Review: MSI K7N2-L

Performance Conclusion

There's not much to say by way of a performance conclusion here. The performance of the MSI when equipped with a suitable processor and memory to take advantage of the memory controllers on nForce2 is just where it should be. If you were to scale the performance of the Asus down with an XP2400+ under the hood, performance would be nearly identical. Out of the box performance is where an nForce2 solution should be.

It's in other performance related areas where the MSI falls down slightly. While we have to acknowledge that overclocking isn't for everyone, I can't ignore the MSI's shortcomings in appeasing the enthusiast and making him or her choose this board. No PCI lock, no automatic unlocking of processors like other boards and no heatsink mounting holes for high performance coolers and the MSI can't be considered as a performance users board in its current state.

Out of the box performance is just fine and you then rate the board on its feature set and price against its opposition.

Overall Conclusion

So onto the overall conclusion and the task of finding a place in the pecking order for this board when rated against its peers.

As an enthusiasts board it pretty much falls down compared to its nForce2 peers from other manufacturers. I'd liked to have seen Firewire and the possible use of the 2nd Ethernet MAC on the MCP2-T to bring it level with the Asus on a feature level but for the price of the board, it's easily forgiven and you'll see those features on the high end K7N2 derivatives.

Overall it frustratingly falls a tiny bit short in all areas against its peers, unless overclocking and layout issues make no real difference to you, only the low price pulls it back up a notch.

I like the board, it's just hard to recommend despite the price. For the truly budget user looking to get in on some nForce2 action it's a decent board, but I'd rather pay extra money for some feature proofing and that leads the board up to some tough competition with boards like the Asus Deluxe. A slightly frustrating product to review, not like MSI boards I've seen in the past.

Score