doesn't work as advertised
Written: Dec 22 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: USB2.0, LAN, AC97 audio, DDR and SDRAM support. Pretty red color.
Cons: Doesn't work with all RAM. Needs P4 power connector.
The Bottom Line: Nice features, but be careful about your RAM. You may need to buy new RAM or swap brands to get it work.
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| selmo's Full Review: MSI KT2 Combo-L Motherboard |
While this motherboard has a nice feature set including USB 2.0 and LAN, I found it did NOT work with my 512MB PC133 DIMMs. It claims to support PC133 RAM, but it fails to recognize my top quality name-brand RAM at 133Mhz, and only works at 100Mhz. This RAM has worked perfectly in at least 6 other motherboard brands and models. I've tried every BIOS setting and option, but it refuses to work at the rated 133Mhz. I've had problems with other MSI motherboards being fussy about brands of RAM, so this one is just more fussy than most. I won't be buying anything else from MSI.
MSI tech support took a week to answer and then just said "change the RAM"...basically I should replace $200 worth of perfectly good RAM to make a $50 motherboard work. Yah, that makes sense.
Also, it should be noted this motherboard requires a P4 power connector, which is rare in an AMD Socket A motherboard. Make sure your power supply has that connector or you'll need an adapter.
Only has 2 fan headers, and the case fan header is in the front of the motherboard so the cables from case fan in the back won't reach it. It also doesn't come with a backplate for a case, so make sure the I/O form factor works with your case.
On the plus side, it's a pretty red color and comes with diagnostics LEDs on a USB back panel. Has 6 USB 2.0 connectors. Supports both DDR and SDRAM, but not at the same time and only has 2 sockets of each. Claims to support up to Athlon XP 2600+ speed CPUs.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 53
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Epinions.com ID: selmo
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Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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