MSI Kt3 Ultra2-good board?

[spaceman]

i figured i would give via kt333 a try after hearing positive things.
I bought a kt3 Ultra2, still waiting on my case and ps :S
anyone own this have any comments?

 

[newbiepcuser]

I've built MSI boards based on the KT333 and KT266 line. No problems even with Creative sound card.

 

[warrenpeace]

I have a KT3Ultra-2 with raid and bluetooth and all the bells and whistles. (never even opened the box with the bluetooth stuff, so don't ask...).

Mine has been stable as all get out running my xp2100+ including some bouts with overclocking and using all the ram slots and raid.

My only real complaints were the overly noisey chipset fan. The one on mine was rediculous. I replaced it with a Vantec Iceburg fan/copper heatsink, as well as a copper sink on the southbridge chip as it was included with the other one (and it actually got surprisingly hot too !). I had to glue the new chipset cooler in also, as capacitors close to the northbridge prevented mounting the larger heatsink with the pushtabs.
The other issue is how close the ram slots are to the AGP card. You have to remove the video card to access the first ram slot, and i had a heatsink on the ram chip on my 8500 card that actually touched the ram release lever, but it fit OK.

When i went from two 256 meg sticks of ram to add a third stick of 512, i had to clear the bios and re-set everything again for the board to work right and not crash. Since then, rock solid again.

 

[jazzman42379]

Short answer: Yes...it's a terrific board!

Long Answer: I've been a long-time MSI fan. Have been running most recently a duron on a KT266 and now an XP2000+ on a KT3-Ultra2. It's fast, stable, and looks pretty good to boot! Great features for the price (raid, S/PDIF out, USB 2.0...) I do agree with warrenpeace about the chipset fan. I can't hear it over my blow-dryer sounding power supply, but when the system starts up after it's been powered down, that little fan makes a LOT of racket. Usually whacking the side of the case behind it a few times helps....

But overall, it's been a great board to use.

 

[cleverhandle]

Just built a machine with it last week... nice board, good bios options, layout is a little iffy (cramped). For most purposes, I would think an nForce2 board would be preferable, but the machine was running OpenBSD and I didn't need any more compatibility headaches.

No chipset fan on the non-RAID version, either - will be nice and quiet after the Baybus goes in...

 

[Beandog]

I built one already MSI KT3Ultra2 and put it in a new case Antec 1080AMG with 430TruPS,1600xp, MSI GF4 4200 128meg Video, Using Onbaord Sound, DVD and CDRWs, 2X 256 Crucial 2100, Linksys Nic in PCI slot 3. On board sound is really not that bad. That was my first install with this board, and I liked it so much I bought another and its been a week now and still cant get it stable...
Installing in an older Enlight case with enlight 300watt PS, Linksys Nic in slot 3...also tried slot 2 and 4, Onbaord sound, DVD only, disconnected CDRW thinking it was a power problem, XP1600, and Gainward GF4 4200 with 128meg. This computer is still down for over a week now, reinstalling Win98se 5 times now after reformatting hard drive...get weird random problems when installing software while DVD running or running programs...I dont think it should be PS since nothin is overclocked? But its looking more and more like the problem, I dunno....also gettin ready to swap out the HD and DVD cables to see if their maybe bad? I dont think its the MB...my biggest problem is I cant remember if I am supposed to install the entire VIA 4in1 package or just part of the package...cant rem how I did the last one...this might also be my problem since it seems the PCI buss when transferring data is crashing comp or things not loading properly...I am using all the lastest certified drivers as well for all hardware...I did not flash to latest BIOs since the same Bios is in my other board and is working fine? No conflicts in the device area either...boy I hate obscure random problems...their hard to track down...anyways my first comp is running fine and I love the board, very fast boots, although I have not tempted fate and tried to install my SB 5.1 card yet...the second comp was up and runnin for half a day though with no problems and made it through numerous benchmark tests using Madonion's then the random comp shut downs etc...I will also try and pop back in my old GF2 card, maybe the Gainward drawing to much power from the PS along with the XP1600. By the way neither of the comps are overclocked yet

 

[Macro2]

Had trouble with the floppy channel. after a couple cables and drives it seems to work. They may have shipped a defective floppy cable with it. Overall, MSI is OK but I usually have some minor problem with MSI boards.

 

[BD231]

Best KT333 board for the money if you ask me.

 

[Dufusyte]

I like the board, but some quirks to be aware of:

- If the cpu fan conector on the mb does not have a fast spinning fan connected to it using a wire that supports rpm monitoring, then the board will not boot up because the board cannot detect a spinning fan.

- If you try to boot up the very first time using usb keyboard and mouse, it may not detect the keyboard. Solution is to put serial adapters on the keyboard AND mouse, boot into bios and enable legacy usb support. Then you can use both usb keyboard and mouse from then on.

Those were the only glitches I ran into. Otherwise, the board was rock solid, and that's why I bought it in the first place. Was a Christmas present for Mom & Dad!

 

[spaceman]

i have an xp1600+ agoia for the interim,but likely wont keep that in too long...
its a very attractive board i have the nilla version with no fan just a hs.

 

[charlie21]

Great board. I've got one in my main system and I've had no issues with it. Solid and fast.

 

[BentValve]

Mine luckily does not have a chipset fan , just an orange heatsink. I just built a computer with my KT3 Ultra2 a week ago and it must be a newer rev. because the bios was already up to date.
I had no problems with it at all during installation and its been running like a champ for over a week.
I have found no compatibility or other issues at all with it. I would highly recommend it for a very stable , fast and cheap motherboard.

 

[Maggotry]

I've been using this board since about August. Not a glitch. As stable as anything else on the market today. About 2 months ago, a friend at work built a pc based on this board. He had some trouble, but it was unrelated to the board. Turns out he was just using ass-old video drivers.

 

[Dufusyte]

It uses the AMI bios which boots up quicker.

 

[CraigRT]

they work fine!
i know guys who have them, and i personally like MSI.
haven't heard any complaints.
i am sure you'd like it.

 

[Smilin]

I've been very happy with mine, recommended it to someone else and they've been delighted as well.

They overclock pretty nicely too.

I'll admit I was swayed by MSI's red boards - it just looks cool with the red 9700 inside a plexiglass case.

 

[Mitzi]

I have a MSI KT333 Ultra....been serving me very well for a couple of months now. Zero problems.

Oh, I also have a GeForce4 4600 made by MSI, that too is a gem.