DON'T BUY MSI PRO2A

[Mustanggt]

Thats strange Technonut I got a BX master when they first came out everyone swore up and down how great they were and I had nothing but trouble with it.I sent it back got a Soyo and ran perfect no trouble at all. My KT7 that im running now is great this is the fastest setup I have ever ran very stable no trouble at all. After one bad run in with MSI I tend to steer clear if theres other options.

 

[Technonut]

Mustanggt, I build systems for a living, and wanted to try the Pro2A since everyone was raving about it. I currently use the TYAN Trinity KT for the majority of my Socket A systems due to the great stability, and 3 year warranty. I actually like many MSI boards (one of my backup systems is a Slot A K7Pro with a 900 T-Bird), and have had success with MSI P3 boards.

I am not saying that the Pro2A's are bad boards in general, I am just saying that I happened to get one that had the same issues that have been cropping up on others. I may try another if MSI gets the issue sorted out, but on the other hand, new and better boards are just around the corner.

I personally, am an overclocker/tweaker/performance freak, and will stick with my KT7 until something better comes along.

 

[heng1028]

see my sig

i got no problems with running it 24/7

no lock up and any blue screen since i fired it up last month

i love MSI Pro2-A

it is even more stable than my last system (Intel 815E and celeron 566)

 

[jimmygates]

No doubt the MSI K7TPro 2A is a great board, but I feel the Abit KT7 has earned a unfair rep. The KT7 was one of the first KT133 boards out on the market. The problems users have been experiencing is what I think are "growing pains." Abit is hard at work making BIOS revisions making the board faster and more stable. I feel it's unfair to bash Abit for MSI especially since MSI had 3 revisions of its KT133 board. (KT7 PRO, KT7 PRO 2, KT7 PRO 2A)



-Jimbo

 

[themadmonk]

I have had my ABIT up and running for about 2 weeks without a reboot and I have installed a Radeon which has issues with VIA, and Win2K which also has issues with VIA. So the ABIT is not a bad board and indeed has gotten a bad rep.

 

[Zuluwarrior]

Abit versus MSI???

PUHLLEEEEZE

I've owned 5 Abit boards and 3 MSI boards and
Abit will "never" sell me another.

This MSI Pro2a wipes the floor with anything
Abit has.


Text
You're rarely ever right and this is one time you're wrong.

 

[AMD4ME2]

I am amazed by this thread.. I've posted other threads I thought were far more interesting and so far this thread blows them all away. Perhaps its the contraversy involved? or maybe its just that people love to counter any negative posts about the brands they like. I bet if I started a thread that said "AMD is SUCK" it would become a hot topic. very strange...

anyhow.. there is a lemon in every batch im sure and no mfg is perfect.. im willing to buy either an abit or msi once the kt133a comes out.

 

[DaddyG]

The issue with the PRO2A is not that people are having problems with the multiplier but that MSI has failed to respond. These problems have been reported to MSI for well over a month and no response.

Gigabytes new KT133A mobo is the mobo that interests me. Gigabyte quality and Ocing (the first mobo that GIGabyte has offered) is going to be good.

 

[Regalk]

It is understandable that there are going to me more of these type of posts as more MSI boards filter down to the retail channels(remember the A7V). Some people are going to jump headfirst and swap Mobos, stay with the dirty install, run into problems right away, get frustrated and come and spill their guts here. There are others (the pros) who will fiddle with the install for a while until it works right (they never bother to report). Expect to see more of this type of threads in the next few months.
Go to overclockers.com and Hardocp.com - they will highlight some of the more typical problems users will face.

 

[DaddyG]

Regalk,

The mulitplier problem with lots of PRO2A mobos has NOTHING to do with the user. Its an MSI problem which they just seem to ignore. Kyle at [H]ardocp had the same problem, no response from MSI. Maybe its related to certain manufacturing weeks of Duron/TBIRD cpu's but the fact tha MSI says NOTHING is a major issue.

 

[rempe]

DaddyG
Did it ever ocour to that maybe there isnt anything wrong?

 

[jimmygates]

If there isn't where are all these reports of multiplier problems coming from...?


-Jimbo

 

[SilverBack]

No multiplier problems here

 

[shiner]

It just seems to be overclockers that are having this problem. I haven't attempted to OC my system, yet, so I haven't run into the issue.

 

[rempe]

jimmygates
Its probally a few boards that have that problem.Just rma them.I rma abits all the time to finnally get a good one.Once you do they are usally a kick ass board

 

[RoboTECH]

check the sig. MSI has taken me up over 1-Gig twice with their super-stable OC friendly mobo's.

 

[SuperNoOne]

<< I don't understand your intent of post. Are you trying to express you opinion about the MSI K7T Pro2A motherboard, or are you simply looking for enemies and a flame war? Many users in the forum are former KT7 users. They have migrated to the K7T Pro2A looking for something the KT7 couldn't offer, stability! Beyond stability, MSI also offers customer service, quality control and lower prices. Each of these strengths are Abit's weakness. True, Abit make a slightly faster motherboard, but undoubtedly MSI makes a better motherboard. >>


Just a thought; Most HW sites i visited all elected ABIT KT7 as the best, even after comparison with the MSI. You shouldn't stick to one review only. Personaly, since i'm on the market for a Mobo,i'm reading arround, reviews and forums, to know a lot more. Forums helped a lot cause you get a sense of how the boards work in the real world. I still don't know which will be better, but i do know that the best one shouldn't be that much better. In the end MSI is stable and cheaper, while ABIT is stable, faster but more expensive

 

[Variable]

Well I am one of those junior members that no one should listen to. lol I will tell you what the problem is overclocking, let me say it again overclocking. I love to tweak my systems too but people are getting overclocking of the brain obsessed with the oc fix. AMD chips are so cheap there is no need for it. If you run it within spec and are having problems then complain. If your tweaking and having problems how can that be a problem with the board?

Later,

Variable

 

[oaydin]

overclocking doesn't mean unstability or problems, if u know what u are doing and using the right mobo. Abit always build their mobos overclocking on mind in first order. Overclocking created abit, and they won't forget this. MSI is out of this. They produce cheap mobos bc they sell mostly to integrators, only one level better than Gigabyte.
I never and never used a nonoverclocked system, When I got PII300 nearly 2 years ago, PII450 was very expensive to touch, but I oc my 300 to 500. It was damn fast, and it was only. Bc even u are richest people on earth u couldn't buy PII 500.
Same for now. With a good cooling u can oc a 1.2 thunder to 1.4 or even better, and this is not something u can buy with money.

 

[FoolGuy]

Whoa, wait a second. You seem to forget that there are many factors that come in to play when you are overclocking. 1st, the quality of the processor makes a big difference. 2nd, even if you have a critically acclaimed overclockers board, you can still get a board that isn't as overclocking friendly as others. Then you have memory... the list goes on. Just because &quot;you know what you're doing&quot; doesn't mean that hardware you're working with does. I knew what I was doing when I purchased TWO KT7-Raid boards, but that didn't stop me from having problems overclocking with BOTH of them.

 

[Jamey]

I bought 3 of the boards, and they all &quot;seemed&quot; to work correctly immediately. I had a problem with one of the computers not wanting to overclock at all. I thought maybe the Loctite wasn't applied completely, so I dismissed the problem to the processor. After 3 attempts to reapply the loctite, I finally got my 700 to boot @ 850. The processor has run faster, so I upped it to 900, but when the post screen came up, it was @ 500 mhz. I raised it up to 950, and it posted @ 550. I took it back down to 850, and it wouldn't post. It is currently running at it's rated speed (700) with no problems. Since it is not my computer, I will leave it there, but I may RMA the board to MSI if I read posts of others doing this. I may take my processor out and see if I get the same errors, but that computer isn't at my house. I still like these boards, but I hope this issue is answered in the next few days.

 

[Technonut]

Jamey, other review sites, forum members, and myself have had the exact issue with some of the Pro2A's. See My thread Here

 

[Jamey]

groovy seemed to have a link with some reasonable answers. If this is indeed a problem with the chipset, maybe MSI will swap the boards out for turbo versions . Isn't that supposed to be a new chipset?

 

[SuperSix]

Oaydin = troll

Abit DOES suck! MSI *IS* the most stable, highest quality AMD SocketA mainboard period.

DO I base my opinion on building one or two? No. I base my opinion on selling hundreds (yes, hundreds) of both boards. I (we) don't build PC's at all, we just sell the boards. The RMA ratio for Abit is extremely high, higher than amy other PC peripheral I have EVER SOLD. (I sell an average of 3 million in PC hardware per year, for the last 5 years, *I* sell it, that doesn't add in the other 4 salespeople I currently work with, or others have worked with at other jobs)

If you GAVE me an Abit mobo, I would sell it. MSI is the ONLY platform I would look to for an Athlon/Duron solution, as it is nearly the ONLY stable, well-thought out, TESTED board out there.

STFU, fool

 

[Jamey]

Groovy's link seemed to offer the answer I was in need of. The &quot;fix&quot; did manage to get that 3rd board back up to 850 and holding steady. Looking back, that is kinda how I got it to run at 850 before. I still have the problem with the board not going any higher, but I guess that could be another issue (processor or the newly found voltage issue). With 3 boards and 3 processors all at a total cost of about $600, I am impressed to have 3 systems running at 850 mhz stable! I would still recommend the MSI k7t board.

You can find the posts here

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&amp;threadid=306741