Conclusion
The time has come to "sum it all up". MSI's mainboard opted for one of the newest members of the VIA chipset family, the KT133A and we can't argue with the decision. We were able to run the board at a 145MHz (290MHz DDR) FSB with the fastest possible RAM settings, without suffering a single crash. Although the word on the 'net is that competing boards can go even higher, we have yet to see the evidence. At first the K7T Turbo-R did show us a few trick, but a new BIOS from MSI solved everything and after the flash there was nothing that could stop us [the K7T Turbo-R, to be precise]. Extended usage and day long stress tests didn't cause the slightest hickups, our CPU ran flawlessly even at 60 degrees C. Everything could be set from the BIOS, including 1MHz FSB steppings, VCore and VIO voltages and the CPU multiplier. The only thing we had to decide in advance was the default FSB speed, 100 or 133MHz, which had to be set via jumper.
Hirdetés
Although this is only our second English review at PLUSABIT, we have tested many Slot/Socket A mainboards and from what we have seen so far, MSI takes the crown. We have not given awards in the past and it would be a fair thing to at least let Iwill's and ASUS's KT133A offering join the arena, we still feel that the K7T Turbo-R deserves something. Therefore, we will now award it with PLUSABIT's PLUS A LOT Golden Award. Until a worthy competitor arrives the award will stay right where it belongs to, that's for sure.
The K7T Turbo-R was sent to us by MSI through their authorized distributor, CHS Hungary. We thank both companies for that.
(Márton Balog & Dávid Szőts)
