| Iwill DK8N
Package Contents
The DK8N comes in the typical shiny pink Iwill retail box. I don't
know why they like pink, but hey, it's a neat marketing trick that
allows consumers to quickly identify those pink boxes as Iwill products.
The included items are as follows:
- DK8N motherboard on a foam pad inside a large anti-static bag
- Paper booklet
- CD with drivers and software
- Two CPU heatsink retention brackets with screws and rear metal
plate with adhesive
- Two two-device 80-wire 40-pin PATA flat cables with Iwill-labeled
pull-tabs
- One two-device 34-pin floppy flat cable
- Rear I/O shield
- Four black SATA signal cables
- Two red SATA signal cables (longer than the black ones)
- Two Molex to two-SATA-power Y-cables
- Extra jumpers with pull tabs
- Iwill sticker badge
Unlike other boards from lesser manufacturers, the DK8N comes in a
sturdy anti-static bag. This is especially important in protecting
this high-dollar creation against nasty micro-lightning. The PATA
cables are pretty much ordinary, however I would have preferred rounded
cables considering the amount one has paid for this product. Those
of us that can assemble a machine in our sleep with one hand tied behind
our back, usually have no need to refer to the book. However, the
book itself is still, in a way, a reflection of the quality and effort
the company puts into its products. The DK8N manual is like a
castrated version of what would have been a useful and informative piece
of documentation. Grammar, typos and various errata abound in the
little pink book. Many of us would know what it means as opposed
to what it is saying, but the corrections can only be found by hunting
down the correct PDF in Iwill's site:
The image above shows the correct designations of the
CPU fan headers. We will also use the image to show the various
headers of the DK8N:
-
Six 3-pin fan headers
-
Two 9-pin USB 2.0 headers with two ports each for a
total of four USB 2.0 ports - J15 and J18
-
One 9-pin COM2 RS-232 port header - CN44
-
One 10-pin IEEE 1394 header - J14
-
One 4-pin S/PDIF in/out header - J6
-
One 9-pin front-panel audio header - J11
-
One 2-pin chassis intrusion switch header - CN806
-
One 4-pin CD-ROM analog audio input header - above
J6
-
Front panel header that includes: PWR, RST, POW_LED,
HDD_LED, SPKR - CN48
There are three jumpers to take note
of:
The DK8N's layout is excellent. The staggered CPU-DIMM
arrangement seems strange at first, but was probably done to allow for
easier component layout with respect to the rear I/O ports and
DIMMs, and shorter
traces between the processors. Both the AGP tunnel and the NF3
southbridge chipsets are cooled by low-profile aluminum heatsinks.
I can imagine modders out there putting LED fans on these sinks, or
replacing them altogether with low-profile Iceberq-style
active coolers. The 24-pin power connector being at
the top edge of the board is also an excellent choice. Having the SATA
RAID (J1, J2, J3 and J4), FDD and PATA ports at the lower edge is also ideal. However,
the two NF3 SATA ports (J16 and J17) are located at the middle of the board makes it
difficult to swap SATA cables when necessary, especially when the
cooling apparatus of both CPUs are already installed.
The DK8N also sports an on-board buzzer and a vertically-oriented
battery, which makes for easy removal! Lastly, the use of shorter capacitors around the CPU sockets, whether
intended or not, allows us to use the best heatsink for aircooling as of
this writing - Thermalright's XP-120.
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