Let's see here, there are several attacks on this board, mainly made by Abit zealots....
1. Northbridge absolutely has to have active cooling.
Like many have said there is no need for it. It is proven by the OC test that both MSI and Abit maxed out at 147MHz, I highly doubt using another RAM stick will change this. Plus, aren't some of us today persue to accomplish a "Quiet PC"? Personally I'd like to have a quiet and power efficient PC over a loud and power consuming one, but its all just a matter of perference whether that fan is important to you or not. I doubt MSI is being stingy by not putting on active cooling, they've always used higher quality components than Abit, how come nobody is calling Abit stingy for that?
2. Abit is fully jumperless, MSI is not.
This argument makes the MSI sound like a complete jumper solution, which is not true. All you have to do is change the jumper once to get to 133MHz. This has been the biggest argument against the MSI 815E Pro provided by the Asus CUSL2 zealots. Once you got to 133Mhz and above, do you have to open your case every time? Absolutely not.
3. Abit has ISA slot, MSI does not.
Unless you have an ISA modem you still need to use, there is no reason MSI should be accused of not providing an ISA. Oh yea how come nobody is blaming Asus and others for not including ISA? Is it because MSI presents as a bigger threat to Abit? As for the CNR slot, we all can just ignore it, because in terms of PCI expandability, they're equal.
4. Onboard audio sucks
Whehter you like it or not, its better to have it than not. This is clearly not a disadvantage.
5. Abit has two USB hubs
It is an advantage, but Abit zealots seem to value such marginal advantage much more than it deserves.
6. Abit has more fan headers
Again, this is an advantage depending on your preference. Its not bad to have more, but it doesnt hurt if you're not going to use them.
7. MSI should've gotten an 8, not an 8.5
No they should not have gotten an 8, they should've gotten a 9 instead. Its much better than Epox in many areas, and its as good or better than the Abit.
Enough of arguments, Abit zealots seem to ignore the obvious advantages provided by MSI...
MSI is more stable, but so what? Abit is stable enough for me.
Rebooting several times a day sounds fun to you? I understand some of you have had no problems with Abit, but MSI is simply superior in this department and there is no excuse for ignoring it.
HighPoint controllers are not bad.
Given their track record and user feedback, I simply cannot agree. Many have already voiced out their unpleasant experience with HighPoint in this thread, Promise is much better regardless.
4 phase power
Not many of you noticed this, but the MSI has eight MOSFETs compare to Abit's six, effectively making it a 4 phase power solution.
Price
This is a point many of you have forgotten, the KT7A-RAID goes for $155, the MSI K7T Turbo is expected to be around $145, given the fact that MSI has always been cheaper than Abit and Asus, I have no doubt the Turbo will come out to be the cheapest of the three.
Quality, reliability
Patrick and I have stated this millions of times, MSI is higher quality than Abit, and their RMA rates are a lot lower.