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The Motherboard
The motherboard used in the MSI MEGA 651 is the MSI MS-6760 v1.0. It's a SiS based motherboard (SiS651+SiS962) that supports AGP8x, DDR333, and AC'97 sound.
The SiS651 Northbridge will support a maximum of 2.8GHz (Pentium 4, Northwood "B" CPUs). Obviously, you can still drop in an older 478 CPU, and depending on the model, jack it up to 133FS. The integrated video is there for those who want to use it, and can cache up to 64MB of ram. It's automatically disabled when you install an add-on AGP card, which I suspect will be 99% of you.
There are two memory slots, supporting up to 2GB of ram. The chipset supports PC2700, though faster modules may work (though only at DDR333). Be aware that MSI officially lists only Kingston brands as compatible, so be wary if you got some generic stuff. We ran some Corsair TWINX PC3200 without any issues.
Being such a compact board, you're not going to find any onboard RAID, though you can easily install an add-on card in the PCI slot for that. There are just two IDE connections, and one floppy connection.
The SiS962 Southbridge is responsible for the lower level functions of the board. USB2.0 support is present, and it is backwards compatible with USB1.1 devices.
Realtek makes its presence here with a couple of its chips. Networking is supported by the Realtek RTL8101L, with supports 10/100 Ethernet. The second Realtek part is the ever popular Realtek ALC 650. We've covered this part in other motherboard reviews, and have always been quite pleased with it. It supports 5.1 sound, and unless you're a true audiophile, I'm sure it'll suit your needs perfectly.
In the event you ever have to reset your CMOS, the battery and jumper are in a rather convenient location at the edge of the motherboard.
The BIOS and Overclocking
Fairly vanilla BIOS here. Other than the usual suspects, there isn't much in the way of tweaking for enthusiasts.
The only real changes you can make that would affect performance are the enabling and disabling of various integrated devices, and some very minor memory adjustments.
As for overclocking& this is something you can just forget about. Unless you got an engineering sample Pentium 4, your multiplier options are naturally missing, but there are also no options for FSB. Well, actually if you have a Northwood "A", which is a 100FSB (400MHz quad pumped) chip, you can perhaps boost it to 133, but that's it. 100 or 133FSB are your only two options. Given the tight confines of the MEGA 651, this is probably a good thing as heat will be an issue if you're serious about overclocking.
Test Setup
MSI MEGA 651 PC: Pentium 4 2.4B, 2 x 256MB Corsair TWINX PC3200 Ram, AiW ATi Radeon 9700 Pro, 80GB Western Digital, Windows XP SP1, ATi Catalyst 3.5.
Shuttle XPC SS51G: Pentium 4 2.4B, 2 x 256MB Corsair TWINX PC3200 Ram, AiW ATi Radeon 9700 Pro, 80GB Western Digital, Windows XP SP1, ATi Catalyst 3.5.
ABIT IC7: Pentium 4 2.4B, 2 x 256MB Corsair TWINX PC3200 Ram, AiW ATi Radeon 9700 Pro, 80GB Western Digital, Windows XP SP1, ATi Catalyst 3.5.
Test software will be:
AVI-to-MPG Encoding
Unreal Tournament 2003
Quake 3: Arena
Jedi Knight 2
Splinter Cell
We'll be comparing the MEGA 651 against the Shuttle XPC SS51, which uses a similar SiS651 based motherboard. We are also throwing an ABIT IC7 Canterwood into the mix to illustrate the performance against a modern day chipset. We will be using a 533FSB 2.4B though, and not a 2.4C, since we already know how well that combo performs.
Next Page - Application Benchmarks
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MSI MEGA 651 PC: The MSI MEGA 651 PC is a full-function multimedia PC that combines information and entertainment to offer hi-fi stereo, DVD/VCD, MP3, TV and high-performing computer functions.
