Written By:
Date Posted: June 14 , 2002

BIOS and Overclocking

The K7D Master uses a Phoenix BIOS. There are not too many user adjustable features within the BIOS. As for overclocking features, well there are none. I would also like to point out that there were times when the BIOS seemed sluggish during testing. It would lock for a second and the menus would scroll slowly. I questioned MSI tech about this and they didn't have an answer for me. It is a minor issue, but an issue nonetheless.

Here we see the main BIOS screen. It is what we are all used to seeing nowadays.

Within the Advanced Options section there is a place to adjust memory timings and on board features. There are not too many adjustments the user can make but there is a fair amount of tweaking that can be had within the advanced options of the BIOS.

I might as well admit defeat now. I could not overclock with this board at all. It didn't matter if I tried with one CPU or two, it just wouldn't cooperate. The BIOS does have multiplier adjustments up to 12.5, but they don't work when both of your processors are multiplier locked. No problem, just up the FSB, right? Well, it wasn't exactly that easy. Every time I bumped up to a 138 MHZ FSB the system would lock within ten minutes. Why go with such a high bus speed right off the bat you ask? The K7D Master only allows FSB adjustments in 5 MHz increments. No matter what I did, from using two Thermalright SK6's and pumping up the voltage, nothing would help. Seeing as it was not designed with system tweakers and overclockers in mind, I am not too shocked with the K7D Master's terrible overclocking results.

Overall the K7D Master sports a very plain, yet functional BIOS without too much depth. There were some nice user adjustable settings, such as RAM settings, but that was pretty much all. There was absolutely no overclocking to be had, which was kind of a sore spot.

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