03:36:00 PM »

bloom25
thank you for the advice

Lephturn · « **Reply #3 on:** July 16, 2001, 04:46:00 PM »

Here is a site on how to properly apply heat-grease.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

Now they are being REALLY anal here, but the basics are there on how to do it and how much to use, cleaning first, etc.

bloom25 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 16, 2001, 09:43:00 PM »

I CANNOT stress this enough for AMD users. The heatsink and fan MUST be put on the chip exactly right. Basically you must never put it on at an angle, or slide it across the chip. Once you see the actual die of the CPU you will see why I stress this so much.

Beyond a doubt the AMD Athlon is the best CPU available at the moment, but it does have 2 faults. First, the die is possible to break by putting the heatsink on wrong.
Second, if you didn't break the die it is possible to burn the CPU out if it gets too hot.

I strongly recommend printing the AMD instructions, and if you want to be 100% safe you may consider buying a shim for the Tbirds.

The basics are that you put the heatsink on top of the CPU die, and making sure the heatsink is sitting flush with the die, latch the non flexible side of the clip to the socket. Now being sure not to slide the heatsink around you latch the other side. Often these clips are very stiff and require a straight blade screwdriver (or a chopstick) to get the leverage to latch them. It is a good thing to note that the bend in the mounting clip will always be right over where the cpu die is if the heatsink is on properly.

Don't get too paranoid about the chip getting chipped or breaking though. If you are aware of the proper way to do it and follow the instructions rather than rushing you will be fine. (Hardware review sites literally take on and off heatsinks on CPUs for reviews hundreds of times without damaging them.) The other good thing about thermal paste (besides better performance), rather than the pad, is that the heatsink doesn't get glued onto the CPU. It is nearly impossible to remove a heatsink from a cpu if the thermal pad was used, since they work by melting themselves onto the die.

Have I scared you enough yet?

Eagler · « **Reply #5 on:** July 17, 2001, 03:19:00 PM »

thanks guys
should I use the 4.30 or 4.32 4in1 drivers?

Defiance · « **Reply #6 on:** July 22, 2001, 07:12:00 AM »

Yo Eagler,
D/load em both like Bloom says m8e, Then try the 30's first then the 32's and see which best suits

Have Fun

Def

Eagler · « **Reply #7 on:** July 23, 2001, 08:45:00 AM »

thx
running the 4.32's without any problems or hiccups .. so far so good.