Last week I talked to one of my friends who was very mad on AMD because his newly purchased XP 2200+ crashed after less than a month. Such things happen every day so he shouldn’t have been upset for such a ‘minor’ issue. Well, he was because the dealer refused to replace the CPU due to 'overclocking activities'. I tried to explain him that overclocking does break warranties but he was still amazed how the guy from the shop realized that he had overclocked the processor. Is there any rule that enthusiasts buy AMD? No. Is there any rule that companies buy Intel? No.
Although there are not many rules that can describe the guys who fit into the profile of the AMD buyer, I think that a lot of AMD fans are hardcore users and enthusiasts. Let's see why. Today I will test a motherboard manufactured by MSI which is targeted to a particular segment of the market. I will take a look to MSI KT3 Ultra2, a motherboard designed around KT333 and approved by AMD to work with 333Mhz memory modules.

First look

The package contains two UDMA133 cables, one floppy cable, one bracket with USB ports, one bracket with audio ports, two CD with drivers, one floppy disk with ATA133 drivers, one user’s manual and the motherboard. Included with the motherboard package I got a box containing a Bluetooth access device. The user’s manual is well written and contains all the stuff you need to install the motherboard into the case and get the system running. MSI also included in the package a paper which warns the buyer about AMD processors cooling requirements and a dedicated RAID user's manual.
The motherboard's layout is pretty usual: five PCI slots, one CNR, one AGP and three DIMM slots. The ATX connector is placed near the PS/2 ports, not the best position possible. Although the motherboard has only five PCI slots, it is not possible to install memory modules when a large AGP video card is in place. The CNR slot is only part of the reason why this is not possible; the headers for the additional USB ports which are perpendicular to the CNR slot take a lot of space that could have been used in a smarter way. Fortunately the CPU slot can work with large heatsinks, a positive fact for overclockers. MSI KT3 Ultra2 uses Promise PDC20276 in order to provide RAID capabilities. Unfortunately this controller is not able to work in RAID 0+1 mode.
The additional HDD headers are placed in the traditional position, parallel with the PCI slots. The KT333 chipset is active cooled by the personalized heatsink and fan. Close to the CPU socket there are two fan headers, another one being available near the RAID HDD ports.

MSI KT3 Ultra2 product picture

There are very few jumpers onboard, one is used for CMOS clear and the other ones are used to set the audio outputs and inputs. The motherboard uses Realtek ALC650 which is able to deliver 6.1 sound, that’s why these jumpers are necessary to set sound sources for the external, on bracket audio ports. The MSI hardware diagnostic features are available on the USB ports bracket. MSI KT3 Ultra2 uses Winbond W83697HF to monitor temperatures, fan speeds, voltages, etc.
The Bluetooth device is installed using a bracket with a fixed position, that’s the reason why there is so much space between the CNR slot and the motherboard's edge.