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Audio Testing
We downloaded and installed to test its CPU utilization. CPU utilization was extremely low though all the tests, where the performance was more or less in line with the Epox board. Sound quality was excellent, as it usually is with the nVidia MCP. Given the SoundStorm support, if you have a 5.1 speaker set, you can expect quality to be at the same level as a high-end sound card.
LAN Testing
We used to test the networking speed, and Windows Task Manager for CPU usage. We copied a variety of install files, varying in size of 300kb to as much as 70MB per file from the MSI machine, to our Shuttle XPC.
Download speeds averaged about 8.9MB/sec, and upload speeds about 9.6MB/sec. The CPU usages was very low, averaging about 8%, which is about 6% lower than other onboard solutions I've worked with in the past.
Final Words
Although we fully recommend the board, there is the corrupted BIOS issue that would have to be taken into account. I want to point out that our memory overclocking problem was a user error, and not necessarily a flaw with the MSI board. That being said, either nVidia or MSI is going to have to make safeguards to prevent this from happening.
Understandably, overclocking is something you do at your own risk, but we would at least expect a BIOS reset to revert back to defaults to fix it. When we had our board replaced, we received an extra BIOS chip (the second motherboard was also new), so I tried the memory overclock again to see if I was able to reproduce this error. Sadly, I killed another BIOS (as expected), so consider this my warning to you. You must disable the onboard video before attempting memory overclocking. Long story short, this is a problem with pretty much any nForce 2 with IGP, so even if you choose not to pick up this board, be aware of this issue with others.
What about CPU/motherboard overclocking? I would have liked to see options above 200FSB, but since we weren't able to get any stability past 198, I guess this is of little consequence. The board ran quite smoothly at these speeds, and we have not experienced any problems for over two weeks now. We used the excellent Thermalright SLK-800 to keep it cool, but owners of Alphas and Swiftechs are going to have to look elsewhere as the four mounting holes are unavailable. I would have also liked to have higher voltage options as well.
By using the included S-Bracket, you have the ability to enable SoundStorm. Currently, this is only one of three nVidia motherboards that offers SoundStorm support. Let me just say that the quality is nothing short of amazing, and if you're running any card less than an Audigy, you have no reason to feel compelled to purchase a new soundcard. It's just that damn good.
The IGP performance is pretty much what you would expect. The performance doesn't give any reason to discard any card you may have that is post GeForce 3. However, users with GeForce 2 cards and lower (and there are a lot of those), who are also in need of a motherboard upgrade, may find the K7N2G-ILSR a very attractive option. When you have the cash to upgrade to a faster video card, you can easily disable the IGP and drop a new card into the AGP8x slot.
Pros: Excellent stability, great performance, feature rich, and includes SoundStorm support.
Cons: IGP/Memory overclocking issues
Bottom Line: The MSI K7N2G-ILSR proved to be an exceptional motherboard. The features alone make it one of the most attractive motherboards on the market. The board was very stable, and the performance was very good as well.
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MSI K7N2G-ILSR: MSI pulls no punches with their flagship nForce 2 motherboard. Featuring almost every conceivable technology available for motherboards, they're doing everything they can to standout on paper. Let's see how it does in reality.
