ECS P6IWT-A+ Revision 2.0b

ECS P6IWT-A+ Rev. 2.0b ATX Motherboard
Reviewed by Samuel Hong (28 November 1999)

Motherboard Specifications

Processor

Intel Celeron^®Processor 266MHz-500MHz (66Mhz).
Intel Pentium^®II Processor 233MHz-333MHz (66Mhz).
Intel Pentium^®II Processor 350MHz-450MHz (100Mhz).
ECS Gemini Architecture (Support for Slot 1 and Socket 370).

Chipset

Intel i810e chipset (Officially supports 133MHz FSB).

Cache memory

CPU Built-in 128KB/512KB L2 cache for Celeron/Pentium II Processor

System Memory

2 x 168-pin 3.3v DIMM sockets support
Supports 8/16/32/64/128 MB DIMM Module
Supports SDRAM PC66 & 100(Supports ECC, 1-bit Error Code Correct function)
Supports up to 512MB of memory size
Supports 66/75/100/103/112/117/124/127/133/137/140 MHz System Clock Speed Setting
Supports 3.0-8.0 Multiplier Setting

PCI IDE

2 X PCI Bus Master UDMA/33 IDE ports (up to 4 ATAPI Devices)
Supports for PIO Mode 0-4, UDMA/33 IDE & ATAPI CD-ROM

I/O Interface

1x floppy port (360KB-2.88MB)
2x serial ports (16550 high-speed)
1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP)
PS/2 Keyboard
PS/2 Mouse
2x USB
1x VGA
1 Audio port (Line_Out, Line_In and Mic_In) and 1 MIDI/Game Port powered by the Elite PCI CMI 8738 3D audio chipset.
1x 16-pin connector for optional modem card supporting the V90 standard.

Expansion slot

5 x PCI 32-bit slots, PCI 2.1 compliant
1x AMR slot

Power Management

Power On by LAN, Modem, Keyboard & Soft-Power Switch
Power Off by Windows^®95/98 Shut down & Soft-Power Switch
ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) feature
2 level ACPI LED
Suspend To RAM (STR) feature

Form Factor

ATX Form Factor : 30.5cm(L) x 22cm(W) x 4 layers PCB
Fits into regular ATX Case
ATX Connector on Board

BIOS

2 Mbit (256KB) FLASH memory
Award PCI BIOS with Green, PnP, DMI and Anti-Virus Functions
LS120, ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4 bootable

<Introduction><The Test><The Good> <The Bad><Conclusion><Rating>

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Introduction

On the first attempt of any task, things seldom turn out the way we want them to really be. In order to succeed, we must really persevere and not harbour the "once bitten, twice shy" attitude. Easier said than done, right? Just take the example of our very well known Intel Corp. which has over the years rolled out chipsets for the lower-end Celeron processors.

First up, we had the 440EX which was largely a scaled down 440LX chipset. This chipset was made into mainboards never took off in the DIY market. Next came the 440ZX which was essentially another scaled down chipset, from the 440BX, this was somewhat better received than the 440EX. This was due to the popular low-cost Abit ZM6 was based on the 440ZX chipset and had some work-arounds against the limitations of the 440ZX chipsets. Then came the i810 launched together on 26th April with the Celeron 466 processor. Essentially, the i810 is also very much based on the 440ZX but with some improvements and integration! Originally, the i810 chipset was intended for use with the Celeron, but it soon was another low-cost alternative for running the Pentium II processors. More recently, the launch of the i810e which is basically a i810 officially supporting 133MHz front-side bus was launched. As we can see, Intel did make some headway with the this new chipset, but will it be a failure like its predecessors? Unlikely, but only time will tell!

First Impressions

Honestly, I can't really write much about the section because since this board is an engineering sample, so it came without a manual, only the box with the mainboard and 1 IDE and floppy cable. So I will relate what I first thought on holding the mainboard.

The first thing I noticed was of course the nice colour-coded I/O adapters at the side which are part of the PC 99 Specifications. One thing though, these mainboards follow a different colour coding as compared to those from PC manufacturers like Compaq, Dell etc. For example the PS/2 socket for the keyboard is violet as opposed to orange for Compaq PCs. Another thing which struck me was the absence of the ISA/AGP slots, leaving only the PCI slots and 1 new AMR slot. ISA peripheral cards should be excluded since there is low bandwidth and hogs up precious IRQs. Video is now integrated into the i810e chipset so the AGP slot is no longer needed. Besides the lack of scalability, there are numerous downsides, all of which I'll mention later in the review!

On examining the underside and the PCB quality, I felt that this board is definitely solidly made and of good material, no doubts about it! Besides those few pointers, I really can't think of anything else, so let's plunge into the review right away!

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The Test

In this round of tests, several processors were used to test both the Slot 1 performance and the Socket 370 performance. The P2-350 used in this test is the same as the one used in previous tests by CPU-Zilla and is able to clock up to speeds in excess of 500MHz. Also the Hyundai PC-100 SDRAM used in the tests are able to clock up to 140MHz without any problems. The Celeron 300A (PGA) used is able to clock up to 527MHz without any problems.

Test Configuration

Processor(s): Pentium II - 350 Retail, batch=SL37F, 2.0V, Philippines
Celeron - 300A, Retail, batch=SL32A, 2.0V Malaysia

RAM: 1 x 64MB Hyundai PC-100 SDRAM DIMM (10ns)

Hard Drive(s): Quantum Fireball EX 3.2GB

Video Card(s): Intel i810 Graphics Chipset (Integrated i752)

Bus Master Drivers: Windows 98 Bus Mastering Drivers

Video Drivers: Intel Graphics Drivers

Operation System(s): Windows 98 (build 4.10)

Processor Tests

Ziff-Davis Benchmark (Winbench 99) Results

System Speed \ Benchmarks CPUMark 32 FPU Winmark

C300A (4.5 x 66) 597 1610

C504 (4.5 x 112) 928 2660

C527 (4.5 x 117) 971 2800

P2-350 (3.5 x 100) 875 1800

P2-466 (3.5 x 133) 1160 2400

P2-490 (3.5 x 140) 1230 2520

Wintune98 Results

System Speed \ Benchmarks CPU Integer (MIPS) CPU Floating Point (MFLOPS) Memory (MB/s)

C300A (4.5 x 66) 878.913 350.3103 530.1116

C504 (4.5 x 112) 1474.873 587.2624 873.2939

C527 (4.5 x 117) 1540.986 614.7455 918.9308

P2-350 (3.5 x 100) 1019.649 408.053 587.163

P2-466 (3.5 x 133) 1360.372 545.2959 793.0914

P2-490 (3.5 x 140) 1425.264 571.3011 814.0918

Well, the benchmark scores speak for themselves, and I did not include results from other 440BX based mainboards for example the ECS P6BXT-A+, you could take a look at CPU-Zilla's review on the ECS P6BXT-A+ and compare the results against mine. Let's continue with the section on the integrated i752 on the i810e chipset.
Video Tests

Well, this is the second i810 board to step into our Hardware Zone Reviews Lab (the first one was the DFI PW65-D reviewed by Vijay). So in round of video tests, I decided to do some slightly more thorough testing and examine if Intel did really spruce up the i740. The results are quite evident as we can see.

Since the P6IWT-A+ does not have an AGP slot, I used back my old BH6 to test the nVidia RIVA TNT (Asus AGP V3400TNT/TV) and the Intel i740 (Asus AGP V2740TV). All tests were run using the Pentium II 350MHz processor. AGP/CLK was set at 2/3.

Wintune98 Results (i752)

System Speed \ Benchmarks Video 2D (MPixels/s) Direct3D (MPixels/s) OpenGL (MPixels/s)

C300A (4.5 x 66) 39.41437 9.20612 6.995479

C504 (4.5 x 112) 54.65726 13.34801 9.903391

C527 (4.5 x 117) 57.19427 14.06075 10.38251

P2-350 (3.5 x 100) 49.69427 10.59997 8.081029

P2-466 (3.5 x 133) 48.37433 12.18957 9.088077

P2-490 (3.5 x 140) 51.43315 12.8975 9.604664

3DMark 99 MAX Screenshots

Intel i752 Intel i740 Nvidia Riva TNT 3DMark99
Reference Shots Description
Alpha Blending
As you can see from the images, although some work has been done to spruce up the i752, its still has problems with the alpha blending and its very apparent even though the images are not at full size.
Texture Resolution
Between the i752 and the Riva TNT the difference is almost impossible to spot, both look very much like the reference image.
The i740 on the other hand appears to have some problems rendering the edges.
Game-1
The i752 renders the path somewhat grainier than the Riva TNT. But the i752 renders the whole image with more detail than the Riva TNT. A great improvement over the old i740.
If you would notice the 3DMark logos, the i752 renders them at just the correct look, the Riva TNT's screenshot looks blurry.
Game-2
The i752 clearly wins hands down on this screenshot, look at the '99' on the gun, the i752 has it rendered slightly clearer than the Riva TNT! Major work has probably been done, compare both the i740 and i752 images and you can see the differences for yourself!

3DMark 99 Benchmarks

3DMark99-MAX Results

3DMark Results Synthetic CPU 3D Speed Rasterizer Score

At the lead, we have the all popular Riva TNT with 3,070 3DMarks, next the i752 with 2,624 3DMarks and the aged i740 with 2,199 3DMarks. Proof that Intel did actually spruce up the i740. The scores are the same considering I clocked the processor 350MHz to ensure a fair test, the i810e seems to be lagging a bit behind the 440BX. Whilst the Riva TNT and i740 share same scores (440BX). The i810e lags by about 20 points. No doubt about it, our Riva TNT leads the race!
Game-1 Game-2 Fill-Rate

Although i752 technically has a better image quality, the Riva TNT still reigns Same results as Game-1. Riva TNT leads the race again.
Fill-Rate with Multi-texturing 4mb Texture Rendering Speed 8mb Texture Rendering Speed

Riva TNT scorches ahead. Look, the i752 is lagging behind the i740! What a shock, I expect this is due meagre 4MB RAM the i752 is given. The performance between the i752 and i740 widens...
16mb Texture Rendering Speed 32mb Texture Rendering Speed Bump-Mapping Emboss, 3-pass
N/A
The i752 drops to an all time low of 3.6fps and even the Riva TNT loses to the i740 now! No tests performed, because I don't have 128MB RAM. The i752 runs a close second to the Riva TNT, i740 does not support bump mapping.
Bump-Mapping Emboss, 2-pass Bump-Mapping Emboss, 1-pass Notes
As my version of 3DMark99-MAX is not registered, all results are based on an 800x600 resolution at 16-bit colour depth with each processor's proper optimization.
Performance gap between i752 and Riva TNT widens. Same results obtained, Riva TNT scorches ahead.

Comments

What has Intel got to say now? First it claimed that the i752 has Riva TNT like performance, how far is it true? We've seen for ourselves from the set of benchmarks I set the i752 through. Nevertheless the image quality is excellent even beating the Riva TNT at times, alas for speed, it lacks a bit. Nevertheless its still a tad faster than the i740 which means its performance is just about on par with the earlier nVidia Riva 128 chipset. From a office user's point of view, I think the i752 is more than enough for word processing and some 2D games!

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The Good

The ECS P6IWT-A+ board is definitely one stable mainboard, with the Pentium II 350MHz processor, it ran up to 140MHz bus showing no signs of instability. This is possibly due to the fact that the Intel i810e officially supports 133MHz bus speed. When I tried to run the Pentium II 350MHz processor at 466MHz on my BH6, it posted, then hung on reaching the Windows 98 startup screen, since the Hyundai PC-100 RAM I was using could be used up to 140MHz bus and the chip had been tested to run up to 490MHz, the only fault was with the BH6. Take note that my BH6 was one of the later versions which had the 1/4 PCI divider for 133MHz bus setting. Still, I'd like to include some nitty-gritty details on the mainboard's design.

An In-Depth Look

Pictures Comments

These 2 LEDs and Status Indicator mounted on the mainboard provide information on the system, although not as detailed as the MSI-6163Pro, it is very easy to work out their functions (considering I didn't have any manual at all).
The Red LED denotes that the power is still being supplied to the system and is always lighted up, unless the ATX power supply is manually switched off. This LED warns the user when installing peripherals or peripheral cards that the system is still on! The Green LED goes into action when the system is powered up, very much like the power LED.

The status indicator has codes programmed into it I guess, but I could not figure out much, all I know is that once posting is successful, and upon reaching the Windows 98 startup screen, the status indicator changes to 'FF'. On a successful post, it reads '26' and when the system is not able to boot up, for example overclocking your Celeron too far, it reads '2b'. I guess the manual on the ECS P6IWT-A+ would have more info on what the status indicator displays, but it is really a useful tool!

The P6IWT-A+ has improved temperature sensors as compared to the P6BXT-A+, the Slot 1 probe is still very much like a worm and it touches the heatsink nicely. As opposed to the P6BXT-A+, the Socket 370 has an in built senor under the chip, so instead of bending and flexing the worm like temperature probe. The Socket 370 temperature can be obtained much easier and painlessly!

Think you had a close look at the mainboard? Well if you had, you'd notice the lack of ISA slots, which is either good or bad, it all depends which way you interpret it. Supposing you plunk down some cash on the Compro EZFone or the Buddy B-200 cards (which are ISA based), you'd probably not be able to use it on this mainboard. Then again, ISA cards notoriously hog up precious IRQs!
5 PCI slots is not feature exclusive to this mainboard, many 440BX boards support this feature already, the 6th PCI slot is used for the Elite CM8738 Audio chip. The AMR slot is now standard for new mainboards, even the i820 features it! See Vijay's write up on the i810 chipset for more information on the AMR function.

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The Bad

Interestingly, the P6IWT-A+ looks suspiciously like a clone of the P6BXT-A+, besides the notable differences of the i810 and 440BX chipsets and their various features, the flaws of both mainboards are very much similar. Let me state some examples.

For starters, the BIOS does not allow you to enable the on-board modem (using the AMR slot) if you want to disable your built-in sound. It looks like the modem quite closely tied to the sound chipset. You can only enable the modem if the on-board sound is enabled. I was not able to try the modem (although I would have very much loved to) as the AMR card was not provided with the package. Then again the Elite CM8738 is exactly identical to the one found on the P6BXT-A+, since the 440BX doesn't not support AMR, Elitegroup used their own proprietary connection and card for the modem.

Also, the Elite CM8738 has relatively acceptable performance, that is for normal wave-file/MP3 playback, the quality of the MIDI really made me extremely dissatisfied as it sounded like those $30 sound cards you can find in the market. After all, I have been using the Sound Blaster Live! since the start of this year, so my expectations for the CM8738 audio chipset was quite high.

The i752 video chip is now integrated into the i810 north bridge, yet, the north bridge sports only a smallish, gold coloured heatsink with the ECS logo on top. Upon removal, I found the heatsink stuck onto the north bridge by means of double-sided cellophane tape! Probably because I tested the mainboard in open air, but somehow the north bridge (with integrated i752) felt cooler than the i740 graphics processor!

The lack of an AGP slot definitely is a great downside, however there's no harm in disabling the i752 on-board video and using your Voodoo3 PCI card on it. That would be OK if you already own a Voodoo3 PCI, but I would definitely not recommend buying brand new one just to compliment the P6IWT-A+ if you haven't already got the V3.

The Intel i810e now officially supports 133MHz FSB but yet, the amount of FSBs found on this board is extremely limited! The unofficial 83MHz and 105MHz settings are not available at all! I would like to point out that most users of the i810e chipset would be Celeron users and that bus speeds beyond 124MHz are useless as Celerons have multipliers locked above 4.5x, so ECS could look into introducing bus speeds above 83MHz, but below 100MHz, for example 90MHz or 95MHz, this would definitely boost sales.

Lastly, the voltage tweaking should have a cap of 2.3V, suppose a totally ignorant Deschutes user sets his voltage at 2.8V (Klamath setting). The processor would probably be fried and would take centre-stage on his/her display unit for a long time to come!

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Conclusion

Summing up, I'd like to state that although the P6IWT-A+ has its flaws, it's a great board, excellent stability, great overclockability and features adequate enough for the normal user. However, since the i752 graphics engine is now integrated into the i810 north bridge and thus the lack of the all popular AGP slot. I'd recommend this board for office users, and people who don't really play much 3D games. 2D game speed is relatively acceptable though. It's a great buy on the whole and is well worth its 4.5 stars rating!

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MOTHERBOARD RATING

Overall Rating (Out of a maximum of 5 Star)
Installation	****½
Performance	*****
Price	********
Overclockability	*****
Material Quality	****½
Stability	****½
Overall Rating	****½

Any comments/remarks/questions? Click picture below.

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This Product is provided courtesy of

None of the above shall be reproduced, copied and/or
modified without the permission of the WebMaster.

Intel i752	Intel i740	Nvidia Riva TNT	3DMark99 Reference Shots	Description
				Alpha Blending As you can see from the images, although some work has been done to spruce up the i752, its still has problems with the alpha blending and its very apparent even though the images are not at full size.
				Texture Resolution Between the i752 and the Riva TNT the difference is almost impossible to spot, both look very much like the reference image. The i740 on the other hand appears to have some problems rendering the edges.
				Game-1 The i752 renders the path somewhat grainier than the Riva TNT. But the i752 renders the whole image with more detail than the Riva TNT. A great improvement over the old i740. If you would notice the 3DMark logos, the i752 renders them at just the correct look, the Riva TNT's screenshot looks blurry.
				Game-2 The i752 clearly wins hands down on this screenshot, look at the '99' on the gun, the i752 has it rendered slightly clearer than the Riva TNT! Major work has probably been done, compare both the i740 and i752 images and you can see the differences for yourself!

Motherboard Specifications
Processor	Intel Celeron^®Processor 266MHz-500MHz (66Mhz). Intel Pentium^®II Processor 233MHz-333MHz (66Mhz). Intel Pentium^®II Processor 350MHz-450MHz (100Mhz). ECS Gemini Architecture (Support for Slot 1 and Socket 370).
Chipset	Intel i810e chipset (Officially supports 133MHz FSB).
Cache memory	CPU Built-in 128KB/512KB L2 cache for Celeron/Pentium II Processor
System Memory	2 x 168-pin 3.3v DIMM sockets support Supports 8/16/32/64/128 MB DIMM Module Supports SDRAM PC66 & 100(Supports ECC, 1-bit Error Code Correct function) Supports up to 512MB of memory size Supports 66/75/100/103/112/117/124/127/133/137/140 MHz System Clock Speed Setting Supports 3.0-8.0 Multiplier Setting
PCI IDE	2 X PCI Bus Master UDMA/33 IDE ports (up to 4 ATAPI Devices) Supports for PIO Mode 0-4, UDMA/33 IDE & ATAPI CD-ROM
I/O Interface	1x floppy port (360KB-2.88MB) 2x serial ports (16550 high-speed) 1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP) PS/2 Keyboard PS/2 Mouse 2x USB 1x VGA 1 Audio port (Line_Out, Line_In and Mic_In) and 1 MIDI/Game Port powered by the Elite PCI CMI 8738 3D audio chipset. 1x 16-pin connector for optional modem card supporting the V90 standard.
Expansion slot	5 x PCI 32-bit slots, PCI 2.1 compliant 1x AMR slot
Power Management	Power On by LAN, Modem, Keyboard & Soft-Power Switch Power Off by Windows^®95/98 Shut down & Soft-Power Switch ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) feature 2 level ACPI LED Suspend To RAM (STR) feature
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor : 30.5cm(L) x 22cm(W) x 4 layers PCB Fits into regular ATX Case ATX Connector on Board
BIOS	2 Mbit (256KB) FLASH memory Award PCI BIOS with Green, PnP, DMI and Anti-Virus Functions LS120, ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4 bootable

Test Configuration

Processor(s):	Pentium II - 350 Retail, batch=SL37F, 2.0V, Philippines Celeron - 300A, Retail, batch=SL32A, 2.0V Malaysia
RAM:	1 x 64MB Hyundai PC-100 SDRAM DIMM (10ns)
Hard Drive(s):	Quantum Fireball EX 3.2GB
Video Card(s):	Intel i810 Graphics Chipset (Integrated i752)
Bus Master Drivers:	Windows 98 Bus Mastering Drivers
Video Drivers:	Intel Graphics Drivers
Operation System(s):	Windows 98 (build 4.10)

System Speed \ Benchmarks	CPUMark 32	FPU Winmark
C300A (4.5 x 66)	597	1610
C504 (4.5 x 112)	928	2660
C527 (4.5 x 117)	971	2800
P2-350 (3.5 x 100)	875	1800
P2-466 (3.5 x 133)	1160	2400
P2-490 (3.5 x 140)	1230	2520

System Speed \ Benchmarks	CPU Integer (MIPS)	CPU Floating Point (MFLOPS)	Memory (MB/s)
C300A (4.5 x 66)	878.913	350.3103	530.1116
C504 (4.5 x 112)	1474.873	587.2624	873.2939
C527 (4.5 x 117)	1540.986	614.7455	918.9308
P2-350 (3.5 x 100)	1019.649	408.053	587.163
P2-466 (3.5 x 133)	1360.372	545.2959	793.0914
P2-490 (3.5 x 140)	1425.264	571.3011	814.0918

System Speed \ Benchmarks	Video 2D (MPixels/s)	Direct3D (MPixels/s)	OpenGL (MPixels/s)
C300A (4.5 x 66)	39.41437	9.20612	6.995479
C504 (4.5 x 112)	54.65726	13.34801	9.903391
C527 (4.5 x 117)	57.19427	14.06075	10.38251
P2-350 (3.5 x 100)	49.69427	10.59997	8.081029
P2-466 (3.5 x 133)	48.37433	12.18957	9.088077
P2-490 (3.5 x 140)	51.43315	12.8975	9.604664

3DMark99-MAX Results
3DMark Results	Synthetic CPU 3D Speed	Rasterizer Score

At the lead, we have the all popular Riva TNT with 3,070 3DMarks, next the i752 with 2,624 3DMarks and the aged i740 with 2,199 3DMarks. Proof that Intel did actually spruce up the i740.	The scores are the same considering I clocked the processor 350MHz to ensure a fair test, the i810e seems to be lagging a bit behind the 440BX. Whilst the Riva TNT and i740 share same scores (440BX). The i810e lags by about 20 points.	No doubt about it, our Riva TNT leads the race!
Game-1	Game-2	Fill-Rate

Although i752 technically has a better image quality, the Riva TNT still reigns	Same results as Game-1.	Riva TNT leads the race again.
Fill-Rate with Multi-texturing	4mb Texture Rendering Speed	8mb Texture Rendering Speed

Riva TNT scorches ahead.	Look, the i752 is lagging behind the i740! What a shock, I expect this is due meagre 4MB RAM the i752 is given.	The performance between the i752 and i740 widens...
16mb Texture Rendering Speed	32mb Texture Rendering Speed	Bump-Mapping Emboss, 3-pass
	N/A
The i752 drops to an all time low of 3.6fps and even the Riva TNT loses to the i740 now!	No tests performed, because I don't have 128MB RAM.	The i752 runs a close second to the Riva TNT, i740 does not support bump mapping.
Bump-Mapping Emboss, 2-pass	Bump-Mapping Emboss, 1-pass	Notes
		As my version of 3DMark99-MAX is not registered, all results are based on an 800x600 resolution at 16-bit colour depth with each processor's proper optimization.
Performance gap between i752 and Riva TNT widens.	Same results obtained, Riva TNT scorches ahead.

Pictures	Comments
	These 2 LEDs and Status Indicator mounted on the mainboard provide information on the system, although not as detailed as the MSI-6163Pro, it is very easy to work out their functions (considering I didn't have any manual at all). The Red LED denotes that the power is still being supplied to the system and is always lighted up, unless the ATX power supply is manually switched off. This LED warns the user when installing peripherals or peripheral cards that the system is still on! The Green LED goes into action when the system is powered up, very much like the power LED. The status indicator has codes programmed into it I guess, but I could not figure out much, all I know is that once posting is successful, and upon reaching the Windows 98 startup screen, the status indicator changes to 'FF'. On a successful post, it reads '26' and when the system is not able to boot up, for example overclocking your Celeron too far, it reads '2b'. I guess the manual on the ECS P6IWT-A+ would have more info on what the status indicator displays, but it is really a useful tool!
	The P6IWT-A+ has improved temperature sensors as compared to the P6BXT-A+, the Slot 1 probe is still very much like a worm and it touches the heatsink nicely. As opposed to the P6BXT-A+, the Socket 370 has an in built senor under the chip, so instead of bending and flexing the worm like temperature probe. The Socket 370 temperature can be obtained much easier and painlessly!
	Think you had a close look at the mainboard? Well if you had, you'd notice the lack of ISA slots, which is either good or bad, it all depends which way you interpret it. Supposing you plunk down some cash on the Compro EZFone or the Buddy B-200 cards (which are ISA based), you'd probably not be able to use it on this mainboard. Then again, ISA cards notoriously hog up precious IRQs! 5 PCI slots is not feature exclusive to this mainboard, many 440BX boards support this feature already, the 6th PCI slot is used for the Elite CM8738 Audio chip. The AMR slot is now standard for new mainboards, even the i820 features it! See Vijay's write up on the i810 chipset for more information on the AMR function.