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Installation NVIDIA's
nForce drivers continue to improve though they still, seem to have some worrying
issues with getting a solid IDE driver running as it should. Installation
was a simple as it ever is thanks to MSI's simple setup utility which offers just
about everything you'll need no more than a click of the mouse away. 
There
was a nice assortment of utilities available off the installation CD including
apps for hardware monitoring, freeing memory, speeding cable modems and XDSL,
viewing and configuring system settings........ 
..........and
of course MSI's famed Live Update software. Also Trend PC-cilin antivirus software
and assortment of other useful bits and bobs. 
The
"Website" tab contains links to a few of sites that you might need to
get to including one that offers a free personal Firewall app. 
While
the "Manual" tab does as its name would suggest and links to the users
manuals for Live Update 2 and GoodMem memory management software. There are also
a couple of other useful little apps on the CD that don't appear here. 
The
Hardware monitoring software I mentioned is MSI's PC Alert 4 which does a nice
job of displaying all the main info in a simple, easy to understand way. 
Then
there's Live Update 2 which basically scours MSI's servers for various updates
and compares their version to the one you currently have installed making update
decisions so much easier. 
Another
feature you'll see mentioned on the box is MSI's Fuzzy Logic overclocking utility
which is now at version 4. What I don't understand though is why it was mentioned
on the box but wasn't on the installation CD. In the end I had to grab it off
their site and even this wasn't easy as the link to it is tucked away alongside
details for each of the specific motherboards. I couldn't find a general link
to it from the main page. 
The
BIOS As
with their previous nForce board BIOSes MSI have included enough option to keep
most users happy but have stayed within guidelines for many of their upper limits.
This might annoy a true tweaker but it does mean a novice is likely to get lumbered
with a dead processor or fried memory. The
Advanced Chipset Features screen offers most of the performance settings that
are likely to be needed including memory timings. Both System Performance and
CPU interface can be set for Manual, Auto or High Performance settings. I couldn't
actually get the system to boot using the high performance setting under "System
Performance" though I was able to set this to manual and set CPU Interface
to "High Performance". Even with the FSB at a fairly humble
133MHz there are a huge variety of FSB/DRAM ratios available with the highest
(2:1) forcing a rather high 267MHz (below) While
the lowest setting of 2:1 brings this down to a nostalgic 66MHz. Because of the
way NVIDIA have optimised the nForce2 you're almost certainly going to want this
set to 1:1 so memory and FSB run synchronously. 
Because
the AGP bus is decoupled you can set independent AGP frequencies between 66 and
120 MHz. And
AGP voltage can be set at 1.5,1.6 or 1.7 volts. DRAM
voltage has a range of 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 volts which is almost certainly too low
to appeal to more adventurous overclockers who'll be searching out the first voltage
mod to come along. Manual
CPU ratios are selectable up to 13x which should be high enough for FSB overclocking
on current CPUs. And
to help with stability CPU voltage can be taken up to 1.80v if needed. Because
the K7N2 uses the Athlon's thermal diode the CPU temperatures can get a little
disconcerting at times and even allowing for thermal diode use the temps do seem
a touch higher than I'd have expected. Both
NIC options are available on the MCP-T controller but both the Delta uses only
one. Physical Installation Installing
the board was like installing just about every other though I did have one issue
worthy of a moan. Like the K7N2Gs the Delta mounts on six screws which will leave
a good portion of the board unsupported, the portion of the board where pressure
is used to push in your IDE and floppy cables and your memory. I understand and
appreciate the need sor more compact boards where it's possible but I think we
need a more standardised way of supporting such boards. In the meantime though
just make sure you support the board's edge when plugging in your components. | 
