The Bundle, presentation and features
I feel that the last few months have seen a major push by PC component manufacturers in general and motherboard manufacturers in particular to pay more attention to the packaging and bundle accompanying their motherboards. MSI are no different in this respect. Gone are the dull, matt boxes. In come vibrant designs and a myriad of extra features.
The fact that this is the newest iteration of Intel DDR motherboards is not missed on the front box cover with both 845E and 533MHz FSB support shown in detail. I like it.
I like the caveat at the top of the rear side, "All specifications below are optional". Amongst those highlighted for particular mention are USB2.0, ATA133 RAID, on-board LAN, Bluetooth connectivity and various additional brackets. This is to be expected as this is MSI's top-of-the-range I845-based motherboard.
The label on the side of the box also spells out some of the features on offer. One strange omission from the above sticker is the lack of mention of Bluetooth connectivity. This package clearly has it, it's strange that it's not mentioned. This motherboard is correctly named MSI 845E Max2 - BLR, with the letters denoting Bluetooth, Lan, and RAID respectively.
The actual bundle is reasonably comprehensive. You receive the standard ATA cables (ATA133, incidentally). 3 manuals in all. A general manual which is well written and easy to follow, a quickstart manual in numerous languages and a RAID booklet for the on-board Promise RAID.
A software CD is provided. One contains MSI's in-house 5.1-channel DVD software, the other contains various utilities and drivers. We like MSI's Fuzzy Logic software, the new version 4 is included. It's a Windows-based overclocking tool that safely gauges your maximum stable overclock without you having to fiddle around with BIOS. I have to comment that I could not personally couldn't get it to work under Windows XP.
MSI include their LIVE series of software, basically software that connects to their servers and downloads appropriate BIOS or driver updates, much in the way that Windows carries out its updates. You also receive 3 additional brackets housing the audio outputs, USB 2.0, and diagnostic LED / 2 USB2.0 ports respectively.
The audio bracket contains S/PDIF digital output connections through both optical (left) and coaxial (right) jacks. Line-Out for centre / subwoofer and rear channels is also provided, giving true 5.1 support.
The revised D-bracket, rather unsurprisingly called D-Bracket2 kills two birds with one stone. The 4 LEDs provide up to 16 combinations that can troubleshoot booting problems, the various combinations of lights translate to various errors. These can be cross-referenced with the manual to determine the particular error. Not quite as elegant as a debug LCD, but a definite step in the right direction. Two additional USB2.0 ports are supported, too.
The box clearly states provision for another USB2.0 bracket, one that would give two additional ports thereby raising the total on offer to six, coincidentally the number offered by the ICH4 SB. I never received this with the package. I'm sure it will be included with the 'boards that sell through the retail channel.
