The MSI
K7N2G-ILSR just goes to show you that a motherboard
with integrated graphics does not have to be bad performer. As we have seen by
the slew of benchmarks, the K7N2G-ILSR keeps up with it's twin the K7N2-L (nForce2 SPP)
in all the office based benchmarks, and even the gaming results are pretty
decent!
With a street price of $152USD the K7N2G-ILSR packs in good value amongst its long list of features. To say this board is well
equipped is an understatement; Serial ATA/IDE RAID, 10/100 LAN, 6-channel audio, IEEE 1394, on board
GeForce4 MX video, TV-out and more if you want to start hitting up
all the optional features MSI pack in.
The K7N2G-ILSR has basically everything you need in
a computer already integrated into the motherboard - making it a real
reality to just drop in a stick or two of DDR and a processor and go from
there. If you need to expand and add some PCI cards there are five slots to
pick from and as graphics demands (and budgets) expand there is always
that 8x AGP slot.
Performance of the board was good, but that's something we expect
from a nForce2 based motherboard (kind of reminds you of the old "a Geforce is a
Geforce is a Geforce mantra"). In the all important office based benchmarks
we can see the integrated video does not slow the system down.
The Northbridge active heatsink is a custom
cooler that is an improvement over other designs,
but overclocking was still somewhat limited in this case. Bottom line, if you're looking
for a good overall nForce2 motherboard with a lot of features, the MSI K7N2G-ILSR
will surely quench your thirst. Just make sure you don't overlook it because of
the old "integrated video" stigma!
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