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Quality and Setup of the
MSI
KT4 Ultra-FISR Motherboard |
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Looking Good... |
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The
MSI KT4 Ultra-FISR Motherboard:
One of the most striking
things about the MSI KT4 Ultra-FISR is its bright red PCB.
Adding bright colors to a system does more than just add to
its appeal, it also assists in locating certain items more
conveniently. Take the USB and Bluetooth headers for
example. MSI has added blue and green sockets around
the headers to help distinguish the two similar looking
headers. While it seems
like a fairly minor addition to the board, it does add a
degree of functionality and style.
Although these are the types of things we see upon initial
inspection, the MSI KT4 Ultra-FISR is far more than just flashy
colors.
The KT4 Ultra comes with a total
of 6 PCI slots and an AGP slot, allowing for plenty of
expansion. The AGP slot comes with a hinged
retention clip that locks the video card securely in place.
There are 3 DIMM slots that support a total capacity of 3GBs
of DDR-RAM. The AGP
and DIMM slots were placed very close to each other, allowing
the video card to potentially interfere with the left-most hinges of the DIMM slots. In
fact, during testing of the KT4, we came very close to breaking off one of the clips
when we were installing our video card. This is the
type of thing we continually point out on a regular basis
and were disappointed to see that MSI hasn't altered the
placement of these components. Conversely, when it comes
to the CPU, MSI allowed for plenty of elbow room, with only
one capacitor positioned close enough to possibly interfere
with the largest of heat sinks. The two standard ATA
133 compatible IDE connectors are positioned at the edge of
the board, adjacent to the DIMM
slots with the floppy connector nestled between the two.
Overall, the MSI KT4 Ultra-FISR has a very clean layout
that was relatively well thought out, except for the DIMM
placement.
The KT4 Ultra comes with an
integrated Promise PC20376 Raid controller which is one of
the first to support both ATA133 IDE as well as Serial ATA
150. At first it seemed great to see that MSI was
looking to give users the best of both worlds, but after
we delved in a little deeper our expectations were dashed.
The layout includes 2 Serial ATA connectors and only a
single IDE
connector. Initially we were under the impression that
Promise developed a RAID chip that supported two drives
in a RAID configuration on the same IDE channel, something its main competitor
High-Point has done for quite some time now. We soon
found that was not the case at all. The intention is
to be able to RAID two Serial ATA drives or one Serial ATA
and an IDE drive. The other option is to simply utilize the
port as an additional IDE channel. One thing Promise
has done differently is add compatibility for a CD-ROM drive
on the IDE channel,
a function not available with their previously released
controllers. Initially the KT4 Ultra looked like it
was an extremely versatile system with multiple drive
configurations available. While this certainly remains
true, we felt that the IDE RAID support of the Promise
PC20376 was a bit limited.
At the heart of the system is, of
course, the KT400 Chipset from VIA, comprised of a the KT400
Northbridge and the VT8235 Southbridge. The
Northbridge comes equipped with active cooling to help keep
excessive temperatures under control, especially important
when running the system overclocked. When we removed
the fan assembly we were pleased to see an even application
of thermal compound was applied to help transfer the heat to the heat
sink. In recent months we've seen similar
"high-performance" motherboards overlook this step and we
were happy to see that MSI didn't cut corners. As far
as the KT400 is concerned, we'll cover its virtues in a little
more detail later on.
The rear of the board exposes a
lot of what the KT4 Ultra has to offer. The system
comes with a total of four USB 2.0 compliant ports which can
be expanded to 6 with the included USB
D-Bracket. The system also has 2 serial ports and a
parallel port as well as two PS/2 connections for a keyboard and
mouse. On the right is an RJ-45 Ethernet port that is
cable of 1000Base-TX, otherwise known as Gigabit, which is
powered by an integrated Ethernet processor from Broadcom.
This gives the system the ability to transmit at a peak of
1000Mbps, or 125MBps, allowing for the fastest possible
networking potential. Whether or not an average user
will tap the capabilities of the Gigabit Ethernet remains to
be seen, but MSI appears to have added this feature without
impacting the overall price of the board, so we'll take it.
At the far right are the connections for the integrated
audio. Driven by a
C-Media 8738MX 6-channel audio processor with SPDIF
capability. The on-board audio of the KT4 rivals the
performance of some high-end add-on cards. With an
S-Bracket installed to the
system, the C-Media 8738MX can pump out sound to 6 discreet
channels, including a Subwoofer and Center channel, for
surround sound capability.
Before we take a look at the MSI
KT4 Ultra-FISR in the benchmarking arena, let's briefly cover the
BIOS and some basics of VIA's KT400 chipset.
The, BIOS, KT400 and PC3500
DDR-RAM from GEIL
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