Notice: There are 2 kinds of MSI K7T Pro2 in the market, read...

[Charles]

One has 7 silver 4700uF capasitors, and the other one only has 7 green 3900uF capasitors.

Well, I was lucky I got the first one. I'm pretty sure that the one with 3900uF will not be as stable.

Take a look at this picture from TweakTown's MSI K7T Pro2A review.. The board reviewed is MSI K7T Pro2A which also has 7 3900uF capasitors.

I saw both of K7T Pro2 at the store where I bought mine. That's how I notice the differences.

 

[RoboTECH]

vewy intewesting.

7x3900 uF is still a hogheaven lot of capacitance tho.

That's incredible, what a large difference. I bet it would make more of a difference when you're trying to take, say, a 1.2 Ghz to 1.3+ or something.

Also, di you notice that tweektown got the FSB to 118 stable?

that's damn impressive for a KT133 board.

 

[Rectalfier]

I have a MSI K7T Pro2A with silver capaciters.

 

[Charles]

Cool. For a picky user like me. Small differences matter!

 

[The Sauce]

Man, that's really aggravating. I guarantee that all the review units they shipped out had the silver capacitors. Its amazing the length companies will go to to screw people. I just lost major respect for MSI.

 

[mopar360]

Got my PRO2A today from Spartantech and it has 3 green 3700 capasitors along the top and 4 green 4700 capasitors, 2 on side 2 on bottom of socket. Interesting...very interesting. There seems to be many versions of this board floating around, between the capasitors and how some have voice and others dont, strange!!!

 

[w9design]

dammit. I have all green ones.
Poor me. Still the most stable system I've built.

 

[Syn]

Argh,I just ordered mine from ccusaonline yesterday.Well all I can do is cross my fingers I guess.

 

[etech]

There are many other parameters to a capacitor beside justs its size. I really doubt that you will see any difference in overclocking between the different versions of the board. Once you get over the minimum size needed for filtering it really is not that important.

 

[dcdomain]

Why make so many different versions of the board though? Trying to drop the price of the board more quickly? Found better ways to lay out stuff or what?

 

[delray]

I got all green on my PRO2A from Openlinx yesterday and got an RMA from them for return of board---my AMD retail 1000/Alpha PEP is stable at 1260MHZ'S[12x105]---go to 106 and get registry errors so I feel getting the silver/green combo may take me to the next level---we'll see!

 

[chansen]

delray,

Are you nucking futs? You got a perfectly good board, sent to you in good faith and in working order, and will now cost somebody in the supply chain shipping and handling for the review of a bogus claim by some rabid overclocker.

And anyone who has lost faith in MSI over the downsizing of capacitors should have their head examined. From a technical standpoint, I believe the revised board still has greater total capacitance than the beloved Abit or even Asus.

RMAing the earlier non-O/C friendly version of the board because you thought you were getting a Pro2 is one thing, but getting picky over capacitance on an already stable and impressive overclock is pathetic. Get a life.

Regards,
Craig

 

[delray]

Chansen,
Yada,Yada,Yada! For your information I have to pay the extra shipping (to and from) to get what I want for the purpose of what I want-it's really of no concern to you---I was just informing this board Of MSI inconsistency of capacitors on the Pro 2A [I swear by MSI as this is my 5th MB from them].
In the future, I'd appreciate,and I'm sure this board would also, that you keep any negative comments to yourself as it sure as hell isn't constructive!

Delray

 

[w9design]

"keep any negative comments to yourself as it sure as hell isn't constructive!"

Why don't you do the same, delray. He has a point. There's nothing wrong with the version you have/had. And Openlinx is going to have to figure out what they're going to do with this "defective" board because it didn't have enough goddamn capacitance for you.

Just be glad you're lucky enough to have a Pro2a. It's people like you that give overclockers a bad name in retail stores.

 

[chansen]

Shipping aside, your board can no longer be sold as new. You've cost somebody else for the sake of a minor chance at increased capacitance - amazing.

As a group of hobbyists, we all want manufacturers to build and retailers to sell equipment that meets our special needs. But when faced with returned burned-out CPUs and boards that don't overclock *quite* as much as their owners would like, I wonder why they bother.

Reviewing my earlier post, perhaps I was a little harsh (I'm not a morning person). Still, I believe you've lost you head over the search for the holy overclocking grail and at the very least have inconvenienced others in your crusade-like quest.

(Ha! That last line could have been pulled from a high school essay!)

If I offended you, I apologize. Now stop being a putz.

Regards,
Craig

 

[Jamey]

But does a "maybe" justify going through all the hassle and expense you will have? I too got all green capacitor's...on THREE boards that I ordered. I am running 700 mhz Duron's I paid $70 ea. for @ 900 mhz. Total cost for three baords and processors was about $615 shipped! OUCH...I feel like I got REAMED. Someone call 911. Someone sold me the best board out there, I put the best low end processor available in it, and I get roughly a 25% increase in rated speeds IMMEDIATELY (I know I can go further). Now I find out I don't get MORE? That should warrant the death penealty as far as I'm concerned. Let's all join in and DEMAND a RECOUNT on those capacitors!!!

Seriously though, you're overreacting on those capacitors. The board rocked before we all knew about the difference, the board still rocks, and it will rock tomorrow!

 

[Huma]

Anyone know how high the Pro-2A will let you raise the voltage on a duron?

I had heard it kept it to 1.7v, but that there's a bios out there that will let you go to 1.85v.

any word?

 

[PlunX]

Connect the Duron's L7 bridges and the BIOS will let you use up to 1.85v.

 

[Zuluwarrior]

MSI most definetely purchases their components (or their oem does)
from vendors just like we buy our completed boards from vendors.

As someone in manufacturing I can tell you that electronic parts
inventories vary from day to day with a given vendor and even
hour to hour and shortages are inevitable.

MSI probably has a list of compatible and acceptible caps, and
on week 11 of production, if a shortage of the greenies transpired,
their vendor might have submitted the silvers as equal to or better.

I am only speculating here, but it certainly occurs, and might
explain the small number of Silvers out there. It also could
be to call for the small number of product differences that
appear not to be part of a design change.

As to the return of a "within spec" board, I am heartended that
openlinx actually would take something back, but this gentleman
might be surprised when he finds the old board on his porch
and an extra charge on his card, when openlinx benches it
(according to their site, they do), and determines
it's just fine.

Again, just speculation.

 

[sciencewhiz]

From AnandTech's MSI K7T pro2 review:


<< For those who have read our K7T Pro and K7T Master reviews, you must remember those high quality 3900uF capacitors, which helps to ensure the motherboard runs flawlessly. Microstar took one step further on the K7T Pro2, and they put 3 3900uF and 4 4700uF high quality capacitors next to the CPU socket. >>


Getting the extra large capacitors seems like it would be an extra bonus, and as other people have said the 3900uF capacitors probably don't make any difference.

 

[Gothmoth]

some tests like sharkyextreme say:
&quot;Whereas the K7T Pro utilized seven 3900uF capacitors for power storage, the K7T Pro2 makes use of four 3900uF and three larger 4700uF units&quot;.

i even have read some reviews where they say &quot;there are 7 3900µf capacitors around the socket&quot; and &quot;board is rock solid&quot;.

so msi dont send special boards to the review sites (DONT TELL SUCH A SH*T!)

and i agree with chansen

 

[JimmyZ]

I Got 3 green 3900 caps and 4 silver 4700 caps...it seems as if they were mixing and matching parts to get these boards out the door as fast as they could for US. I think that Zulu's theory is probably the most accurate. The 7 3900 green caps were the spec, but they ran out in mid production and started using what they had. The new RAID MSI Pro2 is supposed to have 7 4700 caps...i'm sure they just borrowed from that inventory stock or something like that. The spec was for 7 3900 caps...and I got at least that...I am very happy. The boards that were at the very end of the run probably got the 7 4700 silver caps....oh well, Just like getting a good chip...you take the risk. Heck, isn't that half of the fun....overclocking is like a gamble...how much can we cheat the system....are we really to get mad when we can push a component past it's spec? Well, Delray, I have my old MSI Pro here...I'll swap for that &quot;defective Pro2-A&quot;...Heck I even use my hobby paint and color the caps silver and write 4700 on there for ya if ya want ;-)

Kidding aside, MSI has done nothing wrong, and good luck with openlinx...I wouldn't want to mess with there return policy (well, with out atleast taking a hammer to it saying it arrived &quot;DOA&quot

Jimmy

Edit: transposed 3/4 on the caps. I have 4 4700 silver and 3 3900 green

 

[zsir]

I bought a pro2-a at a computer show today.....They only had 2 boards and they both had 7 3900's.....

$115.00......I bought it.

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

ummm

from what i understand, it isn't the capcitance that is important and it certainly isn't the colour, it is the quality of the capicators that matters!

the green ones may be better than the silver ones.

any electronic enginneers in the place?

 

[JimmyZ]

Cos,

I don't think color matters either...it's just a way to identify them. It seems all the 3900 caps used are green and the 4700's are silver. Now I don't think that a silver 3900 would perform better than a green 3900. It's just a means of identification.

J