Back In Time…
Granted that it may appear a step back, but the MSI K7 Pro reached our hands shortly after the ABIT KA7. It can be simply perceived as bad timing, but conversely it provided an opportunity for benchmarking the KA7 against what seemed like a standard, no-frills contender. Afterall, the ABIT KA7 seemed to possess all the necessary embellishments - AGP 4x, and purportedly 133MHz SDRAM bandwidth, whilst the MSI K7 Pro’s came with more conservative offerings, utilizing a first generation AMD Irongate chipset. But are pure specs truly representative?? Hmmm… Let’s find out…
Somehow, nostalgic impressions of a previous Athlon board exists…
In terms of packaging, the MSI K7 Pro comes in an impressionable and intricately (albeit colourful) designed box. Looking inside reveals even greater professionalism, where a whole host of MSI motherboard products are featured on the inner lining. Undoubtedly, MSI’s marketing team has incurred great pains in reassuring its reputability…
A Micro-Starship Enterprise named 'AMD Athlon'?? What’s next??
Its bundled contents are nothing fancy, consisting of the standard few accessories. Having said that, the CD-ROM does come notably with a set of proprietary MSI utilities:- 01 x MSI K7 Pro motherboard,
- 01 x User Manual (includes a small booklet on “Understanding the D-LED”);
- 01 x Quick Reference Diagnostic LED table
- 01 x UATA66 IDE HDD cable; 01 x FDD cable
- 01 x Support Bar for Heatsink+Fan(not bundled)
- 01 x CD-ROM containing AMD K7 AGP mini-port 4.50 drivers, MS DirectX 7.0, AMD K7 IDE 1.24 drivers, Realtek 8139 Network Drivers, past MSI Motherboard User Manuals, PC-cillin 98 + update, MSI Utilities (DMI Browser, SoftCooler II, 3D Turbo II, Doctor Y2K & MoSpeed), Media Ring, Adobe Acrobat & Remote Control Utility.
Nothing out of the ordinary. But the CD-ROM is feature-packed…
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