MSI K8T Master2 vs. Tyan Thunder K8W

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Performance, frankly, is no different between the boards. VIA's AGP driver seems a bit more solid, but in terms of overall performance, you're looking at performance differences under 5% on most occasions. The MSI K8T Master2 motherboard gives slightly (and I do mean slightly) better performance across the board, but in terms of noticeable performance differences between the boards, honestly, there is none. As I've said before, now that AMD has moved the memory controller on the processor die, there will be little performance and stability differences between various motherboards. Platforms should be chosen based on features and price instead.

In that right, MSI's K8T Master can deliver all the same performance of the Thunder K8W for quite a lot less money. If you're looking for a bare-bones low-end dual Opteron setup, this board is a nice choice. The CPU cooler situation is bizarre, and the board design could use some help, but all in all it's a stable, high performance platform which has an impressive feature set for such an inexpensive platform.