The Motherboard

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Powering the MSI Metis 266 is the MS-6390LE-L, which is a VIA KM266 Chipset based motherboard. you can grab the full , but some of the highlights include a m-ATX form Factor, Integrated Savage 4 2D/3D, Integrated Audio, and onboard LAN.

One of the nice feature of the motherboard is the three PCI slots and one AGP slot. Potentially, your upgrade options are decent, but truth is, the Metis will require half height cards to make full use of these slots. At this time, I know the MSI MX440-T8x will fit in the Metis, and there are plans for a . Other than that, perhaps some SCSI cards, but 3rd party sound cards and hard drive controllers are out of the question.

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The MS-6390LE-L supports Athlons up to 2600+. The limitations of the 200/266MHz FSB will prevent you from running the newer TBreds at 333FSB. 266FSB Tbreds won't have any problems though. There are also four mounting holes for large heatsinks, and as demonstrated earlier, the Swiftech MCX462+ has no problems fitting. The only thing to be aware of when using a large heatsink is you won't be able to use large 80mm fans if you intend to close the Metis up, as the fan will interfere with the top cover.

The ATX power connection isn't in one of our favorite places. When manufacturers place it near the socket, as pictured above, it can create a problem with ATX power cords draping across the CPU HSF. This problem is present with the Metis as well, given its small size, but I was able to fit it between the HSF and the power supply. This will restrict some airflow to the PSU fan, but unfortunently, the power cord is not long enough to go around the other way.

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The KM266 Chipset supports up to 2GB of PC2100 memory. Faster PC2700 ram will work in the Metis, but there are no options in the BIOS to run at that speed. Like most motherboards these days, the AGP clip is very close to the memory tabs, making it necessary to remove the AGP video card if you intend on changing the ram.

There are two IDE slots and one floppy connection right next to the memory slots. Up to four IDE devices are supported by the KM266, but with the Metis, you'll be lucky to fit more than 3 of these devices.

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A couple of heatsinks keep the Savage 4, as well as the Northbridge cool. The Savage 4 supports AGP4x, and the model used for the Metis will use 32MB of your memory. It's not an advanced GPU by any means, and if you're a gamer, you'll want to avoid using it if you can.

Like most Southbridges, the is not documented properly in MSI's MS-6390LE-L description. The chipset supports USB 2.0, ATA133, as well as the 8X V-Link. The 8X V-Link is designed to free up the PCI interface when communicating between the Northbridge and Southbridge. Here's a bit from VIA...

VIA 8X V-Link technology provides a dedicated 133MHz quad-pumped bus between the North and South Bridge, freeing up the PCI bus to deal strictly with peripheral devices and providing aggregate transfer of 533MB/s, four times the bandwidth of the original PCI interconnect.

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Despite the Southbridge supporting sound and networking, the physical outputs are left to a couple of other chips. The Realtek ALC650 handles the sound duties, and it's capable of outputting 5.1-Channel Audio. The VT6103 10/100 controller is the Physical Layer device and is the interface for your networking chores.

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The In-Win P180 is a 180W PSU. It's not a lot of power, but since the Metis is not likely to be loaded to the max, it should provide enough power. The maximum output on the +3.3v and the +5v rails is 115W. If you ever plan on replacing the KM266 with a m-ATX P4 board, the PSU has the Pentium 4 compliant connections.

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