Abit KT7 (non-raid) or MSI K7T Pro2a

[Ribbit]

When my MSI arrives today I will have to chose between the Abit KT7 (non-raid) and MSI Pro2a. I have been using the Abit for a couple of months and it seems fine. I have no experience with the MSI board. Both will be used to overclock. Which would you keep if you had to chose?

 

[dajo]

Well, since you have both I guess you can play with the MSI and judge for yourself. I've read some strange things about the KT7 Pro - mostly about bizarre multiplier issues.

On the other hand, I've set up four KT7s in the last 6 weeks with absolutely no problems whatsoever - okay, that's not true, but it is an awesome board, and, next to the KT7A, is almostly unanimously considered the best Athlon/Duron board available.

Have you considered doing the voltage mod on the KT7? It's pretty easy, and it really boosts the top end of your CPU. My board does 2.13v at 1.85v in BIOS, which allowed me to get my TBird 750 blue core from 1100MHz to 1208MHz. You can usually count on about 50-100MHz gain from the mod.

The KT7A should have the same solder points for the modification as the KT7, and until I learn how to pump up the voltage like that on a different board, as well as find a board that provides 1MHz FSB control in BIOS, I'll be sticking with the KT7(A!!!).

 

[Ribbit]

No I haven't done the voltage mod. In fact I am reluctant to drive my durons at 1.85 volts even though I have good heatsink/fans. I generally use 1.8 as a limit. Unless I don't understand what this mod does, which may well be, running at 2.0 volts sounds a little too risky for me. It may work for a while but how long will it last? I also have heard of the multiplier problems with the MSI as well as numerous others and yet many people really like this board. I guess I will just play around with it and see what happens. Thanks for your input though.

 

[resinboy]

I started with the Abit, put it in my niece's box( no pun intended), installed my Pro 2-A, and just installed another Abit(again). Both boards work very well: I had no weird multiplier problems with the MSI, however the memory throughput( with Sandra) was at least 100 points lower with the MSI. I even used H.Oda's programs to tweak the memory, and still was considerably lower with the MSI board.
I found the Abit(suprisingly) just as stable as the MSI.

 

[TYI]

Is most cases you will never notice much difference in stabilty between MSI and Abit. and in most cases the abit is a better performer. If you plan on some serious overclocking dont even mess with MSI abit will do better.