Just incase I get accused of copying or anything else I am also tybalt on dooyoo.
Just incase I get accused of copying or anything else I am also tybalt on dooyoo.
Member since:01.01.2002
Reviews:6
Members who trust:3
Just a little note here, I'm going to go into pretty good detail here and maybe slightly technical so sorry if I baffle you.
Well as some may know (probably not many), I have recently built myself a new PC. The first one I've ever built in fact, and thankfully and came off without a hitch (pity the second one ain't going so well). Anyway this is the motherboard that I choose as the basis for the system. It has all the features I could wish for (I will list them later), and is one of the cheapest boards to offer the best performance DDR chipset (in my opinion) the VIA KT266A. The chipset for those who don't know, I like to describe as a gateway between components. There is a Northbridge and a Southbridge, each controlling different things, but equally important. That's enough detail, I don't really understand much more about it myself.
Before buying this motherboard I read lots and lots of reviews on this motherboard just to ensure that it wasn't going to be my worst purchase every (Oh the memories of my last PC purchase). I was very close to waiting and going for the Abit KR7A-RAID motherboard, which uses the same chipset. Then I thought I couldn't be bothered waiting for the Abit board to come out. Thankfully I haven't been disappointed. If you want a detailed specification of this motherboard, then browse over to MSI's site, there's a full specification of the board there.
~~Features~~ This board is basically a feature packed board, and I managed to get it on offer for around £110 (£20 saving), which I was pretty pleased about. It has more features
than I think I will ever need. It even features an onboard USB 2.0 controller, which is you use the header provided, gives you four USB 2.0 connections. These are 40x faster than the previous USB 1.1, and they can even be used with USB 1.1 devices. The speed increase isn't breathtaking considering there are very few USB 2.0 devices on the market yet, but it's a nice idea all the same. In total you get 8 USB sockets.
There is also an onboard RAID controller. This can let you join up two of your hard drives in a RAID partition. The only thing I don't like about the controller MSI choose to use with this board (Promise RAID controller) doesn't allow you to use as a normal IDE controller, which would allow you to connect up to 8 IDE devices. I haven't tried it out yet, but I have check out the manual that comes with the motherboard for it. It looks pretty easy to use, but unless you have two or more hard drives (of similar size) it isn't really worth it. I had to disable to controller on first boot in the BIOS, so that it doesn't search for drives on each boot.
The board also features onboard sound, again I didn't bother trying this out, mainly because I have a Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 Player soundcard. Those who have heard, there have been some problems with this card and some motherboards. I am happy to report though that I didn't have any trouble using the two together. I'm also a little boastful and I have to say one of the best attributes of my new PC is the sound. I've got 5.1 surround sound. With the Cambridge SoundworksDTT2200Desktop Theatre (also manufactured by Creative, but that's another opinion). The best bit about this, is that I got both together in a deal for £90 (including VAT).
There I also another very useful feature that is only really found on MSI motherboards, D-LED (may also be found on other boards but under different names). This makes it very easy to locate problems. It is made up of four green and red lights, which can show 16 different messages. If something is wrong, then whatever pattern of lights shown can be understood using the manual. I haven't had to use this yet on my PC, but it came in very useful on one that I was building for someone else using an MSI motherboard. The LEDs can be found on either the motherboard itself or using the back plate that comes with the motherboard.
MSI also decided to go with 5 PCI slots and 1 CNR (Communication Network Riser) slot, instead of just 6 PCI slots. I would have preferred 6 PCI slots, but I guess I'll have to live with it. They also included a 1x/2x/4x AGP slot, so it is basically compatible with any AGP graphics card mine included.
There is also a very useful Windows software program that comes in the package. It is called PC-Alert and can be used to monitor you PC Health in real-time. It gives current running statistics of your PC, things like CPU temperature (a must for the overclocker).
You also get Fuzzy Logic, which allows you to overclock your PC in real time running Windows. The only good thing is that it makes it a simple process instead of needing to go though the BIOS settings.
One other feature that isn't really a feature would be that the motherboard is RED. I love colours, so a bright colourful motherboard is lovely, and very much appreciated.
~~Overclocking~~ I am not a real hardcore overclocker, but I do like getting my money's worth when buying something, so being able to get more out of my CPU (Central Processing Unit) is always a nice thought. This motherboard gives you the option of increasing the FSB in 1Mhz increases, which is really good. I had my Athlon XP 1600+ running at the same speed as an Athlon XP 1700+ and could go even further. The only thing about this is unlike some motherboards you can't overclock the FSB by itself, you have to overclock the PCI bus at the same time. Also you can only increase the Voltage setting up to 1.85Volts, 2Volts would have been nice, but this should be enough for most.
~~Layout~~ I definitely thing that MSI have spent a good deal of time when considering the layout of this motherboard. There are only a few minor niggles about it, but then no motherboard is perfect is it? Me being a system tweaker find one thing very annoying, because of my extremely long Hercules 4500 graphics card, I can't access any of the RAM slots without removing the Graphics Card first. This is very annoying to me, but can be forgiven by the fact that the board is pretty small. The ATX power connecter also could have maybe been placed somewhere else, because where it is means that the wires runs directly over your heatsink, which could cause problems with air flow. One really good thing about this design is that there are few heatsinks that I think won't fit on this board. I don't have a very big one, but there are no problems when fitting it (except the extremely tense spring) and there is loads of room left either side.
~~Performance~~ I have nothing to complain about performance wise about this board. It is one of the best performance motherboards in its class. Especially when used with quality components. It may not perform as well as the reference board using the VIA KT266A chipset, but the difference is barely noticeable.
This is my so to say test setup: MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU (of course) AMD Athlon XP 1600+ 512mb DDR RAM (2.5 latency) Hercules 4500 40gig IBM Deskstar 60GXP CDRW and DVD drives
Using this set-up and Windows 98SE, I have very, very little to complain about. The motherboard is as stable as a rock, even when overclocked. It is easy to install and use.
~~Conclusion~~ Of all the motherboards that I had to choose between, this one has proved to be a very stable performance motherboard. The use of DDR RAM is an added bonus and with the fact the DDR RAM is basically the same price as SDRAM, there is really no reason not to go for DDR with its extra performance increase. That is if you can afford to upgrade your motherboard. I now love this motherboard, how can I not it's red and it works like a dream. I don't think there is any other motherboard available that would change my mind, other than maybe the Soyo motherboard using the same chipset (it's black with purple PCI slots and yellow RAID connectors), but it wasn't available when I was purchasing the parts for my PC.
You'll now be happy to hear I've said what I wanted to say and also slightly baffled myself in the process of writing it. Now I'm off to go and play Operation Flashpoint, now that I can play it at full settings.
David
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