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MSI 845 Ultra-ARU Review
Review Date: August 31, 2002
Reviewed by: Dwayne Sessom
Manufacturer: MSI
The MSI 845 Ultra-ARU has been on the market for about 9 months now so it isn't a new product, but it is an outstanding overclocking platform. I originally started this review in June of this year, and it started out looking very good for this motherboard. The performance and overclocking options are outstanding, and the extras this board packs make it stand out among some of the best motherboards on the market. But since I started the review, I have run into some major problems, and I feel it is my duty to report them. Whether they are design flaws or not remains uncertain. I do push hardware to its limits and probably beyond, but this motherboard was made for the overclocker. Hell, the manual says so!
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MSI packs this box with all kinds of goodies. You get the motherboard itself, 2 manuals (1 owner's manual and 1 ATA133 RAID manual), the driver CD which is packed with extras, and the ATA133 RAID driver on a floppy. You also get the standard pack of IDE and floppy cables, plus an extra 2-device cable for your RAID controller. Also included is a bracket with 4 USB2.0 slots, and the D-Bracket for diagnostics which has an additional 2 USB1.1 slots. And as if that weren't enough, you also get MSI's Smart Key which is a security device built into a keychain. Oh, and you also get a cool "Geared by MSI" sticker!
Factory Specs:
CPU
Supports Intel Pentium 4 processor in 478 pin package
Support 1.5GHz to 2.4GHz processors and up
Chipset
Intel 845 chipset (593 FC-BGA)
Supports DDR SDRAM at 200/266MHz operation (DDR200/DDR266, PC1600/PC2100)Intel ICH2 chipset (360 EBGA)
AGTL+ host bus with integrated termination supporting 32-bit host addressing
1.5V AGP interface with 4x data transfer and 4x fast writes
8-bit 66Mhz 4x hub interface to Intel ICH2Upstream hub interface for access to the Intel MCHMain Memory
2-channel Ultra ATA/100 Bus Master IDE controller
USB controller 1.1 (expanded capability for 4 ports)
I/O Apic
SMBus controller
FWH interface
LPC interface
AC'97 2.1 interface
PCI 2.2 interface
Integrated system management controller
Supports 4 memory banks using 3 184-pin DDR DIMMs
Supports up to 2GB PC2100/PC1600 DDR SDRAM
Supports 2.5V SDRAM
Slots
One APG4x slot (1.5V only)
Five PCI 2.2 32-bit bus master slots (3.3V/5V)
One CNR (communications and network riser)
On-Board IDE
4 IDE devices supported at UDMA66/100 via the ICH2
ATA133 RAID via Promise PDC20276
USB Interfaces
4 USB 2.0 ports on ATX backplane connector
2 USB 1.1 ports on D-Bracket ATX backplane connector
2 USB 1.1 ports provided by onboard headers
On-board peripherals
1 floppy port
2 serial ports
1 parallel port
1 IrDA header
1 D-bracket connector 1 game port
Audio
C-Media CMI8738 PCI 6-channel support 2/4/6 channel audio
BIOS
Award Plug and Play BIOS supporting DMI
ATX
ATX form factor 30.5cm x 23cm
6 mount holes
Special Features
Fuzzy Logic3™
Live BIOS™
Live Driver™
Smart Key™
D-Bracket™
Board Layout:
Considering everything that is packed into this motherboard, MSI does a good job with the general layout. There is plenty of space around the CPU socket for just about any cooling solution you chose. The capacitors around the socket are not cluttered or crowded right up against the CPU, which is a good thing if you want to use an oversized heatsink, or watercooling.
The DDR slots, and IDE ports are all located where they should be, but the RAID ports are at the bottom of the board, so you will need extra long cables if you have a full tower case. I like the fan on the Northbridge. It's nice to see that come from the manufacturer for a change. The only bad thing I found is that the power connector my be hard to reach. It sits next to the floppy connector and was covered by a hard drive bay when I installed it in my case.
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Here is the CPU socket. The location and layout are great. But, I do have one concern about it, and this is probably not board specific, but when you attach the heatsink and clamp down the holding clamps, it bows the board dramaticly. So much so that it could potentially cause fractures in the trace wiring in the PCB. At first, I thought maybe I had done something wrong in mounting the heatsink, but after trying it on several other boards, I realize that I am was not doing anything wrong.
The 845 Ultra-ARU has all the modern standard outputs. The C-Media 5.1 sound is particularly nice, and rivals my Soundblaster Live 5.1!
You can only use 1.5 volt AGP cards in this motherboard, and MSI makes this perfectly clear by putting a sticker over the AGP slot to warn you. Just about any AGP card made in the last 2 years is 1.5 volt, but you should check to make sure before sticking it in the slot.
This 12 volt power connector is used to supply power directly to the CPU. It is not required, but I highly recommend using a PSU like this one with a 12 volt power connector for stability.
MSI has decided that it's time to cool the Northbridge on this motherboard. I like that alot! That is just one less MOD I will have to do...
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