Shaith

First, the vital specs:

CPU
• Supports Socket A (Socket 462) for AMD® Athlon™ XP/ Athlon™/Duron™ processor
• Supports 800MHz up to (Athlon™ XP 2700+) processor

Chipset
• VIA® KT400 chipset
• FSB @200/266/333 MHz
• Supports DDR200/266/333 memory
• AGP 8X and PCI advanced high performance memory controller.
• VIA® VT8235 chipset
• Dual channel Ultra DMA 66/100/133 master mode EIDE controller.
• ACPI & PC2001 compliant enhanced power management.
• Integrated USB 2.0 controller.

FSB
• 200/266/333 MHz clocks are supported

Main Memory
• Supports up to six memory banks using three 184-pin DDR SDRAMs.
• Supports up to 3GB memory size.
• Supports DDR200/266/333/400 memory.

Slots
• One AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slot.
• Supports AGP 2.0 4x/8x.
• Six 32-bit PCI bus slots (support 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface).

On-Board IDE
• An IDE controller on the VT8235 chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes.

Serial ATA Interface
• Promise 20376 controlls 2 Serial ATA ports in 150 MB/s operation mode and 1 Ultra DMA port

Bluetooth Ready
• 1 extra pinheader for Bluetooth connect connection.

On-Board Peripherals
• 1 floppy port supports 2 FDDs with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M and 2.88Mbytes
• 2 serial ports (COM A + COM B)
• 1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
• 1 IrDA connector for SIR/ASKIR/HPSIR
• 1 audio port
• 6 USB 2.0 ports (Rear * 4/ Front * 2)

Audio
• C-Media 8738MX 6-channel audio + SPDIF out.

BIOS
• The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
• The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface (DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.
• ACPI, 1.0a, APM1.2, PnP 1.0a, SMBIOS 2.3, USB 2.0, WFM 2.0, Overclock, Boot from USB device.

Dimension
• 30.5 cm(L) x 23 cm(W) ATX Form Factor

Mounting
• 6 mounting holes

Special Features
• PC Alert™4
• Fuzzy Logic 4™
• Live BIOS™
• Live Driver™
• Live Monitor™
• MSI™ DVD
• D-Bracket™2
• S-Bracket™
• Serial ATA RAID
• Bluetooth ready
• First KT400 Chipset Based Motherboard Recommended by AMD for Athlon XP™ Processor

Approximate Cost: $90 plus shipping

The MSI KT4 Ultra-SR is an interesting board to say the least. Like its predecessor, the KT3 Ultra2 line, the KT4 boasts an impressive-looking package. The bright-red PCB grabs the attention, and the clean layout lines make it easy to install everything from LED jumpers to additional USB connections. One of the smartest features where layout is concerned is the amount of relatively empty space around the area of the CPU, allowing for good airflow near the CPU.

Strange, however, is the RAID availability on this mainboard. Instead of a full set of IDE ports for RAID, you get a single IDE connector and a pair of Serial ATA connectors. Additionally, because of the number of ports, the Serial ATA RAID supports only mode 0 (striping) and mode 1 (mirroring). There is no mode 0+1 support.

A total of 6 USB ports means most users probably won't need that USB hub for anything more than a glorified USB extension cord. 4 of the six are built-in, with the remaining two becoming available once the D-Bracketâ„¢2 has been installed.

A full AC97 sound system is on board, and with the S-Bracketâ„¢, you now get a standard coaxial port for digital sound output (rather than the mini-phono plug of its predecessors) as well as an optical output. However, like its predecessors, the sound quality is not as high as that afforded by the use of an add-on sound card. If slots are at a premium, it's servicable provided you've got a decently adjustable set of speakers. Just don't attempt to use headphones with it, as the quality is frankly disappointing.

BIOS setup is fairly easy and straight-forward. The only problem I found was a lack of pre-defined processor setups available. You must manually select what FSB speed you wish to utilize. The mainboard can then automatically determine which multiplier the processor uses. One major drawback is when you use the wrong FSB setting - the machine will fail to boot, requiring you to clear the BIOS using the jumper, then start all over again.

Memory settings provide you with a wider range of options, including DDR400 and CAS 1.5 support. For those uncomfortable with setting these options, provided your RAM supports it, setting the options to SPD will automatically detect the correct speed and timing options for your RAM. Most power users will want to set these options manually to squeeze the most speed out of their memory.

Another nice BIOS feature is the ability to select boot devices based on the hardware installed at boot time. This includes one of the widest arrays of devices to date, including Serial ATA, SCSI, LAN, USB, LS-120, FDD, and legacy devices.

One disappointment is the inability to shut the Serial RAID down independent of the IDE RAID port. Also, this setting is literally BURIED, so you may have to do a little bit of looking around.

For you SCSI and IDE users (both in the same system) who boot from your SCSI drives: once again the BIOS boot specs aren't followed by the system should you have a Windows XP CD in at boot time but fail to choose to boot from it. Not sure if this is a mainboard BIOS issue or a Microsoft issue, but just remember to take out that old boot CD.

Performance is on par with the KT3 Ultra2 line, with no major gain or loss noted. Improvements over the KT3 Ultra2 line are mainly the inclusion of the Serial ATA RAID and the introduction of the AGP 8X port.

There are three other boards in the KT4 line currently. They are: The KT4VL, which has no RAID but does include an Ethernet controller, the KT4 Ultra which does not have the Serial ATA RAID, and the KT4 Ultra FISR which in addition to the Serial ATA RAID also includes IEEE1394 firewire ports and Gigabit LAN.

Software includes a Live Update utility for all drivers and BIOS updates, a 5.1 ch DVD player, the PC Alert monitoring utility, CoolerXP (radically reduces CPU temps with little overhead), and FuzzyLogic 4, which allows for on-the-fly overclocking. FuzzyLogic4 will also do automatic stability testing of your machine to find out the highest reliable overclock available.

The only downside is the RMA issues with MSI that make returning defective or DOA products (see here for more details) a real pain and a trying experience. A company shouldn't replace DOA products with refurbished ones, plain and simple. So should you purchase one of these boards, make sure it's from a company that can handle your RMA needs so you aren't stuck dealing with their RMA department on your own.

Still, RMA issues aside, this board is a solid performer, with plenty of options and features to make it worth the price tag.