MSI MEGA mPC 51PV Barebone
With NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Graphics
There is some stagnation on the barebone market segment, which is apparently caused by rather high average prices for such systems along with their innate expandability limitations. Despite that, all those willing to build a compact computer with attractive (or at least unusual) appearance can find something suitable. In this article we shall have a look at a barebone of the standard (if the term is at all applicable) format. A "cubic" computer chassis with a motherboard that has integrated graphical core, but not without additional capability to install a fully-functional video card.
Appearance
Chassis is designed using predominantly black color. Only the front panel side-frame is silver-like. The polished front panel can be considered a plus or a minus, because the pretty shine is very much dependent on one's determination to keep the surface clean from dust and finger prints. Nevertheless, these kinds of coatings became popular not only among monitors, speakers and other peripherals, but also with much more exposed to the elements notebook computers. Hence, this decorative style must have many supporters. Chassis size is traditional for SFF - 210x330x175 mm.
Front panel bays (optical drive, card-reader) and peripheral ports are covered with lids. Cover for the 5-inch bay has a spring and opens when the CD/DVD tray is ejected. Controls in keeping with tradition include a power-on button and original "remote" button for opening the disk tray. The control signal must be sent over the IDE bus, whereas most chassis with decorative bay covers use a mechanism that presses the corresponding button of the optical drive itself.
The front panel houses two USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 400 (4- and 6-pin), optical S/PDIF-In and interfaces for headphones and a microphone. It is peculiar that FireWire ports are located on the front panel only. Perhaps MSI considers all peripherals connected via this interface exclusively mobile.
The rear panel has an abundance of graphics connectors. This includes VGA, DVI, composite as well as S-Video Out. PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, which are becoming rare in compact systems, are located here as well. Here we also find 3 USB (2.0) ports, a network socket (Gigabit Ethernet), 6 analog audio-sockets for outputting 7.1-channel sound and S/PDIF-Out.
At the top of the rear panel there is a detachable antenna for a Wi-Fi module. This module is included by default instead of being an option, which is also rare.
Internal design and functionality
Likely the most interesting feature in the chassis design is the opening and easily detachable hard drive and optical drive bays. Thanks to this solution it is possible to access the system board and install all components except the CPU cooler without having to use any tools.
Hard drive and optical drive are mounted in respective bays without any screws, while the rack can be easily taken apart for convenient installation.
Since the design only allows one hard drive and one optical drive to be installed, the chassis appears spacious enough on the inside despite its compact size. This attribute should promote free air circulation. Data and power supply cables run along the front side and are carefully fixed. It isn't quite apparent on the picture due to obstruction by cables disconnected from the disk bay, however a complete assembly leaves no cables hanging loose inside. Such implementation also contributes to effective circulation of air.
The system board has brand identification as MS-7214 and is, naturally, specifically designed for this chassis. To its advantage it uses a fully functional GeForce 6150 chipset with nForce 430 southbridge instead of cut-down variations with reduced core frequency or functionality that are becoming so popular lately. Nevertheless, chipset functionality is not completely implemented on this board (there isn't really a need for that) and includes the following:
- Support of AMD Athlon 64/FX/X2 and Sempron (Socket AM2) processors;
- Support of up to 2 GB of dual-channel DDR533/667/800 memory (2 x DIMM slots);
- Integrated GeForce 6150 graphics with support of PureVideo and DirectX 9.0, 475 MHz default graphics core clock rate;
- 1 x PCIEx16 slot for a discrete graphics accelerator;
- 1 x PCI slot and 1 x Mini-PCI slot (used by Wi-Fi-adapter);
- 6 x USB 2.0 ports and 1 x SATA II port for a SATA300 device (with NCQ support), 1 x UATA133 channel for 2 devices;
- 1 x USB 2.0 port for an IR adapter for an optional remote control;
- 7.1-channel audio (Realtek ALC880 HDA codec);
- 2 x FireWire (VIA VT6307 controller);
- Gigabit Ethernet (chipset + CIS8201 PHY-controller).
The system board also has CD-In and AUX-In sockets, as well as a CPU fan connector.
Unfortunately, the list of components tested for compatibility that is provided on the manufacturer's web-site doesn't include video cards, neither does the instructions document. Yet the issue of support isn't insignificant, because the graphics port itself is well-placed and could house a full-sized video card with double-slot cooling system. That is exactly what we have tried with our standard testbed ATI Radeon X1900XTX. The board has no extra 6-pin power supply connector for such a video card, so we had to use an adapter. Alas, as a result the video card cooler was spinning at a maximum rate (which always happens at start-up but doesn't last long), but the picture was missing. The testbed computer booted up and operated normally using integrated graphics instead, while the video card cooler kept on spinning. Even the hardest tests caused no malfunctions, so it would be incorrect to put the blame on insufficient output from power supply unit. Most likely the system is simply incompatible with this specific video card model.
Having repeated the test with a graphics adapter based on Radeon X800 XL that happened to be around we have noticed no abnormalities. In particular, we have discovered that adding such a card doesn't turn the system into a noisy oven. On the contrary, the heating of the other components has increased insignificantly, which we discuss below in more detail.
We have evaluated quality of the integrated audio in 16-bit 44-KHz mode using RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.4 testing suite and ESI Juli@ sound card:
| Frequency response (40 Hz to 15 KHz), dB: |
+0.16, -0.17 | Very good |
| Noise level, dB (A): |
-75.4 | Average |
| Dynamic range, dB (A): |
75.5 | Average |
| THD, %: |
0.0100 | Very good |
| IMD + N, %: |
0.043 | Good |
| Channel crosstalk, dB: |
-78.6 | Very good |
| IMD at 10 KHz, %: |
0.043 | Good |
Overall rating: Good.
This result is closer to the characteristics of AC'97 standard audio codecs. This can be really confusing, especially considering the fact that the manual itself specifies the integrated codec as AC'97. It is a disappointing mistake, because PCI-slots are scarce in compact systems, and it is necessary to make do with the system's integrated functionality, which in that case should match the average level of modern system boards or ideally even surpass it.
The system board's BIOS contains no overclocking settings. Of all the similar options there is only memory voltage selection, which can be used to improve stability in case of incorrect automatic voltage setting by the more expensive models, which have non-standard default voltage. However, using them is unjustified in this case, because they are designed for overclocking.
The system board has a 3-channel CPU supply voltage stabilizer with 2 field transistors per channel, which are cooled with heat sinks, 5 capacitors of 3300 microfarad each and 4 capacitors of 1500 microfarad each made by United Chemi-Con. The board's sole jumper responsible for CMOS reset is located very conveniently.
