Verdict: Nothing to see here, move along

We've actually seen this MSI motherboard before, and at the time, we were fairly impressed by its reasonable performance and very competitive price.

However, after eight months, the LGA775 motherboard market has changed considerably and the MSI no longer has what it takes to stand out from the crowd. It's a good performer at the default frequency settings, but even after several BIOS updates, it's not a good overclocker.

The maximum stable FSB it would benchmark at was just 230MHz, well below the 255MHz and 270MHz FSBs achieved by the Asus and Gigabyte motherboards. This is particularly disappointing, considering that the BIOS allows you to send a massive 3.3V through the memory and 2.2V through the Northbridge.

The MSI does have the option of supporting either PC3200 DDR or PC2-5300 DDR2 memory. However, as this is supposed to be a low-cost motherboard, we can't see many people choosing pricey DDR2. The PCB layout also leaves a lot to be desired, as the primary EIDE port sits sits in line with the 16x PCI-E slot. This means that the EIDE cable gets in the way of long graphics cards.

Features-wise, there's Gigabit Ethernet, two RAID-capable EIDE ports and 8-channel HD Audio, handled by a C-Media sound chip with a full complement of analogue and digital outputs. There are four USB 2 ports too, but no FireWire ports.

The MSI bundle is pretty good, with a rounded EIDE and floppy drive cable, both of which are great inclusions, as they're much easier to route around your case than standard ribbon cables. There aren't any cables for the two extra EIDE ports though.

At just under £80, the MSI is pretty good value, considering the features it offers. Even so, we can't see a compelling reason why you'd choose the MSI over the Asus, which overclocks better and is cheaper, while still retaining the most important features. Unless you want to use DDR2 memory, the Asus represents much better value for money than this unusual board.

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