1024 x 768 XGA Display - 512 MB RAM - 40 GB HDD - Combo Drive - ATI Mobility RADEON x300 - Bluetooth - Windows XP Professional - MPN: K8NNEO4F
Strengths: Very stable, nice documentation, easy hardware install, had some firmware difficulties. Nice over-clocking features
Weakness: DO NOT USE default cmos settings. Took me all afternoon to resolve crash issues. XP install froze 4 times before it finally did a full install.
Athlon 64 3200+ Venice, eVGA GeForce 6600 PCI-E, 2x512 Crucial ddr 3200. Flashed the latest bios ver. 1.9, downloaded the latest video & NF4 drivers. Ram is not happy at 2.5 latency, had to set it at 3 and bump ram voltage from 2.65V to 2.75V in order to keep it from crashing. Bullet proof now. DON'T use the bios defaults! Google for custom settings.
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TopStrengths: Low Price and High Upgradeability. This board has everything you need and more, at a low price, what more could you ask for?
Weakness: None that I can think of.
This motherboard is awesome. MSI has consistently proven to me that they make amazing products. The SATA RAID, IDE RAID, Gigabit LAN, and 7.1 Channel audio are more than I could ask for. The documentation was easy to use and easy to follow. Thankfully it mentioned the fact that I didn't have to buy a new power supply to run it, since it has a 24pin power connector and most power supplies have a 20 pin connector. It's working great and running "cool and queit" perfectly.
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Topi would like to built a computer but i don't know what components i need as there is so many but i've reading a lot about what you need.
Strengths: Great driver support Good overclocking capabilities Uses the latest nvidia northbridge
Weakness: Didn't auto detect the right multiplier settings until a BIOS update was installed; Lack of FireWire connector
Great board all around. Looking to overclock my A64 3000+ when the time comes, rock solid stability and support. Plenty of USB ports, onboard sound and network controller support, just a great board all around.
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TopStrengths: Nice layout & Features with one of the few Multi Boot Keys around for any device and smart techs always
Weakness: Low Quality (QC) which seems to be the problem with most Products since the El Cheapo Chinese have been manufacturing them
They really used to be a good board since I've been building systems for 8 Years now but this one came in 2 times defective (restart after Shutdown & Noisey Audio) and after taking a good look at it and reading the MSI Forum the Northbridge is Unfinished with open connections under the Fan insulated with Foam! The NB Fan doesn't even have a Heatsink either just a simple piece of flat metal which is NO excuse for me. Software Utilities are ridiculous and still partly unfinished.
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TopStrengths: Cheap, Easy to Overclock, Many Advanced Settings Avaliable in BIOS, 7.1 Channel Audio
Weakness: Compalibility Test Data Not Enough
It's a good and cheap motherboard if you don't need SATA 2 and IEEE 1394 port (if you need them, you need to pay more.) But I still have to say that MSI only tested 5 or 6 products' compatibility on each major parts like hard drives and video cards and I think it's not enough. This motherboard caused driver conflict with my video card and cost me a lot of extra time to solve it (both drivers were from nVIDIA.) But after all, it's running smoothly right now. It also contain more advanced settings avaliable in the BIOS and were easy to overclock. And they have many PCI Express slots which I believe it's easier for me to upgrade the video card. I really like the round IDE cables included in the box.
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TopStrengths: inexpensive, feature-rich, MSI name-brand, more PCI and PCI-E slots than competitors.
Weakness: PCI slots are too close to each other.
If you are looking for a reliable PCI-E chipset for your AMD CPU and don't want to pay premium, nForce4 is definitely your answer. The feature difference between the plain vanilla nForce4 and the platinum is support of SATA 2. If you don't want to pay premium at the first place, you probably won't be willing to shell out extra for SATA 2 drive. This MSI motherboard bloats with features, such as 4 SATA drive support and only misses the firewire. It has more PCI-E and PCI slots than any nforce4 motherboard in the market today. That's one main reason why I purchased this board. However, the layout of the board makes it less desire. First, XP-90 doesn't fit this motherboard so I had to return it. You are not going to fit a big heatsink/fan with this motherboard. Second, PCI-E is so close to PCI slot. I doubt anyone can fit a card in between. Despite the fact there are 4 PCI slots, you can barely fit 3 of them.
Pricewise, you really can't beat it. So is the quality of the board and the solid name of MSI. The LIVE update makes updating BIOS a lot less hassle. If you want to save some bucks, go with Chaintech but personally, I will spend a little more (less than $10 more) to get a better name brand which equals to more frequently driver/bios update.
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TopStrengths: Low price, a lot of features. Gigabit ethernet.
Weakness: No firewire. No SATA-II. No SLI
This is definately the cheapest Socket 939 board with PCI-E. It has 4 SATA connections, up to 4 gigs of ram, and onboard RAID. It was pretty easy to setup. It has been running smoothly ever since I turned it on. If you ever want to upgrade, just grab a faster CPU and upgrade the video card and you should be set.
My XP-90 fits fine on my Venice, so I don't know why the other person had trouble. (Runs at a cool 35-37)
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TopStrengths: Low price various functions
Weakness: no SATA II support
The board is highly adjustable and excellt for overclockers. Although it does not support SATA II, the SATA I interface still delivers steady and fast transfer rate on hard drives. Very impressive performance with such a low cost. With a good AMD 64 CPU and good quality ram modules, you can drive it to 300MHz FSB with no problem.
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TopStrengths: I love the look of this board, Very silent,here is a overclock website, But the board is already very fast I don't think you need too, http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzE0
Weakness: NONE, if you find a weaknesses on this board your just to picky!
Incredible board, BIOS makes easy work of overclocking CPU,RAM anything you want! very stable, love the fan over the southbridge. This + AMD64 3500 CPU and a X800XL Pci-E card makes games SCREAM. say goodbye to loading times with this motherboard. Dual Channel Rocks!
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Topumm im new at this but im pretty sure the fan's over the northbridge chip.
yeah i have read the mobo's manual all the time it said north bridge chip
Strengths: Great value! Easy install; BIOS worked perfectly
Weakness: No 1394, no SATA 2
This was my first 'gaming' PC. I chose this board on the recommendation of ExtremeTech.com. It's a 'value' board so it doesn't have all the features of higher-end boards, but it has everything I need including PCI-E and 939 CPU socket. Install was very easy and went quickly. So far no problems; very solid!
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TopStrengths: Inexpensive, but still have all the functions we need nowadays. Good for upgrade. Excellent online support. Good manual. 7.1 channel sound is awesome
Weakness: I wish it has SATA II. Complicated Dual channel setting.
This board is great for normal user as well as light overclockers. It has great overclocking ability for the price of it. Stable and steady. A lot of software support and useful utilities
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TopStrengths: HAS PLENTY OF PCI SLOTS AND HAS 4 SATA DRIVES AND 2 IDE DRIVES, EASY TO UPGRADE!!!!!
Weakness: NO SLI
I HAVE HEARD ALOT OF GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS MOBO AND IT HAS EVERYTHING YOU NEED!! IT HAS ONBOARD AUDIO AND HAS PLENTY OS USB AND COMES WITH SOFTWARE FOR RADE AND ULTILITIES ON A CD!!
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Top
Great card for beginners
Strengths: Easy to build - good layout, and the user manual is pretty good. Customer service was responsive to the one issue I had.
Weakness: I found the on-board sound to be ok at best.
This was the first time I had built my own computer and I picked this card as it had good references and was reasonably priced. I found it to be clearly laid out, well documented and stable in use (I'm only running a 3200 processor with no over-clocking).
I had one question for MSI tech support and this was answered by email in a couple of hours so cannot fault them. I would happily use an MSI board in future systems and would recommend it to anyone wanting a cheap, easy to use card who doesn't need Firewire/SLI etc.
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