Great board for P4
Written: May 20 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to setup, great manual, feature rich
Cons: Only 5 PCI slots, no firewire
The Bottom Line: If you are building a P4 with DDR memory, definitely take a look at this board. Feature rich, stable and good price.
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| seowfun's Full Review: MicroStar 6398-030 845ULTRAAR P4 S478 DDR 5PCI ATA... |
I have the 845 Ultra ARU version, which also includes the NEC USB2.0 controllers. This is really a nice motherboard, with tons of features.
It supports Pentium 4 Socket 478, and the new 0.13 micron CPU (Northwood) work well with it. It supports DDR266 (PC2100) memory up to 2 gig.
Ultra ATA133 is supported through the integrated Promise ATA133 Raid controller.
Other features includes:
- 4 USB1.1 port, and 4 USB 2.0 ports for a total of 8 USB ports. USB brackets are provided in the retail box.
- CMedia 6 channel soundchip
- Temperature Monitoring of CPU and Chassis
- Live Bios and Driver Update
- D-bracket for debugging purpose. The combinations of 4 LEDs gives you problem like memory failure etc.
- Great manual, really detailed
Hardware installation was a breeze. Everything fit well.
Software installation wise, I was worry about the Maxtor ATA133 harddrive that are attached to the Raid Controller will not recognized, but no such problem. With a bootable Win2k CDROM, I was ready to start OS installation in no time.
The PC Alert software that came with the box allows me to monitor the CPU and Chassis temperature, which is a really nice bonus.
The only problem I have is sound corruption problem when playing Pro Pinballs on Win2k. Not sure whether it is the problem of the soundchip or related to Win2k.
Overall, this is a very nice board. It have received great reviews in many MB review sites for its features and stability.
Some boards from ASUS and Soyo have built in LAN, 6 PCI and Firewire (Soyo). But the MSI is cheaper.
It has been a very pleasant experience for me working with this board.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
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Epinions.com ID:
seowfun
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Reviews written: 31
Trusted by: 4 members
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