MSI K7T Turbo2
Written: Mar 01 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Low price and easy installation
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for a low cost motherboard that works with AMD processors then this is a great choice.
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| opinionated3's Full Review: MSI K7T Turbo2 Motherboard |
I found out the hard way how my options on selecting a new motherboard can be restricted. I recently came home from work and noticed that one of the cooling fans that are mounted on my motherboard quit turning. I found out that this was not a replaceable fan and I would have to send the motherboard to the manufacture to get it replaced.
Unfortunately this happened on a Friday and I couldn't get a replacement from work. So I had to take my chances at the local computer store. When I spoke with the guys in the store and asked about motherboards he asked me what type of processor and memory was I going to be using. This is where my choices got rather small. I told him that I was using an AMD Athlon 1.2 MHz processor and PC133 type memory. He showed me the only two choices I could get from them. One was an All-in-one motherboard from ASUS (video, sound, network interfaces are all integrated) and the MSI K7T Turbo2 . The reason I was limited was because I was using an AMD brand processor and type of memory is an older style memory. Most of the motherboards that are designed to run the AMD processors use the higher BUS speed and utilize the DDR (Double Data Rate) type memory.
The MSI K7T Turbo2 uses a VIA KT133A chipset along with a 200/266 FSB architecture to control the flow of all the information to and from the processor. How this chipset compares with others from Intel I am not sure, but I can tell you in the two months that I have been using it I haven't experienced any lock ups at all. It uses an Award BIOS to control the internal settings that customize all the features that are included on board.
The fit
The most important factor for choosing a motherboard to fit in my existing case was the power supply. The case has an ATX style power supply and because of this I had to choose a motherboard that has the ATX power connections onboard. The other things I had to make sure that fit were all the connectors on the motherboard had to fit in all the right places in the case. What I mean by that is the case has a special plate that fits over the opening in the back of the case. This opening is where all the connections hang off the end of the motherboard. These connectors are for things like the keyboard, mouse (PS/2 connectors) and port connections for parallel, serial and USB interfaces (1x parallel, 2x serial and 2x USB 1.1). The actual size of the board is 12"x 9.6".
The Processor
As said earlier I was using an AMD 1.2 GHz processor and MSI K7T Turbo2 was able to support my processor. I found that this motherboard will support AMD Duron, Athlon and Athlon XP series processors. All of these processors use the Socket A 462 pin connector that is onboard this motherboard. The processor speeds range between 600 MHz through 1800+ MHz's. This will allow me to upgrade to a little faster processor if I want to. The Socket A is what is known as a ZIF socket or Zero Insertion Force socket. This makes installation of the processor very easy and it helps to reduce the mistakes.
The Memory
Fortunately this board does support my memory so I didn't have to replace my memory. I had 2x 128MB SDRAM DIMM modules and it left one socket open. The MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard will support up to 1.5 GB unbuffered RAM. This board supports both PC100 and PC133 SDRAM memory.
Video Support
This board comes with an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Processor) socket, in this socket goes the video board. This board will support video cards that are 1x-4x AGP compatible, but unfortunately it wont handle any of the top of the line 8x AGP video cards.
Sound Support
The MSI K7T Turbo2 that I selected comes with integrated sound. It utilizes the Direct Audio AC97 Audio chipset. So far after using this board for a couple of months I haven't noticed any difference in sound quality as compared with any sound cards I have used in the past. I was really worried that the onboard sound would be a problem but as soon as I loaded the driver for the sound it has worked great.
IDE Support
The IDE connectors onboard are used to connect the floppy, hard disk and other internal storage devices. The board has two Ultra DMA/133/100/66 connectors giving you a wide range of hard drives can be connected to this board. The Maxtor 8 GB ATA 66 along with a 48x CD-rom connected without a hitch on this motherboard. The connectors are located onboard and are easily accessible for quick installation of your drives.
I/O Ports
1x Parallel Port
2x Serial Port
2x USB 1.1 Port
1x PS/2 Keyboard
1x PS/2 Mouse
D-Bracket which contains an additional 2x USB 1.1 ports
Special Features
D-Bracket™ : This device actually serves two purposes. The first is it has two USB 1.1 ports built-in and the second thing is it has 4 green LED's on it in a square pattern. By using these 4 lights you can diagnose problems with your system. There is a total of sixteen light combinations and by using the tables in your manual it will help you figure out what the problem with your system.
PC Alert™ III This is a software program that is on the CD that comes with this motherboard. After you load the software and set it up it will monitor CPU and system temperature, fan speed and systems voltages and displays them on a popup screen. Once activated this popup screen will popup and indicate a problem.
Fuzzy Logic™ III This is another software utilities that is designed for those people that like to overclock their system. This utility is also located on the CD and has to be loaded separately. Once this is loaded on your system it will allow you to change the FSB (front side bus speed) in a Windows environment. The following things are part of the monitoring of this utility; CPU fan, CPU temperature, Vcore, Vio, Memory Clock, CPU Clock, AGP Clock and PCI Clock. This utility let's you adjust the CPU FSB frequency and save the changes to allow the changes to be set for every time you turn you PC on.
Note: Due to the fact that both of these software utilities run in the background they may cause your system to run slower.
Live BIOS™ This utility searches for new updates to your BIOS online. This helps to keep you from having to search for any BIOS updates.
What comes in the box
MSI K7T Turbo2 ATX Motherboard
The Users Manual
FDD cable
HDD cable
D-Bracket
I/O shield
CD (drivers, bundled software)
Installation
The motherboard comes packed in an antistatic bag so to ensure the protection of your board during shipping. It is always a good idea that you touch the inside of the metal casing before you handle this or any circuit board to discharge any static charge you may have built up on your hand. If you have an antistatic wrist strap it is a good idea to use it to avoid accidental static discharge. This board has six mounting holes and you want to make sure that the holes line up with the standoff's that are mounted inside of your case. Once you mount the motherboard inside the case you are ready to start connecting the power plugs. This motherboard has two power plugs, the 20 pin ATX power plug and a 4 pin 12V power plug. All the other wires and cables plugged in fairly easy by following the manual. The processor fits easily into the ZIFF socket and the processor fan fits right on top and attaches to the ZIFF socket.
Likes and Dislikes
I have been using this motherboard for the past 2 months and I love it. It was so easy to set up and all the components that I had on my old board fit on this motherboard. With this motherboard I have so much room for expansion, I don't see why I would need to replace this board unless it dies on me.
I haven't found anything that I don't like about this board and I really doubt I will.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 79.00
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