Microstar K7T Pro2 KT133 Socket-A ATX

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

Performance

The Microstar KT133 solutions have never  been outstanding performance.  The K7T Pro2 performs slightly better than the K7T Pro, but still it is just average among other KT133 motherboards. Then again, we rarely see any motherboards perform significantly above or below average.

Price

Like the K7T Pro, the K7T Pro2 is a high quality board at a reasonable price.  Compared to the ABIT and ASUS KT133 motherboards, the K7T Pro is quite a bargain.

Stability

The K7T Pro2 is simply superb in this category.  The K7T Pro was the most stable KT133 motherboard we had tested until its younger brother, the K7T Pro2, took its place.  In our stability tests, the K7T Pro crashed once in 24 hours while the K7T Pro2 did not crash once.

Quality

Microstar boards are known for their quality and the K7T Pro2 is no exception.  We can easily see that from the careful choice of capacitors and the redesigned board.

Features

The addition of multiplier settings definitely becomes the biggest feature of the K7T Pro2, along with the Fuzzy Logic III and Live BIOS.  Microstar also includes a lot more FSB settings, and the Smart D-LED technology can potentially help solving a lot of problems users encounter.

Layout

The motherboard has a good layout.  The capacitors do not block larger heat sinks, and the power supply connector does not block the airflow around the CPU.  The only minor complaint would be the power supply connector being too close to the DIMM slots.

Availability

Microstar sales are growing rapidly, and people can easily find their boards at both on-line and local computer stores.  They are not available yet in retail stores like Best Buy or Circuit City, but some have started to see them in stores like MicroCenter and Fry’s Electronics.

Documentation & Software Bundle

The manual is informative, except the lack of support for new users on installing the board.  Fuzzy Logic III and Live BIOS helps to earn quite some points for Microstar in this category.