MSI K7T266Pro2-RU Motherboard Review - MSI K7T266Pro2-RU Motherboard Review
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Company: MSI
Product: K7T266 Pro2-RU Motherboard
Availability: In online stores now
Price: $135.00
Benchmarks: I am assuming most folks are trying to decide whether they should upgrade to the DDR platform, or possibly stay right where they are at. For this reason, I will be comparing the MSI KT7266 Pro2 - RU to the Abit KT7A RAID motherboard. Therefore showing the differences between the KT133A chipset running SDRAM and the KT266A chipset running DDR memory. Components used in both systems were the same, with the exception of the motherboard itself and the memory.
System Specs MSI:
System Specs ABIT:
Common Hardware:
Visiontek Geforce3
AOpen DVD 1640 Pro
Lite-On 24x10x40x CDRW
Enermax EG465P-VE
Swiftech MC370 HSF
Software:
Note: All benchmarks were run at their default settings. There was a fresh install of nVidia Detonator drivers and no video card tweaking was performed. This should give us similar scores of an untweaked PC, as well as a baseline standard for all benchmarks.
Lets start out with Sisoft Sandra.
Looks like the Abit and MSI board are very close at the 1400MHz mark. Neither score negligibly higher than the other. Since we're only testing the CPU, you shouldn't see any differences here, and that is the case. To be expected, the MSI board pulls ahead at speeds of 1500 and 1550MHz. Even a simple 50MHz increase in CPU speed makes quite a difference. Lets look at SiSoft Multimedia scores
Again the 2 motherboards are neck and neck at the same CPU speed, 1400MHz. The Abit pulls slightly ahead in FPU, while the MSI pulls slightly ahead for the Integer Mark. Again, even slight increases in speed making quite a bit of difference. Nearly a 300 point increase for Integer from 1400 to 1550, and almost a full 1000 point increase for FPU. This is the kind of stuff that really motivates us overclockers. Now, what I'm sure most of you have been waiting for, SiSoft Memory Benchmarks.
Yes. Memory benchmarks are where the KT266A chipset with DDR memory shines. These scores are very impressive and what you should expect when making the jump to newer technology. If there was ever a question on whether or not to upgrade to the DDR platform, that question should be answered. The MSI with the KT266A chipset is showing significant memory performance gains over the Abit KT7A with the KT133A chipset. And moving the FSB from 133 to 150 and then 155, these memory scores are approaching orbital status, nearly doubling those of the KT133A stock memory scores @133FSB.
Lets see what the KT266A chipset has in store for 3DMark2001.
Abit KT7A 3DMark2000 @1400MHz
MSI K7T266 Pro2 - RU @1400MHz
Abit KT7A 3DMark2001 @1400MHz
MSI K7T266 Pro2 - RU @1400MHz
MSI K7T266 Pro2 - RU @1500MHz
MSI K7T266 Pro2 - RU @1550MHz
You'll notice 3DMark2000 and 2001 are both benefiting from the additional bandwidth of the DDR platform. We are seeing roughly a 700 point increase in 3DMark2000 with the MSI KT266A based board with the same CPU as the Abit KT133A based board. With 3DMark2001 we are seeing about a 500 point increase between the two, and of course the higher score going to the MSI board. Additionally, there are significant gains to be had while overclocking the CPU. Showing you that the tried and true 3DMark is not merely just a Video Card based benchmark.
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