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Just to warn those of you scouring the net for Hyperthreading CPUs, this is something that's only going to be introduced with the 3GHz+ CPUs, and it's not supported by any of the earlier Northwoods, even when overclocked. More information can be found in .
"Hyper-Threading technology is a new feature in the IA-32 Intel® Architecture that provides a performance boost for future Intel IA-32 processors based on the Intel® NetBurst" microarchitecture."
The Board
MSI altered their board layout with the i845PE, and it differs quite a bit than their i845E. Some things have been moved around, and gone are their mosfet heatsinks. Their patented red PCB is still here though I'd wish they add some colour to the PCI slots.
 
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Power connections aren't really in our favorite places, and the main ATX connection on the right side may cause issues if you're planning to use an oversized CPU cooler. Capacitors are located on the left side, again, a little too close for comfort for us. That being said, I drop fitted the Volcano 7+ and Swiftech MCX462 (with P4 adapters), and both fit fine. The small four pin 12v connector is located on the left side, which may cause the wiring to drape nearby the heatsink.
 
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Ram and standard IDE/Floppy connections are where we like it to be, near the top. You'll also notice there is a power connection in that area. This is the first time we've ever come across something like this, and it serves as a power feed for the onboard components to the motherboard. This did strike me as a bit unusual as there really isn't that much more in the ways of integrated peripherals as past MSI boards, but my guess is that the extra juice will ensure stability.
Something I've mentioned in several reviews before, and applies here again is the proximity of the AGP slot to the memory. It's not as bad as I've seen in other boards, but a long AGP card will make removing the ram in slot 1 (or all three if you use them all) a little tricky. The problem is that it will be impossible to fully open the ram retention clip. It's not impossible to get the ram out, but something to just make note of.
Previous Page - Introduction
Next Page - The Board Continued
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MSI i845PE Max2-FIR: MSI kicks out their latest Pentium 4 board, and it packs a lot of the usual features, as well as some forward looking ones, such as Hyperthreading support, and Gigabit Ethernet.
