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- Date:
- Monday , September 15, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
MSI KT6 Delta-LSR
The KT6 Delta-LSR is MSI’s entry into the fanfare and hype that centers around the VIA KT-600 chipset. Just how well was MSI able to engineer this solution to withstand the onslaught of the nForce2 based boards?
BIOS
For the KT6 Delta-LSR, MSI chose to implement a solution around the AMI BIOS. MSI did include some very nice customizations specially targeted to the enthusiast crowd.
From within the Advanced Chipset Features menu, you have access to control various chipset related functionality, including AGP and memory related functions. The DRAM Timing Control submenu contains various options relating to memory operation, while the AGP Timing Control submenu contains AGP specific control options.
With the Configure SDRAM Timing By option set to user, all memory timing related options becomes user configurable. Settings available include SDRAM Frequency, CAS latency, RAS Precharge delay (shown as Row Precharge Time), RAS to CAS delay, Active to Precharge delay (shown as RAS Pulse Width), Write Recovery Cycle, and Bank Interleave. On all memory timing settings with the exception of the SDRAM Frequency option, a lower number is more aggressive. The SDRAM Frequency option defines what FSB your memory runs, supporting up to a 400 MHz memory speed. However, the memory frequency selected should be synchronized to your CPU FSB for highest performance due to latency issues encountered when running memory asynchronous to the CPU FSB.
Besides the settings tied to the Configure SDRAM Timing By option, there are a number of other memory options that can be configured to run your memory more aggressively. The very first option listing in the DRAM Timing menu, System Performance, controls how aggressively the chipset and bus related timings are set. The SDRAM Burst Length option controls the amount of data read from or written to the memory modules during a burst operation, with the higher number being more efficient and aggressive. The SDRAM 1T Command option controls the speed of the memory signal controller, while the Fast Command option controls timing intervals within the CPU itself. Fast R-2-R Turnaround controls the speed at which the memory controller recovers from a burst operation. All of the above described options must be approached carefully, since too aggressive a setting for your selected memory will cause a non-booting system.
The Frequency/Voltage Control menu contains various options for setting the CPU operational speed and system voltages.
The CPU FSB Clock option allows for manual control of the CPU FSB, with a maximum supported FSB of 280 MHz. The CPU Ratio controls the CPU multiplier which determines the true CPU speed when multiplied by the CPU FSB Clock setting. Note that changing the multiplier will only work correctly on a BIOS unlockable processor, such as an AMD Tbred-b or Barton CPU. Changing the multiplier on a locked CPU can cause a non-booting board, forcing a CMOS reset. All the voltage settings are user definable via the arrow keys, no drop downs here. Despite the voltage selection shortcomings, MSI did a masterful job with the allowable voltage maximums. The board allows the following impressive array of maximum voltages for each of the critical subsystems: CPU vcore – 2.30v, V-Link (Northbridge) – 2.80v, DDR – 3.30v, AGP – 2.10v. With that amount of voltage at your disposal and a nice cooling system, you should have little problem getting a nice overclock. One thing that appears to be missing from this menu and the BIOS itself are dividers for determining the AGP and PCI bus frequency based on the selected CPU FSB. This could present a real problem for this board with overclocking, especially in light of the fact that the KT600 chipset does not lock the PCI and AGP buses at a certain frequency. The chipset itself uses dividers to determine bus speeds, meaning that MIS chose to allow the chipset to automatically determine the applicable divider based on the CPU FSB setting.
The Integrated Peripherals menu contains various options for controlling the on-board devices. Once of the more interesting options within this menu is the VT8237 SATA-IDE Controller option. This option controls the operating state of the VIA VT8237 based RAID controller. The PC Health menu displays various system level temperatures and voltages as well as fan speeds from the monitored on-board fan headers.