stealthjoe wrote on 2024-11-27, 16:05:

Hello,

I am planning to get the IWill VA133 Plus motherboard. Have read on one of the threads that this board is very capable for setting voltages for a wide range of CPUs. My intention is to get it primarily for C3 compatibility (Ezra/Samuel 2 for now and Nehemiah in the future). Any thoughts on how well this board performs with either an Ezra or Nehemiah and its general performance and stability including cons?

I have one of these. Haven't tested it with a C3, but I've used it with modded tualatins a lot. It ca drive my Tualeron 1000 at 1333Mhz stock voltage, and performance is fantastic.

Not sure how the board performs but in real world the C3 are not close to a Celeron in overall performance of same speed. The only benefit they have is lower power but at the reduction of about 50% performance.
Just a FYI....

Fastest VIA C3 Nehemiah with overclocking to 1.4+ Ghz roughly equals to Pentium 3 700-750MHz depending on the task being performed.

Thank you for your inputs. This board seems to support the Nehemiah CPUs (out of the box) since most S370 boards officially only support upto Samuel 2. Could go for a slotket but the prices are insane and availability (especially the GA-6BXC 2.0 which is the popular choice) is a major issue. The reason for C3 is the ability to adjust various speeds on par with K6 3+ for DOS gaming - something which may not be possible with a Pentium 3.

stealthjoe wrote on 2024-11-28, 06:56:

Thank you for your inputs. This board seems to support the Nehemiah CPUs (out of the box) since most S370 boards officially only support upto Samuel 2. Could go for a slotket but the prices are insane and availability (especially the GA-6BXC 2.0 which is the popular choice) is a major issue. The reason for C3 is the ability to adjust various speeds on par with K6 3+ for DOS gaming - something which may not be possible with a Pentium 3.

If it supports Samuel 2 it will post with a Nemiah chip. All socket 370 boards I tested post with Nemiah core C3 chips, but performance varies. Issues vary from general system instability to horrid memory performance. My best Nemiah compatible board are an Epox EP-3VSA2 (VIA 82C654T) and my Abit ST6 (intel 815).

Socket3 wrote on 2024-11-28, 15:24:

If it supports Samuel 2 it will post with a Nemiah chip. All socket 370 boards I tested post with Nemiah core C3 chips, but performance varies. Issues vary from general system instability to horrid memory performance. My best Nemiah compatible board are an Epox EP-3VSA2 (VIA 82C654T) and my Abit ST6 (intel 815).

Interesting. Had read one of your posts where you mentioned that the board Lucky Star 6VA693AM was able to identify 800Mhz C3 Samuel, but was locking up after POST when using 1200 Mhz Nehemiah. The Epox board has an ISA slot but seems to be quite hard to find.

stealthjoe wrote on 2024-11-29, 17:16:

Socket3 wrote on 2024-11-28, 15:24:

If it supports Samuel 2 it will post with a Nemiah chip. All socket 370 boards I tested post with Nemiah core C3 chips, but performance varies. Issues vary from general system instability to horrid memory performance. My best Nemiah compatible board are an Epox EP-3VSA2 (VIA 82C654T) and my Abit ST6 (intel 815).

Interesting. Had read one of your posts where you mentioned that the board Lucky Star 6VA693AM was able to identify 800Mhz C3 Samuel, but was locking up after POST when using 1200 Mhz Nehemiah. The Epox board has an ISA slot but seems to be quite hard to find.

Turned out to be an issue with the ram I had installed. The samuel chip used 100Mhz FSB. The Nemiah is 133Mhz fsb. The LS board didn't like the combo. I figured that out when I got the exact same issue (freezing at post) with a 133Mhz FSB coppermine.

Socket3 wrote on 2024-12-01, 20:17:

Turned out to be an issue with the ram I had installed. The samuel chip used 100Mhz FSB. The Nemiah is 133Mhz fsb. The LS board didn't like the combo. I figured that out when I got the exact same issue (freezing at post) with a 133Mhz FSB coppermine.

Hello. I got this board recently and although it posts, noticed that a component B116 near the right side of socket is missing. I am assuming this to be a cap as a similar B117 was beige.

Any idea of the value of this component if you could please check it? Thanks.