The first board we received on this chipset turned out to be of the budget
level: the ICH installed is old and has no SATA support and fewer USB ports.
Accessories:
- Package of the standard design;
-
Documentation: user manual in English;
- Cables: FDD, ATA66/100/133,
both are in the mesh pipe;
- Blank bracket;
- CD with:
- drivers;
- Adobe Acrobat Reader;
- WinVNC;
-
3Deep;
- PC-cillin 2002;
- X-Setup;
- MSI
Corecenter;
- MSI Fuzzy Logic (auto CPU overclocking);
-
MSI GoodMem (memory optimization);
- MSI InfoView (info about system
devices);
- MSI i-Speeder (optimization of the Internet access and
network connection optimization);
- MSI Live Update 2 (auto drivers
and BIOS update);
- MSI LockBox (PC access lock);
-
MSI Password Keeper;
- MSI PCAlert IV (system monitoring);
-
MSI SecureDoc (file encryption);
- MSI SmartKey.
The board is smaller than usual, and the layout is not that convenient: IDE
and FDD are behind the PCI slots and audio-ins are in front of them; a video card
inserted may lock access to the memory modules, and it can be hard to plug in
cables into some connectors along the left side of the board. It's not easy to
reach the only jumper even when the board is not installed yet. Its functions
are not shown on the textolite.
The 3-channel switching voltage regulator incorporates
6 capacitors of 2200 uF and several less capacious ones. Also, there are voltage
regulators for the AGP bus (4 of 1000 uF) and memory bus (4 of 1000 uF).
Integrated
controllers:
- audio controller based on the chipset and C-Media
CMI9739A AC'97 codec; 5.1 audio system supported, front audio outputs and SPDIF
connectors provided.
Non-unsoldered connectors: network controller chip
and RJ45 connector.
System monitoring is supported by Winbond W83627THF-A
chip. It controls:
- processor voltage, +3.3, +-5 and +-12 V, VBAT
and +5 V Standby;
- speed of 2 fans;
- temperatures
of the processor (built-in sensor), the board (built-in sensor).
There
are 2 connectors for adjustable and 1 for unadjustable connection of fans.
Brief board's characteristics: memory slots - 2 DDR SDRAM; expansion
slots - AGP/ 6 PCI; I/O ports - 2 COM/ LPT/ 2 PS/2/ 6 USB 2.0; dimensions - 305x200
mm.
Settings:
| jumpers and switches |
Jumper to clear up the CMOS |
|
| BIOS based on AMI v3.31a |
Setup of memory timings |
+ |
CAS Latency, RAS Precharge, RAS to CAS Delay, Precharge Delay,
Burst Length |
| Setup of memory frequency |
+ |
Auto; DDR266 at FSB 100 MHz; DDR266 and DDR333 at FSB 133 MHz;
DDR400 at FSB 200 MHz |
| Setup of AGP bus |
- |
|
| Setup of PCI bus |
- |
|
| Changeable scaler of AGP and PCI buses |
+ |
AGP(PCIx2) = 66-150 MHz in 1MHz steps |
| Manual assignment of interrupts |
+ |
|
| Changeable FSB frequency |
+ |
100-500 MHz in 1MHz steps |
| Changeable CPU multiplier |
+ |
x8-x32 |
| Changeable core voltage |
+ |
1.1-1.85 V in 0.0125V steps up to 1.6 V and in 0.1V steps over |
| Changeable memory voltage |
+ |
2.5-2.8 V in 0.1V steps |
| Changeable chipset voltage |
- |
|
| Changeable AGP bus voltage |
+ |
1.5-1.8 V in 0.1V steps |
We used the BIOS 1.0 as the latest available version.
This is a board with budget-level functions and modest speed characteristics.
You can take maybe only because of its good overclocking potential.
Test
results:
