MSI K7T266 Pro
Tested by RiO (MSI K7T266 Pro)
In the beginnig, there was Microsoft. Then, it seemed as if the Linux community would also give birth to its own "Microsoft", but this time with the name Red Hat. And now, we have MSI, who is not only Micro(star International), not only as eager to possess the "poison-green" laurel leaf as the above mentioned two companies are (which means MSI is just as determined to take spot #1 as Microsoft/Red Hat is), but did dare to use a red PCB for one of its latest mainboards... of course, these are only associations of our insane minds 
. We weren't even examining the red K7T Turbo-R Limited Edition this time, rather than torturing a green one: Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce one of the leading actors in the DDR arena, the MSI K7T266 Pro! (some obsolete LX boards are now protesting and screaming in the background, but even the hiss of the computer's speaker is louder than that... 
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Having finished this little "intro", please fasten your seat-belts and get ready for a faster paced review... Why? Because MSI needn't be introduced, most of you know them fine. Because DDR is something that should also be known by now (take our Iwill KA266-R review, for instance) and because the evolution of the whole Athlon platform can also be traced through many reviews, even our own. Therefore, we are assuming you know what we are talking about..
It can be said a thousand ways
Speaking of evolution, the VIA KT266 chipset somewhat stands out of the line of the KX133-KT133-KT133A. While the former three were truly stages of the evolution of the same platform, the KT266 is not. We now have DDR and V-Link, to name the most compelling features. When designing the KT266, VIA might have listened to Intel (maybe for the last time, as with the ready-to-be-released P4X266 Pentium 4 chipset, VIA is venturing into places where even mighty Intel hasn't gone before...), the video editing guys or in fact anyone who gave a few minuses to existing chipsets for the lack of sufficient bandwidth between the North and South Bridge, as the KT266 now takes the task of connecting these bridges off the shoulders of the (somewhat slow) PCI bus. This is where V-Link comes in. Integrated in the VT8366 Super North Bridge is the V-Link controller, which now communicates with the VT8233 Super South Bridge at 266MB/sec transfer rate. Sort of a "Double Pumped PCI Bus", isn't it? To have space for the V-Link controller in the North Bridge, the PCI controller was moved to the South. The other feature that will most certainly be included on any mainboard ad/sticker is "DDR". Yep, the KT266 supports DDR, but not only DDR...
"I got something to say..."
...SDR SDRAM is also supported, not to mention the possibility of the asynchronous operation of the memory clock. In case of this very mainboard, the full asynchronous spectrum is included, meaning that we can operate our memory at the FSB speed, or at the FSB +/- PCI speed. As far as the chipsets go, this is a feature since the VIA KX133, but many KT133A manufacturers simply forgot the -PCI speed (or -33%, it means the same). Of course, operating "synchronously" theoretically attributes to higher performance, but in real life this is not so obvious. Take the AMD-760 chipset, for example. It is supposed to be "closer to the metal" (the Athlon)... it is more expensive... and it is faster, but only marginally (sync/async operation is by far not the only factor here).
Bigger than you think! click4big!!
It is worth noting that VIA is the key player in the DDR arena, without a doubt, and therefore the implementation of the KT266/Apollo Pro266 chipsets is very important. What these chips do is what we will get. Sure, there is ALi with the MAGiK 1 chipset, but unfortunately ALi cannot produce as much chipsets as they would like to, no matter how well the MAGiK 1 performs. AMD is a similar story, with different reasons - they simply don't intend to become a chipset manufacturer. VIA, on the other hand, has everything. Enough production lines, the ability to support a 4 layer PCB design (which is a major cost factor, in a positive way) and - only recently, but nevertheless - a good name. Let's not forget SiS as they have some serious plans for the future, but if we take them back to the present, they will only be chasing the big guys...
DDR chipsets show other differences beside the above mentioned, like the number of Bus Master PCI slots, support for ECC and/or Registered SDRAM, integrated 10/100 LAN, maximum number of USB ports, etc. "Luckily", the KT266 set has a little "x" for most of these categories. Well, maybe the 5 Bus Master PCI slots are not much, but we have the asynchronous memory option, support for 3/4GB regular/Registered DIMMs, even with ECC and we also have LAN and V-Link and SDR SDRAM. All in all, what we have is a quite rich and well performing DDR set... and we also have a K7T266 Pro board from MSI, which should be in the spotlight from now on - it was just our need for a little intro that keeped us from diving into the subject right away.
A cikk még nem ért véget, kérlek, lapozz!
