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MSI K7N2 DELTA-L REVIEW

"MSI K7N2 DELTA-L compared to the ASROCK K7S8XE+ using the AMD Athlon XP3200 processor and MSI GeForce 5900 XT video card. Software used for benchmarking is as follows:- 3dmark 2001 SE, 3dmark 2003, CPU Bench 2003, Glexcess, Metabench, Quake III Arena, SiSoftware Sandra 2004, Unreal Tournament 2004 and X2 The Threat."

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L

"The MSI K7N2 Delta mainboard is based on NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset that synchronized 400MHz FSB (Front Side Bus) and DDR memory, maximizing the performance of AMD platform. Supporting the latest AMD Athlon XP, Athlon and Duron processors, and comes with 3 DIMM slots, which support up to 3GB of DDR400 (PC3200), DDR333 (PC2700) and DDR266 (PC2100) SDRAM. Its Thermal Diode Circuit is specially designed for AMD Athlon XP processors and protects the CPU from damage from overheating due to improper operation or cooling fan failure. Its dual channel architecture doubles the memory bandwidth, can boost system and graphics performance, results in more productivity."

"As a full-featured mainboard with the latest design for the highest performance, K7N2 Delta equips with the latest AGP 8x design with a maximum transfer rate of 2.1GB/sec for huge data transfer and calculation in multimedia to enhance image processing efficiency, and delivers onboard 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN controller, integrates APU (audio processing unit), and IEEE 1394 ports. MSI's K7N2 Delta also follows "Color Management" as all new MSI motherboards. The Dual Bank of DDR Memory was identified as Green and Purple individually. While the AGP slot in AGP 8x was flame-colored."

"To enhance system performance, K7N2 Delta is Serial ATA ready, advanced users only need to install Serial ATA-compatible hard drives to enjoy super-speed data transfer at 150MB/sec, which is faster than ATA133 at 133MB/sec. The Serial ATA ribbon cable is thinner to solve cooling problems inside the case."


NAME CHIPSET MEMORY FSB AGP BIOS SPECIAL FEATURE PRICE
MSI K7N2 DELTA-L NFORCE2 ULTRA 400 400DDR 400FSB 8X v5.7 DUAL CHANNEL $74/£47
ASROCK K7S8XE+ SIS748 400DDR 400FSB 8X v1.60 HYBRID BOOSTER $50/£34
NAME CHIPSET MEMORY FSB AGP BIOS SPECIAL FEATURE PRICE

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR AMD ATHLON XP 3200
VIDEO CARD MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT
NVIDIA DRIVER FORCEWARE v53.03
MOTHERBOARD MSI K7N2 DELTA-L
ASROCK K7S8XE+
MEMORY 512MB CRUCIAL PC3200 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 1
DIRECTX VERSION v9.0b

CPU BENCH 2003

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L6882
ASROCK K7S8XE+6367

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+
COMMENT - "The MSI K7N2 puts in a good performance outperforming the ASROCK K7S8XE+ by an 8% increase."

SISOFTWARE SANDRA 2004
CPU BENCHMARK

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L8372
ASROCK K7S8XE+8359

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+
COMMENT - "This is more of a cpu test and it was no surprise that the results are almost idential with only a 1% difference separating the two motherboards."

SISOFTWARE SANDRA 2004
MEMORY BENCHMARK

INTEGER

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L2989
ASROCK K7S8XE+2385

FLOATING POINT

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L2739
ASROCK K7S8XE+2236

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+
COMMENT - "Now things get interesting when we start to test the memory performance of the two motherboards. The MSI K7N2 puts in a fantastic performance and beats the ASROCK K7S8XE+ by a amazing 21% increase."

METABENCH

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L3410
ASROCK K7S8XE+3360

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+
COMMENT - "Metabench is more of a cpu benchmark so the results are fairly close together, the MSI K7N2 can only outperform the ASROCK K7S8XE+ by 2% this time."

3DMARK 2001 SE

1024x768

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L14990
ASROCK K7S8XE+13258

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+

COMMENT - "3dmark 2001 SE will stress all aspects of the computer including the cpu, video and memory performance. The MSI K7N2 puts in another good performance and finishs 12% ahead of the ASROCK K7S8XE+ delivering a 1732 increase."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

1024x768 Resolution
32Bit color
D3D Hardware T&L
Antialiasing Disabled
Double Frame Buffer
Compressed Texture Format
24Bit Z-Buffer Depth

3DMARK 2003

1024x768

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L5089
ASROCK K7S8XE+4932

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+

COMMENT - "Unlike 3dmark 2001 SE the latest 3dmark benchmark called 3dmark 2003 doesn't put hardly any strain on the processor or the motherboard which makes it more of a video card benchmark. However the MSI K7N2 still managed to outperform the ASROCK K7S8XE+ but only by 4%."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

3DMARK 2003

1024x768 Resolution
No Pixel Processing
Optimal Texture Filtering
4x Max Anisotropy
Optimal Vertex Shaders
No Repeat Tests
No Fixed Framerate

GL EXCESS

1024x768

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L11662
ASROCK K7S8XE+11535

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+

COMMENT - "Glexcess is more of a video card benchmark like 3dmark 2003 so the two motherboards offer a very close performance. The MSI K7N2 only offers a 2% performance increase over the ASROCK K7S8XE+ with Glexcess."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

1024x768 Resolution
Scene 1 Intro
Scene 2 Waver
Scene 3 Facescape
Scene 4 Exploding Logo

QUAKE III ARENA

1024x768

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L305
ASROCK K7S8XE+266

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+

COMMENT - "Synthetic Benchmarks like 3dmark are all very well and good but you can't play them. Now it's time for the important benchmarks which you can play, the MSI K7N2 puts in a fantasic performance and outperforms the ASROCK K7S8XE+ by 13% which is an extra 39fps."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

Default GLdriver
GL Extensions on
Fullscreen on
Demo001 Benchmark

HIGH QUALITY

1024x768 Video Mode
32Bit Colour Depth
32Bit Texture Quality
Lightmap Lighting
High Geometic Detail
Full Texture Detail
Trilinear Texture Filtering

UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004

RANKIN

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L86
ASROCK K7S8XE+73

TORLAN

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L80
ASROCK K7S8XE+70

BRIDGE OF FATE

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L116
ASROCK K7S8XE+98

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+

COMMENT - "The MSI K7N2 showed great performance with Unreal Tournament 2004 and it outperformed the ASROCK K7S8XE+ by between 13% and 16%."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

Direct3D Render Device
1024x768 Resolution
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Detail Normal
Character Detail Normal
World Detail High
Physics Detail High
Decal Stay High
Full Character Shadows
Full Fog Distance
Decals Enabled
Dynamic Lighting Enabled
Detail Textures Enabled
Coronas Enabled
Trilinear Filtering Enabled
Projectors Enabled
Foliage Enabled
Weather Effects Enabled

X2 THE THREAT

DEFAULT QUALITY

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L93
ASROCK K7S8XE+87

MSI K7N2 DELTA-L ASROCK K7S8XE+

COMMENT - "X2 the Threat is a beautiful game which puts alot of strain on the video card and the amount of cpu controlled ships would put strain on the processor as well. The MSI K7N2 is more than able to run X2 the Threat and it beats the ASROCK K7S8XE+ by 7%."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

1024x768 Resolution
Fullscreen Enabled
Auto Quality Enabled
Anti-aliasing Disabled
Bumpmaps Enabled
Shadows Disabled

CONCLUSION - "The MSI K7N2 DELTA-L was 100% stable and performed well, it managed to beat the ASROCK K7S8XE+ in all of the software used. I was especially impressed by it's performance with games software, delivering over 300fps with Quake III Arena is very impressive. The cpu benchmarks all performed roughly the same with both motherboards which is to be expected. The memory benchmark showed the main weakness of the K7S8XE+ which is poor memory performance, however the K7N2 had no such problems and easily beat the K7S8XE+. What you also have to remember is that I tested the K7N2 using "Single Channel" so it was a fair comparison to the K7S8XE+. The K7N2 is also able to use "Dual Channel" which would of increased it's memory performance even further."

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