Verdict: No overclocking options, but it's a perfect media PC motherboard

NForce4 is clearly the chipset of choice for Athlon 64 CPUs, but it isn't the only chipset that supports AMD's CPU. ATi has also had a pop with its RS480 chipset, although it's not nearly as well known as the nForce4.

As the Athlon 64 has a built-in memory controller, this is one less problem for the chipset manufacturer to deal with and it should mean that most Athlon 64 chipsets perform similarly. However, this is as much of a drawback as it is a benefit, as it's getting tougher to differentiate between chipsets.

The RS480M2-IL is the only Athlon 64 chipset with integrated graphics, which is of real benefit when it comes to building a media PC, and, unsurprisingly, this is the area that this motherboard is squarely targeted at - squarely being quite an apt description, considering its micro-ATX form factor.

As well as the integrated graphics, the board also has three PCI slots and a 16x PCI-E slot. An ATi card plugged into the latter will work in conjunction with the integrated graphics, so you could connect three monitors. The lack of a 1x PCI-E isn't a major issue.

The RS480 chipset is rather basic, though, and lacks support for S-ATA II and networking. Both of these problems can be overcome with an extra chip, though, such as the Realtek chip used for the 10/100 LAN. However, MSI obviously didn't feel that S-ATA II was important and left this feature out. Realtek is on hand again to handle the AC97 audio. The basic ALC658 chip is 6-channel-capable, and has analogue outputs and a coaxial S/PDIF output.

Performance was as good as any nForce4 or K8T890 board that we've tested, except for the image editing test. This possibly hints at a bottleneck between the EIDE controller and the CPU, as this test is very hard disk drive-intensive.

Disappointingly, the BIOS has no overclocking options. In fact, it ran our CPU with an FSB of 199MHz instead of 200MHz FSB. We've seen motherboard manufacturers trying to cheat by supplying review samples with higher-standard FSB speeds, but underclocking, even by 1MHz, seems a little silly.

At £63.67, this motherboard is incredible value for money. All AMD has to do is release a Socket 939 Sempron, and a powerful budget media PC will be yours for the taking.

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• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
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• PSUs - 14th July 2008

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