MSI 648 Max-F: SiS 648 Goes Mainstream

MSI 648 Max-F: Basic Features

As we normally do, we'll start off this review by looking at some of the more basic features of the MSI 648 Max motherboard.

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The MSI 648 Max-F has a few nice features that you won't find on many other Pentium 4 motherboards. To start off with, we see that MSI decided to integrate a slightly different LAN chip than what we've become accustomed to seeing. MSI choose the Broadcom 5702 chip, which supports Gigabit technology. Not only does is this chip capable of 10/100 Mb/s transfer rates that most conventional LAN chips support, but it's also capable of up to 1000Mb/s transfer rates. The usefulness of Gigabit Ethernet on the 648 Max-F will be limited due to the relatively low adoption rate of Gigabit Ethernet.

Moving on to the I/O ports, we see some not so unfamiliar items; 2 serial ports, 1 parallel port, 6 USB 2.0 ports (4 rear USB 2.0 ports and 2 front USB 2.0 ports), and the Gigabit LAN port (controlled by the Broadcom 5702 chip).

For sound you'll be using the Realtek ALC650 chip, which offers some of the best 6-channel audio you can get in an on-board solution.

The MSI 648 Max-F also comes some nice accessories in addition to a good manual. The 648 Max-F manual is fairly detailed with lots of good info on memory and CPU specifications in addition to clear pictures. This manual should please the beginners out there, while advanced users probably won't be put off either. Some nice accessories that come with this board include a 2-port USB header and SPIDIF-out.

Finally we have the SiS 648 chipset itself, consisting of the SiS 648 North Bridge and SiS 963 South Bridge. As has been covered here before, the SiS 648 includes features such as: