FIC KW15 i810E Slot-1/Socket-370 ATX

The KW15 sports Award's popular 6.00 PGMA BIOS, allowing jumperless setup. Descriptions of the settings can be found in the right panel of the screen and there are many different system settings to allow for maximum overclockability -- a plus for hardcore hardware enthusiasts. This BIOS is highly customized by FIC with a feature called BIOS Guardian. During POST, a couple of hot keys are listed that give you access to fail safe defaults, performance defaults, clock speed configuration, and even the Award BIOS Flash program that is built into the BIOS. Trend Chip Away Anti-Virus is also integrated into the BIOS, as with many other FIC boards.

While FIC's webpage only mentioned 11 different FSB speeds, the board we tested had 13 to select from: 66 / 68.5 / 75 / 100 / 103 / 112 / 117 / 124 / 129 /133 / 138 / 140 / 150. The board is practically jumperless -- in fact there was no jumper block to set FSB speed, leaving everything up to the BIOS. The clock multiplier can be set in the BIOS from 3.0x - 8.0x; however, with all Intel CPUs multiplier locked, clock multiplier flexibility is no longer a big issue. The KW15 would not run our PIII 550E overclocked to 133 MHz even though it has run at that speed with other boards. Jumper's 2 and 10 are important to mention because they must both be set when choosing between Slot-1 and Socket-370 interfaces.

For hardware monitoring, the I/O chip has integrated hardware monitoring. The IT8712 I/O chip monitors 8voltages, 3 fan speeds, up to 2 thermistors and CPU temperature. Also, the temperature is read from the CPU's on die thermal diode instead of being reported via thermistor. The inclusion of three fan connectors -- one above the CPU, one to the left of it and one on the bottom right of the board -- allows for plenty of cooling options.

The power management options are the same as most other boards these days. For the users who wish the computer to turn on in the presence of network activity or an incoming call, both wake on LAN and wake on modem ring headers are available. Also, the BIOS can be set to turn on the system at a specific time so the computer can wake up before you. The CPU fan can be shut off when the system suspends to quiet things down a bit. ACPI support is built into the BIOS for added power management under an ACPI compliant OS like Windows 98 or Windows 2000. The system can be configured to power on via hot key or mouse click. Another nice feature which is often disregarded is the added ability to choose what power state to return to after a power outage (or when using a surge protector). If 24/7 system operation is mandatory, this feature is perfect.

The manual is better than what most motherboard companies include, but it was difficult to obtain from the internet -- it came in 7 separate pdf files. FIC included a driver disk and two fully loaded CD-ROMs. The included driver CD has all chipset and driver updates to get the system running but must be manually found on the CD-ROM. Also included is FIC's hardware monitoring utility which is sufficient for hardware monitoring support. The second CD included Norton's Ghost, AntiVirus and Virtual Drive -- much more than most companies have supplied. Also, the second serial port was included, which is needed for almost anyone not using USB components.