MSI K7D Master L (cont'd)

Overclocking is not something that we talk about much around here. We don't hold it against a motherboard if it has no options for getting your OC on, as most of the boards we look at are geared for the utmost stability in a production environment. Let's face it... Nobody is going to overclock the Exchange server that is supporting a few hundred, or thousand, people (if they value their job anyway), so why would you even need the option?

But every now and then we get a board in that is geared more towards the enthusiast/workstation crowd that adds some options that allow you to push the limits of your system. As I mentioned before, we don't count against a board for -not- having the option, but is a definite plus when it -does- have it. The Master L has it in spades.

Once you get into the BIOS on the Master L, you'll notice an innocent looking option entitled "Frequency/Voltage Control". If you expand that menu you find all sorts of goodies. A full compliment of voltage, frontside bus and multiplier adjustments. If you're looking to overclock a dual AMD box, the Master L is your best shot out of all the boards we have looked at so far (and there aren't many left that we haven't seen). With bus speeds up to 150mhz and multipliers to 12.5x, the possibilities really start to open up.

Unfortunately, my personal overclocking results were a little less than stellar. My Athlon MP 2100+ are based on the "Palomino" core which is really hitting its upper limit at 2100+ speeds (1.733ghz). The newer "Thouroughbred" core or even lower speed (cheaper) "Palomino" MP's should be a little more forgiving, but as always, YMMV.

To add insult to injury, my overclocking escapades were foiled even further by my memory. Yes yes. I am still using the original Crucial PC2100 Reg'd ECC that I bought for my Thunder K7 review oh-so-long ago. This stuff says CAS2.5 and it -means- it. My machine won't even boot at CAS2 with 133mhz FSB, so expecting it to do a higher FSB was, well, a pipe dream.

Nevertheless, if dual AMD overclocking is your thing, the K7D Master L just might be the board for you. Just be sure to pick your components carefully. There is some PC2700 Reg'd ECC memory out on the market now, and I expect we'll be seeing the new "Thouroughbred" core slipping into some lower speed bin Athlon MPs soon, just like we've seen with the Athlon XP. Those could make for quite the machine for overclocking.

Stability and Usability

Let's face it, all the overclocking options in the world can't save a board if it won't run worth a damn. The Master L does run though, and run and run and run. I have had a few different videocards, soundcards, NICs, etc in this machine and it has been absolutely flawless for me. I even ran it for a while with the onboard sound running -and- an SB Audigy installed and running. If that can't crash the box in a mad display of blue glory, I don't know what will.

Jim has been fond of running the Microsoft HCT stress test on his review boxes, but we recently found out that it isn't -always- a good indicator of stability. His overclocked Celertin machine passed the HCT tests with flying colors, only to die repeatedly while doing his DivX encoding tests. Not so for the K7D Master L.

I have run this board as the basis of my main workstation for more than a few weeks now, constantly running RC5 and encoding audio and video (MPEG1, 2 and DivX) like crazy. Even with an Nvidia videocard, ATi videocard and Matrox videocard, I can honestly say that I have not experienced one BSOD or system failure since I installed the board. That says a lot to me considering the issues I've had in the past with various drivers, etc.

I guess that's enough rambling on about the board. If you can't tell already, I've been really impressed with it... But it's time to see if it actually performs.

Synthetic Benches >>