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MSI has built a reputation for quality and even though we don't like some of their internal design rules, there is nothing to really complain about. One of the issues we have been concerned with in the past is the fact that MSI, unlike most other manufacturers, have a tendency to use fewer phases on their CPU power circuitry and instead to use larger capacitors for ripple current buffering. In the short term, there is nothing to worry about except for some heavy fluctuations of the Vre, in the long term, it did turn out that the life span of some of these boards was compromised, courtesy of burnt-out voltage regulators.

Close-up of the board power circuitry. The arrow on the top shows where the HIP 6302 controller chip has been spreadeagled to fit the footprint of the much larger 6301 programmable multiphase controller. The arrowheads indicate missing components or more correctly components that were part of the reference design but have been eliminated by the (invisible on a red PCB) red pen (1: cap, 2: driver chip, 3: MOSFETs, 4: choke).

With MSI's earlier K7T266 Pro-RU, we were concerned about something similar to happen since the PCB design shows the standard layout for e.g. the Intersil HIP6301 in tri-phase configuration, except that two of the switch voltage regulators were missing, as was the third choke. With the KT3-Ultra, we are looking at exactly the same picture except that now the HIP 6301 is gone and instead the 6302 microcontroller has been stretched over the solder points. Two phases are better than one, so much is for sure but the main regulator chip, that is the Intersil HIP 6302 is rather the budget version than a high end device. It seems to work, though, we'll have more on this later. Otherwise, well, we have seen the MSI factories and the stringent quality requirements and all of this is reflected in the mainboard quality.

Layout

The KT3 very closely follows the layout of the K7T266 Pro-RU except that there were a few changes in component as the above mentioned HIP 6302 replaced the more elaborate 6301, likewise, there is a new generation of USB 2.0 controller and the BIOS chip has moved to the right of the board. The VIA AC97 controller has been replaced by the RealTek ALC650, a definite step up but still a far cry from a CMedia or Creative onboard sound chip.

The orientation of the Socket A is more or less a philosophical issue, some manufacturers prefer the North-South orientation, others prefer the East-West (including myself) and MSI is still going with the first group. The main argument against this arrangement is that, unless the case is really tall, latching the clip of the heatsink onto the socket is a maneuver comparable only to a defloration (without the kicks, though). Whether there is any real advantage to this design eludes me. An interesting detail is that MSI finally decided to use active cooling on the NorthBridge which comes at a time where everybody else is moving back to passive heatsinks for reasons of noise and reliability issues with the fans.

The ATX power connector is to the far left of the PCB, next to the ATX I/O block and will require a cable tie to secure the 20 strands such that they won't get caught in the CPU HS-fan. At the same time, as we stressed earlier often enough, bringing in the power as close as possible to the board power circuitry has its own advantages which is why we consider this particular location for the ATX power connector the best solution.

Regarding the expansion slots, the AGP slot is way too close to the DIMM slots, making it impossible to change DIMMs without removing the graphics card first. In case that heatspreaders are mounted on the graphics memory, often enough, there will be no other choice than a hacksaw to cut them off, otherwise it won't even be possible to insert the graphics card into the AGP slot. But then, short traces do have their advantages, too, as we will find out later.

Five PCI slots are almost on the short end of the spectrum today, especially, if they are backed by nothing but a communication and network riser (CNR) slot. To add insult to injury, the CNR slot present on the KT3 only supports audio or modem but no network devices and is, essentially an AMR in disguise. This may suffice for an OEM board but in the high-end enthusiast market, the value of this slot is more than questionable.

The primary and secondary IDE connectors are flush with the bottom edge of the three 184 pin DDR DIMM slots and on the far side of the floppy disk drive connector. The KT3 sports a total of four fan connectors, including the one used by the NorthBridge cooler.

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