MSI K7N2 DELTA-L REVIEW

"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."

CPU BENCH 2003 6882 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 8372 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 2989 2385 FLOATING POINT 2739 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 3410 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 14990 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 5089 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 11662 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 305 266 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 86 73 TORLAN 80 70 BRIDGE OF FATE 116 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 93 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