Presentation and bundle
Another gargantuan box from the masters of packaging. If value for money was judged on the impressiveness of the bundle, MSI would almost invariably take the crown. It wasn't too long ago that motherboards arrived in almost OEM fashion. Today, manufacturers have realised that not only does a motherboard have to perform and have a mass of features, it must also be presented impeccably, especially if it's touted as a deluxe model. The 865PE, the performance Springdale chipset, is employed as the basis for another feature-rich model.
There's not a whole lot MSI could have added to the package. ICH5/R goodness. Some further RAIDing by the Promise PDC20378 controller, and Intel's Gigabit CSA LAN stand out as notable features.
This kind of bundle is becoming increasingly synonymous with MSI's prestige boards. Serial ATA support is out in force, again. 4 S-ATA cables (2 for the ICH5-R and 2 for the PDC20378's 2 ports) and two S-ATA Molex cables ensure you can set up your new, fancy S-ATA drives straight out of the box. A custom I/O shield is needed for the irregular back panel. We'll talk more about it on the following page. The single ATA133 rounded cable is a nice touch, as are the three brackets MSI bundle with this board. MSI are huge fans of ensuring that all the features on their boards are taken up by the user. Some manufacturers tend to leave out key extras.
The brackets aren't mere afterthoughts. They provide useful additional connectivity. The upper bracket provides support for 3 FireWire (IEEE1394a) ports. 2 are the regular 6-pin variety and the other 4-pin (non-powered) one most often found on laptops. EPoX and ABIT tend to bundle a diagnostic LED display on their premier motherboards. MSI go for what they term their 'D-Bracket 2'. A 4-LED diagnostic tool that helps troubleshoot failed POSTs. The same bracket doubles up to provide another 2 USB2.0 ports. Lastly, the S-Bracket provides both optical and coaxial S/PDIF (digital) out duties. It also incorporates speaker jacks for rear and centre sound, handy.
Software-wise, MSI bundle what they now term as Core Center. Put simply, it's a nice graphical representation of your system's core attributes, such as speed, FSB, voltage, and temperatures. You can also manipulate your FSB from within an OS environment. Their in-house LiveBIOS and LiveMonitor helps you update the board's BIOS without fuss. A driver CD and utility pack (comprising of WinDVD, WinRip, RestoreIT, Virtual Drive, Media Dialer, and Adobe Photoshop album) complete the software side of things.
The two manuals are both above average in form and substance. I usually leaf through the manuals when the motherboard is busy installing an operating system. Another impressive bundle from MSI.
