MSI K7T Turbo Socket-A KT133A ATX

The Basic Features

The VIA 8363A North Bridge sits close to the CPU socket. It is the core of the KT133A chipset that provides all the major features of the board including the 100 / 133MHz FSB and memory bus, as well as AGP 4X support.  The AGP Slot is a universal slot, which means it is not keyed specifically for AGP 2X or AGP 4X cards, so you can install almost any current AGP card in the slot.  Following the trend of the K7T Pro2, MSI continues to include an AGP retention mechanism to lock the AGP video card in place.

The 8363A North Bridge officially supports the 133MHz FSB (266MHz DDR), thus offering support for the new 133MHz FSB Athlons as well.  In the past, even with 1GHz Athlons, users are limited to a FSB speed of 100MHz and a multiplier of 10.  Now the KT133A chipset allows users to have FSB speeds of 133MHz and possibly higher, so that with the same 1GHz chip, users can lower the multiplier to 7.5, and effectively boost the overall performance while remaining at the same clock speed. 

Most of the recent AMD Socket-A motherboards have included the hardware mechanism for changing the multiplier ratio settings of AMD processors, so this can be done easily.  There is some effort required on the user’s part to prepare their CPUs for overclocking, however we have diagrammed exactly what is necessary in our Athlon Overclocking Guide. Make sure you read the guide in order to fully unleash the power in your Socket-A processor.

The K7T Turbo has a total of three DIMM slots, supporting up to 1.5GB SDRAM. The memory controller in the 8363A North Bridge allows users to run their memory at either 100MHz or 133MHz.  When running 100MHz FSB, you have the option to choose to run your memory at 100MHz or 133MHz. However, the chipset will only allow you to run your memory synchronously with the FSB if you set the frequency to 133MHz or higher.  Officially the KT133A chipset only supports FSB:memory ratios of 100:100, 100:133, or 133:133. 

The newer VIA 686B South Bridge has replaced the good old VIA 686A South Bridge that was used on most KT133 boards.  The advantage of the 686B over 686A is that it supports Ultra ATA 100, whereas the 686A only supports Ultra ATA 66. The Ultra ATA 100 controller provides two IDE channels that support up to 4 IDE devices (two per channel).

Two traditional USB ports are mounted at the back of the motherboard together with the serial / parallel ports, and there are connectors ready for a third and fourth USB port at the left side of the board. However, MSI did not include the necessary USB bracket to take advantage of the second USB controller. But don’t forget that the board we received is just a pre-production sample, so the shipping version may include these USB brackets.

In terms of expansion slots, the K7T Turbo is edged out slightly by the ABIT and EpoX boards. Nevertheless, the 6/1/0/1 (PCI/AGP/ISA/CNR) expansion slot design should be very enough for most users. However, for those who still want to keep some of their ISA devices, the K7T Turbo is just not going to be the right choice. Although the overclocking market is growing rapidly, MSI obviously still wants to retain the OEM market where the majority of sales still come from, and keeping the CNR slot helps OEMs provide a low cost modem solution for end users. In the past, with the K7T Pro and K7T Pro2, MSI always allowed vendors to special order the board with an ISA slot in place of one of the PCI slots, but just based on the PCB design of the K7T Turbo, it doesn’t look like this will be possible this time around.

For onboard audio, MSI uses the VIA VT1611A AC’97 audio CODEC. Once again, it is capable of providing basic sound for normal users, but for anything more, you really should go with a hardware-based PCI sound card.