The layout of the MSI K7T Pro2A is very well done. There
was only one gripe I had and that was with the placements of those big caps near
the CPU socket. Those caps made the installation of the CPU cooler a bit
difficult. Mind you the caps are far enough away from the CPU socket that it
won't interfere with the installation of really big heatsinks like those from
Alpha or Global Win. You will just have to be extra careful. The last thing you
want to do is break off a cap while trying to install the cooler.
With the exception of the caps, I really can't say enough
about how well laid out the K7T Pro2A is. The power connector is placed high up
on the motherboard and doesn't interfere with anything. The three DIMMs are
right next to the IDE and floppy connectors. The board is a pleasure to work
with.
Ahhh yes! No more ISA! The K7T Pro 2-A gives you six PCI
slots. More than enough for even the most demanding gadget guy. It's also good
to see MSI has moved the Modem Riser slot to the bottom. The AGP slot has an
additional bracket attached to support extra long AGP cards. That would have
been useful for the next Voodoo card but since nVidia now owns 3dfx, oh well.
While the Pro 2-A's younger brother, the Pro2, was released
too early to incorporate ATA100, the Pro2-A wasn't. Built in ATA100 support is a
great feature to have, especially if you don't want to purchase a separate
controller card.
The MSI K7T Pro 2-A comes with two main diagnostic tools.
The first is the Smart D-LED which aids the user in identifying problems by
speaking to them, in either English or Chinese, through the PC Speaker! While
this is very useful, the more sophisticated solution to a problem would be to
use the built on Diagnostic LED system, a group of four lights that are either
green or red. The patterns of green and red can be checked with an included
information table to determine the problem. This single device makes finding and
solving initial system problems extremely useful. All green means you're ready
to rock!
Next page: Let's rock!
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