Introduction

The upgrade bug is a fiendish devil at times, occasionally sneaking up on enthusiasts without warning. It can often be difficult to resist the temptations of the latest and the greatest in an effort to squeeze out that little extra performance or gain new hardware features. In the motherboard market things usually happen a bit more slowly when compared to items such as CPU's and graphics cards although motherboards upgrade cycles are gaining momentum as new ideas and features are implemented. When it comes to the AMD platform there was a time when VIA and SiS were pretty much the only players of consequence. Then nVidia stepped up to the plate with there nForce chipset. Things didn't go too well however as the first nForce chipset was a little late to market and no real match performance wise with the competition, despite being a good platform in its own right. But that was then and this is now.

Unlike its predecessor the nForce2 chipset has proven itself to be king of the hill when it comes to AMD performance platforms, with a very aggressive price point that has yet to be matched. Times however change, and with the introduction of the 3200+ Barton sporting a 200 FSB, a revision of this chipset was called for. Whilst the original nForce2 supports DDR400, it doesn't officially support 400 FSB and as we have come to learn, the best performance can be found when running your FSB and memory synchronously. This is where the nForce 2 Ultra 400 steps in. Providing official support for a 400 FSB, as well as providing headroom for the enthusiast crowd, this chipset promises to be the best AMD platform until Athlon64's show up on the scene. With this in mind have added to there line-up a new Flagship AMD motherboard in the guise of the , which obviously is what we shall be looking at today. Is this one for the upgrade bug to pounce on you with? Let's find out.

Specifications

CPU
Supports Socket A for AMD® Athlon(tm)/Athlon(tm) XP/Duron(tm) processors @FSB 200/266/333/400
Supports 600MHz up to Athlon(tm) XP 3000+ processor or higher

Chipset
nVIDIA® nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset
Supports DDR200/266/333/400
Supports external AGP 4X/8X

nVIDIA® nForce2 MCP-T Chipset
AC97 Interface supporting up to two concurrent codecs
Ultra ATA133 for the fastest hard disk throughput
USB 2.0 EHCI/1.1 OHCI controller
FireWire® and USB 2.0 for the fastest digital connectivity
Audio Processing Unit(APU) encodes audio in Dolby® Digital 5.1 format for full surround sound effects

FSB
FSB 200/266/333/400 MHz clocks are supported

Main Memory
Supports six memory banks using three 184-pin DDR DIMMs
Supports up to 3GB PC3200/2700/2100/1600 DDR SDRAMs
Supports both 64-bit and 128-bit DDR SDRAM

SLOTS
One AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 1.5V 4x/8x slot
Five 32-bit PCI bus slots (support 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface)
One ACR (Advanced Communication Riser) slot

BIOS
The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface (DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.

On-Board IDE
An IDE controller on the MCP-T chipset provides IDE HDD/CDROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes
Can connect up to four IDE devices

Serial ATA Interface
Support 2 serial ATA plus 1 ATA133
RAID O or 1 is supported
RAID function works w/ATA133+SATA H/D or 2 SATA H/D

In-Chip IEEE1394
nVIDIA MCP-T IEEE1394 controller
Support up to two ports via external bracket

Network
Chipset integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet/Fast Ethernet

Audio
Realtek ALC650 6-channel audio
Dolby Digital 5.1 format

On-Board Peripherals
1 floppy port that supports two FDD with 360KB, 720KB,1.44MB and 2.88MB
1 serial port
1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
3 audio ports in vertical
2 IEEE1394 connectors
6 USB ports (Rear * 4/ Front * 2)
1 RJ-45 jack

Dimension
30.5 cm(L) x 23 cm(W) ATX Form Factor

The specifications are very impressive with the board hosting a broad array of features and extras. Not only does the board itself pack a lot but the whole package has a good amount to offer too, with things like the D Bracket 2, the S Bracket, and a FireWire (1394) bracket.

The box is very attractive, sporting a motorcycle and some of the logo's for the technology used such as the nForce2 and DDR 400. Inside the box, apart from the motherboard itself and its extra's we find some DVD Software, drivers, and a couple of manuals. There is one very attractive red, round IDE cable along with a floppy cable and since this is a SATA Raid motherboard, MSI have also seen fit to include 2 SATA leads and matching SATA power cable.

Technology

Ok, anyone who hasn't been living under a rock will by now know that currently the nVidia nForce2 chipset is regarded as THE motherboard chipset to have for an Athlon setup. Until now there were 2 flavours of this chipset, the basic model with SPP northbridge and the IGP version that included integrated GeForce 4 MX graphics onboard. Now with the success of those 2 platforms as well as the move to 400FSB Barton's appearing, nVidia have updated there line-up with 2 new versions dubbed the nForce2 400 and nForce2 Ultra 400.

MSI's K7N2 Delta-ILSR is based on the latter of these 2 new breeds and brings with it official support for 400MHz FSB's. The Ultra 400 revision is more of an evolution to accommodate the latest features rather than a revolution. Apart from that, as the Ultra name would suggest, the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset is mainly an optimization when compared with the original nForce2. MSI would seem to understand this and have chosen to go with the Delta tag rather than Ultra which I think is a good idea personally, although it could cause a little confusion in the marketplace when viewed with competitors who decide to use the Ultra tag. The 400 tag is obviously the bit indicating the faster FSB speed. The MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR also uses the MCP-T which provides support for nVidia's Soundstorm audio certification (although this motherboard doesn't actually have that certification), dual LAN, Firewire, up to 6 ports of USB 2.0 as well as ATA133 IDE.

The Board
As Hubert has done in the K7N2G-ILSR review, I'm going to breakdown the naming convention here which should hopefully give you an idea of what you're getting upfront. The K7N2 indicates it's an Athlon nForce 2 motherboard. The Delta indicates this is from the nForce2 400 line-up, in the this case the 400 Ultra. The "I" is for IEEE1394 (FireWire), "L" for LAN, and the "SR" is Serial ATA RAID.

Once again we see a fire engine red PCB which will look very attractive in any case window. You can also see from the overview picture that MSI have coloured the 3 memory slots green and purple which serves to indicate Dual Channel memory configurations as we shall see a bit later.

Ok, let's start our tour of the board with the CPU area. Enthusiasts will immediately note the lack of the 4 mounting holes around the CPU socket, and whilst this doesn't affect me personally, it will be something that is going to be of concern to others, especially those with Swiftech heatsinks or watercooling systems that utilize those four holes. This is however in-line with AMD's specifications which removes this form of mounting. It's placed nicely at the top of the motherboard, which is personally my favourite place, but coupled with the power socket locations (read below) could mean that you will find yourself cramping the wiring between the HSF and PSU. Another down-point is the location of the power connectors for the motherboard. Sitting just left of the CPU socket we find a standard 20 pin ATX connector as well as a 4 pin AUX connector as usually found on P4 motherboards. Going back to the specifications you can see that there are a lot of integrated features which makes the extra power connection less of a surprise. However the location for both of these is not ideal in that chances are you are going to be draping your power cables across your HSF setup. The orientation of the ATX connector means that you will need to get your fingers in between it and the back I/O panel when removing the ATX connector which for someone with larger hands could be an issue. Conversely the 4 Pin P4 AUX connecter unclips in the reverse of the ATX connecter, meaning you need to get fingers between the connector and capacitors around the CPU area. Whilst not a problem per say since not everyone is going to be removing these connectors repeatedly, I thought it worth a mention.

The 'northbridge' features a rather fetching active cooling solution of a heatsink with clear bladed fan, with the impeller attached to a housing that drops the blades into the 'sink. The clear blades and aluminium look is quite appealing and matches well with the mosfet 'sinks just above it.

As with the K7N2G-ILSR the 8x AGP slot has been coloured red, and whilst it doesn't serve any functional purpose it is a nice colour. Considering the fact that the AGP slot, memory slots and ACR riser slot are coloured it would make sense for the PCI slots to be coloured as well, but this isn't the case. One thing that is a big bonus from my point of view as a reviewer is that the AGP slot clip which holds AGP cards in place is clear of the memory slots, which even in the case of a Ti4600 means that you shouldn't need to remove the card to get the memory out. The blue slot indicates the ACR slot, and whilst it won't be relevant to many who buy this motherboard retail, it will provide an extra connection possibility that would probably appeal in the OEM market.