MSI K7T266 Pro DDR

MSI K7T266 Pro

Tested by RiO (MSI K7T266 Pro)

In the beginnig, there was Microsoft. Then, it seemed as if the Linux community would also give birth to its own "Microsoft", but this time with the name Red Hat. And now, we have MSI, who is not only Micro(star International), not only as eager to possess the "poison-green" laurel leaf as the above mentioned two companies are (which means MSI is just as determined to take spot #1 as Microsoft/Red Hat is), but did dare to use a red PCB for one of its latest mainboards... of course, these are only associations of our insane minds . We weren't even examining the red K7T Turbo-R Limited Edition this time, rather than torturing a green one: Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce one of the leading actors in the DDR arena, the MSI K7T266 Pro! (some obsolete LX boards are now protesting and screaming in the background, but even the hiss of the computer's speaker is louder than that... )

Having finished this little "intro", please fasten your seat-belts and get ready for a faster paced review... Why? Because MSI needn't be introduced, most of you know them fine. Because DDR is something that should also be known by now (take our Iwill KA266-R review, for instance) and because the evolution of the whole Athlon platform can also be traced through many reviews, even our own. Therefore, we are assuming you know what we are talking about..

It can be said a thousand ways

Speaking of evolution, the VIA KT266 chipset somewhat stands out of the line of the KX133-KT133-KT133A. While the former three were truly stages of the evolution of the same platform, the KT266 is not. We now have DDR and V-Link, to name the most compelling features. When designing the KT266, VIA might have listened to Intel (maybe for the last time, as with the ready-to-be-released P4X266 Pentium 4 chipset, VIA is venturing into places where even mighty Intel hasn't gone before...), the video editing guys or in fact anyone who gave a few minuses to existing chipsets for the lack of sufficient bandwidth between the North and South Bridge, as the KT266 now takes the task of connecting these bridges off the shoulders of the (somewhat slow) PCI bus. This is where V-Link comes in. Integrated in the VT8366 Super North Bridge is the V-Link controller, which now communicates with the VT8233 Super South Bridge at 266MB/sec transfer rate. Sort of a "Double Pumped PCI Bus", isn't it? To have space for the V-Link controller in the North Bridge, the PCI controller was moved to the South. The other feature that will most certainly be included on any mainboard ad/sticker is "DDR". Yep, the KT266 supports DDR, but not only DDR...

"I got something to say..."

...SDR SDRAM is also supported, not to mention the possibility of the asynchronous operation of the memory clock. In case of this very mainboard, the full asynchronous spectrum is included, meaning that we can operate our memory at the FSB speed, or at the FSB +/- PCI speed. As far as the chipsets go, this is a feature since the VIA KX133, but many KT133A manufacturers simply forgot the -PCI speed (or -33%, it means the same). Of course, operating "synchronously" theoretically attributes to higher performance, but in real life this is not so obvious. Take the AMD-760 chipset, for example. It is supposed to be "closer to the metal" (the Athlon)... it is more expensive... and it is faster, but only marginally (sync/async operation is by far not the only factor here).

Bigger than you think! click4big!!

It is worth noting that VIA is the key player in the DDR arena, without a doubt, and therefore the implementation of the KT266/Apollo Pro266 chipsets is very important. What these chips do is what we will get. Sure, there is ALi with the MAGiK 1 chipset, but unfortunately ALi cannot produce as much chipsets as they would like to, no matter how well the MAGiK 1 performs. AMD is a similar story, with different reasons - they simply don't intend to become a chipset manufacturer. VIA, on the other hand, has everything. Enough production lines, the ability to support a 4 layer PCB design (which is a major cost factor, in a positive way) and - only recently, but nevertheless - a good name. Let's not forget SiS as they have some serious plans for the future, but if we take them back to the present, they will only be chasing the big guys...

DDR chipsets show other differences beside the above mentioned, like the number of Bus Master PCI slots, support for ECC and/or Registered SDRAM, integrated 10/100 LAN, maximum number of USB ports, etc. "Luckily", the KT266 set has a little "x" for most of these categories. Well, maybe the 5 Bus Master PCI slots are not much, but we have the asynchronous memory option, support for 3/4GB regular/Registered DIMMs, even with ECC and we also have LAN and V-Link and SDR SDRAM. All in all, what we have is a quite rich and well performing DDR set... and we also have a K7T266 Pro board from MSI, which should be in the spotlight from now on - it was just our need for a little intro that keeped us from diving into the subject right away.

"Aboard the board..."

Let's take a look at the specs.

Everything is in place..

And now a few comments. Surely, there is no board with a perfect layout. Luckily, we haven't had much trouble with MSI in the past, nor now. The PSU connector could have gone besides the DIMM Slots, but the original place is also fine. What isn't fine however is the distance between the AGP Pro slot and the DIMM slots, as you have to take out your AGP card (supposing it's not one of the shortest types) before you can add/remove memory modules. This is getting quite standard at MSI, at least this was the case with all MSI boards we have tested lately. Capacitors are arranged extremely well, there are only 5 of them, but each one carries a 4700uF sign - sign of stability (if everything else is done as it should be). The board is equipped with three fan headers, which it quite enough. The rotated CPU socket is a nice move in our opinion, not to mention the usable little clips for the heatsink on the inner side of this socket (say, are we picky or what? ). We miss the good ol' ISA slot, which would be preferred instead of the rarely used AMR/CNR/ACR solutions. Like the K7T Turbo-R, this board didn't work with our keyboard and mouse cable lengthener, which is only a minor minus and probably only for us (we ARE picky!). Anyway, our cable isn't properly shielded, so let's forget this flaw altogether. Yes, D-Led is supported by the K7T266 Pro, although D-Bracket is the cool thing to have as the color signals of D-Bracket can also be seen with a closed case. But let's be fair, "even" D-Led is something extra compared to most boards out there.

5 * 4700 = Stability

There exists a light version of this very board (just seen a bunch at CHS Hungary) with no Promise RAID controller, PC2PC support and AGP Pro slot. Fortunately, we had the full version. Well, actually not as full as it could have been, as the USB 2.0 controller with +4 USB 2.0 ports was missing. Everything was there, it was just the NEC USB 2.0 chip that wasn't. We praised the integrated CMI HRTF 4.1 Sound chip in our Iwill KK266 review - here, we would rather not comment on the integrated AC'97 CODEC as it is simply horrible. Really. But this has nothing to do with MSI, it is right there in the VIA Super South Bridge. "Bonus", I guess...

PC2PC is a real bonus, on the other hand. With this neat little feature we can connect two MSI board through their USB ports with an USB cable and emulate a load of network functions - without LAN cards and HUBs/Switches! Practical it is, now all we need is two MSI boards to try it out with (actually, it is said that only one of the boards needs to be manufactured by MSI, but this doesn't sound to logical... we will experiment with it, but seriously doubt this rumour).

To our greatest surprise the K7T266 Pro didn't come with the Award BIOS that everyone is used to, rather than the blueish-grayish style BIOS from AMI. This BIOS implementation can be recommended just as much as Award's, as it is perfectly comfortable and usable. All overclocking features are incorporated in the Setup (VCore and DIMM voltages, multiplier adjustments and 1MHz FSB scaling), beneath the Hardware Monitoring menu, which was - at least to us - somewhat surprising. But we got used to it quickly. The board also allows you to set a critical temperature for the CPU and should (I am saying should, because we didn't dare try this) shut down the system if the CPU reaches that temperature. This is a very much needed feature in case of AMD Athlon/Duron processors as they do NOT incorporate any sort of thermal protection, unlike the Intel parts. And suppose we want to build an AMD based server which runs night and day and has a heatsink fan that will die sooner or later (they all do)... well, now you see what I am talking about.

"Now what does that Ultra setting mean..?

"More, more!.."

Let us still stay with the BIOS for a little longer: memory timings. It is safe to say that this is the most critical section of the Setup as these settings are in direct correlation with overall performance. CAS Latency is to be set here, naturally, to the lowest value the system can handle 100% stable (CAS 2, CAS 2.5). Then there is a parameter regarding system performance, which screams for the "Ultra" setting. The option for 4-Way Interleaving is also there, so use it if you can. And finally, there is a mysterious choice called SDRAM 1T Command (which forces the memory controller into a single clock rhytm ). All in all, the AMI BIOS proved to be absolutely functional, even if it isn't the almighty standard itself. We were granted the entertainment of setting critical options, but we weren't left with a zillion of unknown choices to make. A+ for the System Setup.

ProTest

The board we had was "only" revision 1.0, but before we ran any benchmarks we knew we had the right board... there was a tiny SMD resistor on the PCB that was in the "good place". Had it been placed a few millimeters elsewhere, it would have been a whole lot different story. Located right from the South Bridge are the R126/R127 resistors. Out of these R126 is the key - if it is "resistored", then we have a "good" board, if it isn't, then we don't. This behaviour was discovered originally by AnandTech and OCWorkbench, although the whole thing is probably becoming less and less critical as KT266 production increases. (believe it or not, when Marton called me on the phone and told me that all that matters is R126, it took me two seconds to locate the resistor... out of a few hundred... I couldn't believe it myself)

Before we move on to the benchmark results that decide it all, take a look at the test configuration:

• MSI K7T266 Pro 1.0
• Duron 600 @ 828 (6*138MHz)
• Coolink COOL141 "Fox Shark" CPU cooler (60*60*15mm, BB, 4k rpm, 27dBA, 82*60*23mm, 177g)
• 2*128MB PC2100 Samsung DDR SDRAM @ CL2, 4-Way, SDRAM 1T "on"
• Voodoo5 5500 @ 166/166MHz
• 17"-os Panasonic PanaSync/Pro P70 @ 85Hz
• Win98
• VIA 4-in-1 4.29
• DirectX 7.0a
• 3dfx drv. 2000.8.22
• UT 4.36
• Sisoft Sandra 2001SE

Next is a screen-shot from Sandra 2001SE, which needn't really be commented. We weren't expecting a lot from the board a priori, but due to the DDR RAMs, Interleaving, low CAS settings and a relatively high FSB, we got result that quite surprised us. The KT266 can be considered as a mature DDR chipset, therefore we don't expect any serious benchmark increases in the future. Which in turn also means that the top KT133A mainboards, like the Iwill KK266 or MSI K7T Turbo are still in the game, supposing you can achieve an FSB high enough. But the K7T266 Pro still has a few tricks up its sleeve and the KK266 is barely cheaper, so the only thing that could decide against MSI is the price of DDR RAM - which is dropping even as we speak (write).

Got some power to unleash.. (Samsung PC2100 DDR-SDRAM) click4big!!

The other DDR combo to leave our lab, the ALi MAGiK 1 based Iwill board (but we could also mention Transcend's TS-ALR4, which will get it's necrology on our site in a few days) was only slightly worse than the K7T266 regarding the FSB, still, the benchmarks clearly show that VIA is the one to vote for. It is also more flexible for mainboard manufacturers to use the KT266 as it can be configured in numerous ways, so all in all the price/performance ratio of this chipset, and thus the MSI K7T266 Pro is very hard to beat.

We have written before that the chipset could go as high as 138MHz (276MHz DDR), which is somewhat low compared to the ability of setting anything up to 164MHz FSB in the BIOS (the PCI is clocked 1/4 of the FSB at above 133MHz). Since the benchmarks were extremely good at even this speed, we will cease criticizing the board now. But what really makes us forget all that wasn't perfect is the fact that our 600MHz Duron (first series, unlocked) ran at 828MHz without even raising the core voltage! To be honest, you only have +0.1V to give for any CPU as it stands now, but this CPU maxes out at 840MHz no matter how high you set the voltage, so running at 828MHz with default settings is simply amazing. To test the highest FSB possible we set our CPU to a 5X multiplier, but 140MHz still wasn't stable, that's how we, or better said the K7T266, ended up with 138MHz.

We skipped the test of the asynchronous memory clock with the Iwill KK266, as the highest frequency we could have achieved was 132 * 1.33 = 175MHz, which was also possible via simply raising the FSB (which is once again amazing). With the K7T266 Pro it was a different situation as the last FSB stable wasn't near as high as 175MHz. We also had some very high quality DDR SDRAM, so the end for both the RAM modules and the comparison between the sync/async operation had to be found out/made. The highest FSB was 114MHz is this case, which in turn resulted in the memory running at 152MHz. Nevertheless, the guess we took at the beginning of this article turned out to be true, as 138MHz sync was much faster than 152MHz async.

Tied runners?

It is worth looking at the results of the Iwill KK266 board. Few weeks ago we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw these numbers, but we are now talking DDR and as a DDR platform, MSI starts off were the Iwill board finished. Impressive, we must add.

Verdict

We couldn't have written a review without our favourite timedemos (all of them are made in-house with special care for minimal overdraw and maximum scaling), but after adding everything up and sorting things out we came to this very graph for representing the possibilities of DDR. You already know one of the test configurations (Duron 600MHz, MSI K7T266 Pro, V5-5500). The other one was using the same CPU in an Iwill KK266 with a GeForce2 MX and both of them had the CPU at the same speed, but with different FSB and multiplier. The only thing that allows us to compare these two systems is the fact that measuring FPS at 640x480/16-bits has nothing to do with the (modern) videocard, such resolution is seriously CPU limited (MX-V5-Ultra doesn't make a difference). After all the tests we weren't even surprised by the results (K7T266 Pro trashing the KK266). Here they are:

"Less" is the bless

And now the final words. Whoever is thinking of buying a DDR mainboard is now dealing with a very real alternative. The Athlon/Duron processors have three chipsets with which they can be coupled and there are plenty of boards sporting them. As for these chipsets, the slower is usually cheaper and naturally the higher performing part costs more. VIA/ALi also supports SDR SDRAM, AMD doesn't. The total DDR craze, however, is still a few months away and Intel also has a big part here - whereas the Pentium III can't really benefit from DDR RAM, the Pentium 4 definitely could. And this is a game where VIA, the number one chipset manufacturer, can't lose as they have their horses running in both races. Betting on VIA is a safe thing and MSI knows this. Of course, as a mainboard manufacturer they have to be open to all solutions. And they are, R&D is taken dead seriously, think PC2PC, USB 2.0 for the first time, D-Led, etc. The MSI K7T266 Pro is the perfect example of a perfect product: it is in the right place, at the right time, it performs superb and barely costs more than the SDR mainboards. On top of all this, MSI's favourite term "Stability" is absolutely true - from now on with DDR boards as well. MSI K7T266 Pro - think seriously!

As a product of supreme quality, the MSI K7T266 Pro receives our traditional PLUS A LOT award.

(Dávid Szőts and Márton Balog)