MSI K7D Master L (MS-6501)

Believe it or not, the life of a hardware reviewer is not as glamorous as it may seem. Sure, we get to play with new stuff before most people know it exists, and sure, we may have some pretty impressive system specs, but I'll be the first one to admit that after seeing a bunch of nearly identical motherboards cross your test bench, it gets difficult to get excited about almost anything... Almost.

Every now and then we, as hardware reviewers, stumble across something really impressive. Just when we'd seen it all there is always that one product that makes us go "Wow". To be honest, MPX boards were becoming old hat around here. I've seen just about all of them that are available, and other than a few minor differences, they are all pretty much the same. Recently though, I was sent a board that gave me a bit of a jolt. Something eye catching in a sea of "also rans"... MSI's K7D Master L.

A quick look through our forums would indicate that this board has generated quite a following, even if it hasn't been out for that long. What makes it so special? Why is everyone clamoring to get their hands on one? Well. Let's see if we can put our finger on it.

Layout and Features

The first thing that really stands out when you open the box is the red PCB. Personally, I don't rate boards based on flashy things like the PCB color, but in a world of vanilla motherboards, it's a nice touch. Case modders and braggarts will get a kick out of the bright red board, and it will set them apart from most every other 2CPU system out there (dual capable boards are normally very plain looking, except for the extra CPU socket of course ;-).

Once your eyes adjust to the brightness, you'll notice that the K7D Master L is laid-out very well. Component placement is very good allowing cables to be routed without detracting from airflow and case/drive ventilation. You'll also notice the four holes surrounding each socket, allowing for larger, better cooling heatsinks.

When I got the board I was all excited at the prospect of using some big 'sinks with quiet 80mm fans to cool my Athlon MP 2100+(s), so I called up my buddy Ian over at 2CoolTek to see what he had. He sent a pair of Alpha's PAL8045's right over (with some "Whisper" series Sunon fans) for me to try. Unfortunately this board will not accommodate the Alpha PAL8045. I guess it just wasn't meant to be, at least without hacking the heatsinks to pieces.

The one minor annoyance I found with this board's layout was the placement of the four pin "P4" power connector. You can see in the picture above that it is located right between the Northbridge and the AGP-Pro slot. It wasn't too much hassle to route the wires from the PSU to the connector (thank God for Enermax and their -long- wiring harness), but it would've been nice to see it located a bit further up on the board. Still... If that is the only layout problem that I found...

As for the size of the PCB, the Master L was just a bit skinnier than my Tiger MP. That was nice as it allowed me to use the bottom 5.25" drive bay in my (small) Antec SX600 series midtower. I don't know what my thing is about cramming as much as possible into the smallest case possible, but hey, the Master L let me stuff one more thing in the case. That's a good thing.

The board ships with integrated AC'97 sound and an Intel (Heh) NIC. Both work well, and it frees-up those precious 32bit 33mhz PCI slots for other things... Like the included USB 2.0 card. Yes, the Master L does indeed have working onboard USB 1.1 ports (via the "fixed" Southbridge chip), but MSI saw fit to include a USB 2.0 card anyway. Very cool. You also get some an expansion-slot "L" bracket with even more USB ports, and MSI's handy DLED indicator lights to help you troubleshoot your box via POST codes. MSI, like myself, apparently likes to cram as much value into one box as they can possibly fit.

BIOS and Overclocking? >>