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MSI K7T Pro 2a or Abit KT7a? Help needed!!

I

Instigator

Senior member
Ok,
You guys are freaking me out. I just had a friend order a MSI K7T Pro 2a specifically because it has been getting such good reviews (i.e very stable). Now I'm seeing reports everywhere of stability problems with this board. I'm main concern is building a very stable system. Should I have my friend cancel is order and get the Abit KT7a? Or is the real problem what order you install your drivers (i.e. 4in1, video drivers, then DX8)? If it is an issue with installing the drivers in the correct order, can someone give me or point me to the exact procedures? Also what version of the 4in1 drivers should I use? Thanks in advance for the help. I'm seriously thinking about having him cancel his order and getting the Abit KT7a or maybe the MSI K7T Pro.
 
Always installed the 4in1 drivers before anything else.
Use the lastest final drivers if you want to stay away from problems.

 
The first thing you do after installing Windows, is install the VIA drivers. Be careful with what slots you use for you PCI cards too. On the K7tpro2-a mobo, slots 1, 3, and 5 are shared.
 
please see my other reply. the MSI board is a rock, people just frequently aren't quite as informed as they should be, and make small "errors" which, although not fatal (hahaha...get it? "fatal" errors? yukyukyuk....), can cause system instability

set the thing up right, and it is as good a mobo can get.

 
My Pro2-a is rock solid. No problems whatsoever. If you're installing W2K then install SP1 before the Via drivers.
 
"people just frequently aren't quite as informed as they should be, and make small "errors" which, although not fatal (hahaha...get it? "fatal" errors? yukyukyuk....), can cause system instability"

Maybe Toms Hardware was not quite informed as he should
be when he found a conflict in between the 686a and 686b chipset.
This board finishes near the bottom of the pack in his review of
the KT133 boards due to issues with Via chipset conflicts.

My friend had 2 of these boards from different suppliers and both
were plagued with problems. with patches and combinatiions of
drivers you could make it somewhat stable under Win2K but the
performance was lacklustre at best. He ended up returning both
boards and exchanged the last one for a PRO2 which has been stable
and has had none of the issues of the PRO2A.

Here is the link to Toms review.

Toms Hardware
 
I currently have a K7T Pro2-A and it is rock solid. Check out my rig. THe only thing that the K7T Pro2-A need is to use H-Oda's utilties to hack the BIOS. With that I went from 299/345 to 475/565.

PM if you want to talk.
 
I believe the MSI does not have Wake on Ring or Modem capability, whereas the ABIT does. Could this fact could affect the performance of a fax/modem when the unit is powered down?
 
My MSI setup is very stable also. I have found that people who actually use the hardware are generally better sources for information than hardware reviews, and that people are far more likely to discuss problems they are having than success. It seems that the early great reviews turned into large amounts of these boards being purchased. More users = more problems.

Don't freak out, this is my first homebuilt board, if I can put all this stuff together and make it work with very few problems, you can too. I'm using the via 4.28v 4in1 drivers.
 
Also there's a fact that most people here bought more MSI boards then the rest and because of this it might seems that they are more people having more problems. Its just statistics !!! I saw this on a link not long ago but can't find it anymore.
 
Mine is solid as a rock.

Use the latest official VIA drivers, I always download them seperatly and install them that way,not the 4in1. I dont let it reboot till all the drivers are installed.
This without a doubt the most stable system I have used.

Be sure to use a PS that is on the AMD list.
 
My PRO2A is one of the most stable boards I have ever used in a homebuilt PC (and I've built about 10 in the last 2 years). Yes, you do need to make sure you have all the latest drivers. Just installed 4-in-1 version 1.28 and they work great. Sped up my ATA100 hard drives by about 20%. I have a 1.1GHZ athlon and 512KB of RAM under WIN2K SP1.
 
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