MSI KT3-Ultra ARU w/ 1800 $189

[Technogeek]

More info on ram Here

MSI KT3-Ultra (ARU)

MSI KT3: VIA KT-KT333 chipset (VIA website)
The MSI KT3-Ultra as representative mainboard for the VIA KT333 chipset has been qualified as 100 % compatible with Mushkin Level22 PC2100 and PC3000 and higher DDR DIMMs.

USER TIPS: The MSI KT3-Ultra uses an AMI BIOS, which, in some cases does not properly read the memory SPD. In addition, the KT3 is somewhat capricious regarding memory. We do not recommend the use of 256MB PC2700 and 512MB PC2700 with this particular board. We further recommend using the default settings and to manually adjust the latency settings in the CMOS setup for optimal performance. At 157 MHz FSB, the board switches to a 1/5 PCI divider but only if the frequency is set high enough in the CMOS setup.



RECOMMENDED DIMMS:
512Mb Level 2
256Mb PC3000
256MB PC3200

 

[Ramatoulaye]

Well, I've had nothing but terrible luck with msi boards, BUT there is one rule of thumb that will keep you out of trouble:
ALWAYS stick to their high end, flagship line, and never buy one of their "first board using this chipset to market" boards. My experiences have been:
msi 6167: first athlon board to market, and theres a reason for that. Bleedin terrible power regulation, very flaky stability, no bios updates after a few months.
6368 : tried this board with varying configurations (p3, celeron 566, via c3; different memory brands; diff vid cards, etc..) and it never fully stably installed xp. 98 was ok, but took several tries. Support for this board was also terrible.
However, if you buy something like a kt3 ultra aru, you're getting the board msi wants everyone to buy, and like. So, they have tons of bios updates, check everything over before they make it, and aim it straight for the enthusiast market. They may not be the best overclockers around, but msi boards can measure up to almost any epox/gigabyte/abit board out there, and usually with better features and stability.

 

[TheNeck]

soldersucker, have you tried to RMA those MSI motherboards? i believe they are still under warranty.

 

[SolderSucker]

JobLessOne,
It would be less expensive for me to fix them myself.Takes me only a couple minutes to remove and solder in new capacitors. If I RMA them, i would have to pay shipping costs and I would rather select my own quality capacitors that I know won't give me a problem. I plan on fixing them just for the amusement value and I would like to have my P3 machine up again. It used to be my TV machine. I guess with MBs it is a luck of the draw. It just bothers me I had to pick the MSI board that sucked. Also, it doesn't help that I asssembled machines for 3 different friends and all the boards go bad. Of course, they blame me for selecting such a crappy board. Luckily, I had some $5 Gateway BX chipset boards from a computer show a long time ago and swapped them for the MSI boards. In the end, there was no real down time for them but I don't how the situation would have played out if I didn't have them gateway boards sitting around. I guess I was a little hard on MSI and hope those purchasing this particular board have good luck with theirs.

 

[nexialist]

I just sprang for one of these. Seems like a great deal and I will finally have a machine that uses DDR memory.

I have built 3 other machines around MSI boards (2 hi end, 1 low end) and had no problems. Only problem I had was when I was updateing the BIOS online from the website.....that mobo is still waiting for a working bios.


Technogeek:

I saw that note on the Mushkin site. http://www.mushkin.com/cgi-bin/mushkin.storefront

I'm getting the Mushkin 512 DDR PC2100 CL2 for $129 shipped. even tho mem prices have gone up lately still way better than the $450 I paid for 3 stricks of 128mg CL2 Mushkin less than 2 years ago.

I'm gonna have a kick ass machine again. For how long?

Dan

 

[U2ForNow]

Originally posted by: nexialist
I just sprang for one of these. Seems like a great deal and I will finally have a machine that uses DDR memory.

I have built 3 other machines around MSI boards (2 hi end, 1 low end) and had no problems. Only problem I had was when I was updateing the BIOS online from the website.....that mobo is still waiting for a working bios.


Technogeek:

I saw that note on the Mushkin site. http://www.mushkin.com/cgi-bin/mushkin.storefront

I'm getting the Mushkin 512 DDR PC2100 CL2 for $129 shipped. even tho mem prices have gone up lately still way better than the $450 I paid for 3 stricks of 128mg CL2 Mushkin less than 2 years ago.

I'm gonna have a kick ass machine again. For how long?

Dan

Good memory. Thanks for the link. checking it out now.

 

[Sepen]

Originally posted by: SolderSucker
guywithoutaclue,
Telling people not to listen to me is pretty stupid. I bought four identical model MSI boards and two of them died in the manner i stated above and the other two became unstable. Willing to bet it is the two same capacitors that blew on the other boards. You may be doing great with your board now but for how long? I don't know about you but I like to get more than a year and a half out of my motherboards.My Abit BP6 is stilling running fine since 1999. Why aren't the 4 MSI boards? I suppose i can solder in new capacitors and get the boards working again but thats not the point. Anyhow, I am just warning people with my experience. MSI could be using finer quality capacitors on their newer boards.I would check around before buying but then again the problems may not show up for a while.

I have had my MSI KT2 for about 18 months now and never a problem. I am going to be selling it along with the 1.2 chip as soon as my 1.7XP gets here (tomorrow maybe). To each there own as I know I have had some dogs in my day that people sweared by.

 

[Technogeek]

I found a site that if you go through you can get up to a 10% discount on some Mushkin ram
Text

 

[clstrfbc]

What happened to the AT crucial discount? wasnt it 17% or 15%???

Anyway,

I have had this board for about 4 months, I had issues with the raid originally.
I set up two 80Gb WD 72K, drives as a stripe set....
I kept having mysterious crashes in 3dmark and games, after much pain, I finally noticed that every time the video stalled, the drive light was on!
I checked the DMA options and everything was ok,
Apparently the "Raid" was so slow it was starving my GeForce4 TI4400 of data, and it crashed. I split them and am only running one drive in non-raid, and its very stable now.
Kinda dissapointed, but not enough to try reinstalling over my working system....

** added

This is not an amazing price though, NewEgg is very competitive at $106.00 + $84.00 + $6.00 shipping = 196 shipped compared to 189 + 10 (TCW) = 199

Warm

 

[TurtleMan]

Originally posted by: SolderSucker
I hate MSI. They suck. I bought one of their older boards for my P3 machine and had 2 capacitors blow up so bad they dislodged the voltage regulator on the board. This was about a month ago. Just yesterday, my friends machine i built had the same two capacitors blow. I hope they are using better quality capacitors on the newer boards.

Hey Soldersucker, before u comment on something , please do research on this board
This board is great, performance is excellent and stable, also the the PCB color is unique too
so I don't know how you can blow the two capacitors with normal usage.

 

[SolderSucker]

Turtleman and others who wish to continue to flame me about my comments,
I stated my experience with the particular boards I had from MSI.I am not an idiot like some of you are trying to make me out to be.I didn't state that this board in particular sucked. If you had 4 boards die in the identical way from the same manufacturer, I think it would leave a bad taste in your mouth. In the end, I did state that I hoped MSI was using better capacitors on their newer boards and hoped that everyone does well with their boards. I hate to break it to you but capacitors do go bad. It may take some time for them fail completely. They don't usually blow right away but given enough time they will swell up and either leak or blow. My 4 MSI boards suffer from either completely blow capacitors to swollen ones. That was quite a while ago and hopefully improved the design of their motherboards. Good luck to all that use MSI boards and hope you have much better luck than I did. Don't take it so personal. Its not like I am insulting your family or something.

 

[nexialist]

Soldersucker,

Sounds like MSI has left a bad tast in your mouth....stuff happens and it happened to you.

Everything went wrong when I installed Windows ME when it first came out and I curse it to this day and continue to use Windows 98SE. I complained about ME .....and I was accused of not knowing how to set up a computer, and you name it.

Dan