Bundle and presentation
MSI's shiny boxes are continued with the 648 Max. I kind of like it. You can clearly see my reflection on the cover. The support for all 533FSB processors is proudly shown on the top right.
The 648 MAX series of motherboards can be bought in a variety of guises and specifications. We have the basic MAX for review. There's also a model featuring a Gigabit LAN (MAX-F), and one with a standard 10/100 LAN (MAX-L). SiS' motherboards traditionally are devoid of price-adding extras.
MSI are not known for skimping on extras; they haven't done so in this case. A comprehensive manual is included. A multi-language quickstart guide is also included. MSI also 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. An ATA133 IDE and floppy lead are provided for initial setup. You also receive 2 additional brackets housing the audio outputs (S/PDIF) and diagnostic LED / 2 USB2.0 ports.
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 2 USB2.0 ports here give us a total of 6 usable USB2.0 ports, all fed from the feature-packed 963 South Bridge.
