Socket-A VIA KT133 Motherboard Roundup - November 2000

The Winner and Final Words

With all the above details in mind, we crowned the Microstar K7T Pro2 the new king of the KT133 market.  Microstar simply proved themselves as one of the best motherboard manufacturers with the release of the K7T Pro2.  Performance and stability are simply the two most important factors when considering a board, and the K7T Pro2 excels in both areas.  Usually when you have a board with good performance, it is not as stable, or vise versa.  Microstar proved that it is not true with the K7T Pro2, one of the best performing boards as well as the most stable KT133 motherboard we have ever seen.

The main reason why it wins over the ABIT KT7-RAID is the quality and price.  Microstar has a long history of high quality products, and the K7T Pro2 is no exception.  Both from our experience and readers’ feedback, the K7T Pro2 is a rock solid board with very few problems.  While the KT7-RAID is also a very good board, the quality of the board is not as high as the level seen on the K7T Pro2. 

Price wise, the K7T Pro2 is a cheaper alternative.  Even when compared to the ABIT KT7, the KT7-RAID without the RAID controller, the K7T Pro2 is still a little bit cheaper, and don’t forget about the fact that the K7T Pro2 is a much more stable solution.

The only downside to the K7T Pro2 is that because it was released in October, it came out too early to implement the 686B South Bridge, so it still uses the older 686A solution which only has ATA/66 support. 

Based on the above factors, we are proud to give the Microstar K7T Pro2 our AnandTech Editor’s Choice Gold Award.  The K7T Pro2 is truly an impressive motherboard.  But again, it does not mean it is the only choice.  For example if you need an ISA slot, you definitely want to look at some of the other boards in this roundup, and for many users, a board with the 686B South Bridge, for example the Microstar K7T Pro2A, successor of the K7T Pro2, may be a better alternative.