Introduction
MSI HERMES i845GV
Diversification is one of the keys for business longevity. That statement holds true for almost every industry, because unless you diversify into other areas, you run the risk of ruin if your primary business collapses. Diversification need not be wholesale changes, it can just mean branching out into related but different areas. MSI, it transpires, have slowly been building up a business base outside of their core motherboard manufacturing area.
They now produce (or market) a line of established graphics cards, optical storage devices, all-in-one systems, and communication devices. Those are just some of the products that we can think of from the top of our heads. Related but different is the key, it appears. MSI also produce a vast range of motherboards for almost every socket formation going. Selling highly integrated motherboards and high-end graphics cards is all nice and well for the home PC market, however the vast proportion of business users don't need the latest GeForce FX 5900 Ultra or Canterwood-based boards. Go into any bank and look at the computers used. You'll find antiquated systems that have a couple of common features; they're all compact and quiet. They don't necessarily need to run the very latest features, for S-ATA and Gigabit LAN isn't required. What is required, though, is a neat little system with plenty of connectivity.
This discussion leads us nicely into the product in review for today, the MSI i845GV Hermes Barebones system. Put simply, it's a standard desktop case with an integrated motherboard and power supply. There's even integrated graphics and a myriad of features lurking behind the surface. All one needs to do, especially from a system integrator's point of view, is to introduce the various drives and processor. A simple method of obtaining a fully functional desktop system ?. Let's find out.
