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Increased competition often
leads to technological advancement at a faster
rate than normal, because one company constantly
tries to out-do another. This result of
this competition usually leads to the end-user being
rewarded with new products, at progressively
lower prices. With Intel and VIA still duking
it out over the VIA P4X series of chipset's legality,
and Intel's slower adoption of new technology
like DDR333 and ATA/133, SiS has taken this opportunity to
release the feature rich 648
chipset. Early word was that boards based
on the SIS648
would give even RDRAM based boards a run for
their money. The early samples we tested
showed much promise, but we were very eager to
find out how retail ready products performed.
The 648 Max from
MSI is the
second such board to land in the H.H. labs.
MSI has long been known for
incorporating the latest technology into their
motherboards, and we were not disappointed when
we saw the 648 Max's feature set. This
board supports
533MHz FSB Pentium 4 CPUs, DDR333 memory (with
unofficial DDR400 support), as well
as AGP 8x, based on the new AGP 3.0 standard.
For connectivity with other PCs and devices, it
supports USB 2.0,
10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet and Bluetooth. While Bluetooth is still a
relatively untapped resource, the sheer numbers
of devices in the pipeline that can take
advantage of this technology show that it will
probable one day be a necessity on all PCs.
To complete the package, onboard 5.1 audio is
also provided, making this a very well rounded
motherboard, that should appeal to many users.
The only feature we feel was missing was IDE
RAID.
Let's take a look at the specifics:
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| Specifications / Features of
the MSI 648 Max |
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SiS is back with a
vengeance |
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CLICK ANY IMAGE FOR AN
ENLARGED VIEW
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CPU
Supports single socket Intel Pentium 4 Socket 478
processors with 400/533 MHz Front Side Bus
Core frequency from 1.3GHz to 2.8GHz and up
Chipset
SiS® 648 chipset Northbridge (839 pin BGA)
Supports Intel Pentium 4 processors with
data transfer rate up to 533MHz
Supports 64-bit high performance DDR333+ /
DDR333 / DDR memory controller
Supports AGP 8X/4X interface at 0.8v or 4X
at 1.5v with fast write transaction
Supports bi-directional 16-bit data bus with
1GHz bandwidth MuTIOL
SiS® 963 Southbridge (371 BGA)
Supports Dual-IDE ATA 66/100/133
Integrated audio controller withAC97
interface
Low pin count interface for SIO
Advanced power management and PC2001
compliance
Bus Frequency
533/400 MHz system bus
Memory
Supports three memory banks using three
184-pin unbuffered DDR DIMM on three memory
DIMM slots
Supports up to 3GB memory size without EEC
Supports DDR200/266/333MHz and up
IDE
Dual
IDE controllers integrated in SiS 963
Support P/O, Bus Master, Ultra DMA66/100/133
operation
Can connect up to four IDE devices
Audio
AC97 link controller integrated in SiS 963
6 channels software audio codec RealTek
ALC650
Compliance withAC97 v2.2 Spec.
Meet PC2001 audio performance requirement
Can support SPDIF Out via S-Bracket only
System BIOS
2Mb Award BIOS
w/ PnP, ACPI, SMBIOS 2.3, Green and Boot
Block
Provides DMI2.0, WfM2.0, WOL, WOR, chassis
intrusion, and SMBus for system management
Expansion
Slots
One
8X/4X AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) universal
slot
Six PCI v2.2 32-bit master PCI bus slots
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LAN
Broadcom 4401
Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet MAC and PHY in
one chip
Supports 10Mb/s and 100Mb/s auto-negotiation
operation
Compliance with PCI v2.2, mini PCI 1.0 and
LAN on Motherboard (LOM) standard.
Internal I/O
Connectors
1 floppy port supports 2 FDDs with 360K,
720K, 1.2M, 1.44M and 2.88Mbytes
2 serial ports (COM A + COM B)
1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
1 IrDA connector for SIR/ASKIR/HPSIR
1 RJ-45 LAN jack (optional)
1 audio port
1 Bluetooth pin header
1 S-Bracket pin header
1 D-Bracket? 2 pin header
6 USB 2.0 ports (4 Rear/2 Front)
Back Panel I/O
2 PS/2
connectors (keyboard and mouse)
2 9-pin Serial port
1 25-pin SPP/ECP/EPP Parallel port
4 USB 2.0 ports
3
Audio connectors (Line-out, Line-in, Mic-in)
1 Gigabit LAN port
Miscellaneous
ATX form factor
30.5 cm(L) x 22 cm(W)
Six mounting holes
Package
Contents
MSI 648 Max Motherboard
Drivers and Utilities CD
Installation Manual
ATA 133 IDE Cable
Floppy Cable
D-Bracket?2 (Optional)
S-Bracket? (Optional)
I/O shield
MSI Case Badge
Special Features
Fuzzy Logic 4?
Live BIOS? / Live Driver?
Live Monitor?
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The 648 chipset from SiS
is a slight upgrade from the 645. The major
changes being the addition of AGP 8x support as well as a memory
divider for PC3200 memory (DDR400). The Northbridge
connects to the Southbridge using a 16-bit bridge
running at 533MHz, which offers total bandwidth of
1 GB/s. Although there is a divider for DDR400
memory speeds,
the board officially supports up to DDR333 SDRAM only.
As we mentioned earlier, the AGP
interface supports AGP 4x / 8x video boards with Fast Write transactions. Below is a block
diagram of the SiS 648/963 chipset, showing its other
features including ATA/133 support, USB 2.0,
FireWire and 5.1 channel audio.
CLICK ANY IMAGE FOR AN
ENLARGED VIEW
The MSI 648 Max is short
on add-ons, but it covers the basics nicely.
Opening the metallic green box, we found the familiar
MSI red PCB. We also found a floppy
cable, a single ATA/133 80-Wire IDE cable, a
driver and utilities CD and an MSI case badge. The
two brackets shown in the pictures on the right are
called the "S-Bracket" and the "D-Bracket 2". The
S-Bracket can be used in conjunction with the
on-board audio, providing two more output jacks, one
for the rear speakers and the other for a center
channel or subwoofer. There are also two S/PDIF
jacks at the bottom supporting both Optical and
Coaxial connections. The D-Bracket 2 fulfills
two different purposes. There are four LEDs that
can be used to diagnose hardware related problems
without opening the chassis. The LEDs light up
in either green or red, and can generate up to 16
different error codes. There are also two more
USB 2.0 ports on the brackets. If Bluetooth
connectivity is enabled, however, only one of the two
USB ports can be used, hence the blue sticker placed
over the top port.
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The
BIOS, Layout and Quality
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