Microstar MS-6163 BX Slot-1

The Bad

The positioning of the ATX power supply connector does interfere with the installation of the CPU, however it is something that you'll only have to deal with once so it shouldn't be that much of a hassle.

The availability of the 6163 doesn't match that of its born competitor, the ABIT BH6, which is another unfortunate downside, however if you search you can probably find a fairly good deal on the 6163 from a reputable vendor.

The on-board sound (ES1373) can be viewed as a downside, since you will have to pay for the controller regardless of whether or not you're going to use it.  However if it can save you a few bucks on buying a PCI sound card, then you probably won't mind. 

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: Mushkin SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM; Memory Man SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 256MB Corsair PC100 SDRAM DIMM (for compatibility testing only)

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.mushkin.com

The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

AnandTech Motherboard Testing Methodology