K7N2 DELTAILSR from MSI


The K7N2 DELTAILSR from MSI - Page 4

 

The MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR
A New nForce2 with Something Extra

By: Jeff Bouton
July 23rd, 2003

Business Winstone 2002 and Content Creation 2002
Real World Application Testing

When it comes to overall system "desktop" performance, we find that eTesting Labs Business and Content Creation 2002 products fit our needs nicely.  Business Winstone 2002 focuses on general workstation performance while Content Creation Winstone 2002 stresses a system's performance with multimedia intensive applications.  Below is a list of applications the two benchmarks use to come up with their rating.
 

Business Winstone 2002

  • Lotus Notes® R5

  • Microsoft® FrontPage® 2002 SP-1

  • Microsoft® PowerPoint® 2002 SP-1

  • Microsoft® Excel 2002 SP-1

  • Microsoft® Access 2002 SP-1

  • Microsoft® Word 2002 SP-1

  • Microsoft® Project 2000

  • WinZip® 8.0

  • Norton AntiVirusTM from Symantec

  • Netscape® 6.2.1

Content Creation 2002

  • Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1

  • Adobe Premiere 6.0

  • Macromedia Director 8.5

  • Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev 4

  • Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.01.00.3055

  • Netscape Navigator 6/6.01

  • Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 5.0c (build 184)

 

Once again we see the trend continue with the nForce2 boards running the show.  The DFI LAN Party put up capable results, but the ASUS A7N8X deluxe was the leader of the scoreboard.  Either way you slice it though, it is highly unlikely you would "feel" the difference in everyday usage between the three motherboards, however.

When it comes to MSI's latest nForce2 incarnation, the K7N2 Delta-ILSR delivers where it counts.  The motherboard is a gem to look at and the feature set is impressive.  The board boasts support for FireWire, USB 2.0, on-board audio, SATA RAID, etc.  The only thing we would have liked to see was support for IDE RAID too, but there are adapters available to make this happen with the current hardware.  When we look at overclocking potential, the K7N2 Delta-ILSR was a natural which was partly because MSI included a feature laden BIOS with a wide array of settings.   We think the only people that will be unhappy will be those with oversized heat sinks.  The room around the Socket A was a little cramped on one side and there were no mounting holes for coolers that need to be screwed to the board.  Aside from possibly alienating that very select crowd, we feel the board is a top-notch product. 

When we compared performance to some of its peers, the K7N2 Delta-ILSR rides high on the list, posting excellent scores in each test.  With the added support for 400MHz FSBs, the true potential of the nForce2 chipset is released, allowing for all system buses to run synchronously at higher speeds.  If you've been waiting to upgrade to an nForce2 motherboard, your wait is over. 

We give the MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR a Hot Hardware Heat Meter rating of a 9.
 

 

 

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Tags:  MSI, Delta, MS, rom, TAI, AI, K

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