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MSI 655 Max Review

This is one of the first boards to market to support dual channel memory mode for the Intel P4 family. Find out how it stacks up against the other fierce competitors...

Introduction

MSI consistently delivers high performance and high quality products to the enthusiast community. Whether it be graphics cards or motherboards, MSI is definitely one of the top enthusiast favorites. The easiest way to win an enthusiast’s heart is to keep on the cutting edge of technology. MSI chooses to brave these waters by being one of the first manufacturers to market with a motherboard product based on the SIS 655 chipset.

The 655 Max is MSI’s latest offering utilizing the SIS 655 chipset. The SIS 655 chipset offers support for the following technologies: dual channel 400 MHz DDR memory, AGP 8x, and all Intel Pentium 4 Processors up to and including those implementing the 533 MHz FSB. The board screams power with it’s impressive array of in-built features including a Gigabit LAN port, 5.1 channel sound support with both analogue and digital input and output, 3 ATA 133 MHz IDE ports, 2 SATA 150 MHz ports, 6 total USB 2.0 ports, 3 IEEE 1394 ports, serial ports, parallel ports, and an LED based diagnostic tool.

Here are some preliminary specs on the board:

Here’s the entire specification list:

Board Layout

MSI did an adequate job with the board layout. One thing is definite: the layout is one of the most unique I have seen to date. I especially liked the placement of the DIMM slots at 90 degree angles to one another. With that arrangement, no one could get confused with enabling dual channel memory mode. There are a few big problem areas however. The most glaring problem area is around the CPU socket, specifically the placement of certain components. The other big area of concern has to do with the layout of the southbridge area. Notice that all the capacitors used on the motherboard seem to be from Taiwanese manufacturers, including Rubycon, KZE, and Teapo.

The area surrounding the CPU socket is a bit crowded for my taste, but the simple fact of the matter is that those caps need to be close to the CPU. Between the bank of capacitors above it, the northbridge chipset beneath it, and the ATX and ATX12V connectors to the left of it, the HSF cage leaves little room for an oversized unit. By placing both the ATX and ATX12V connectors to the left of the CPU, the cables will need to snake around the CPU HSF and will pose airflow problems around that area. One thing to note: I had no problem installing and removing the Intel stock HSF, but be forewarned that a bigger HSF may be problematic.

Just below the ATX power connector are two of the boards 3 fan headers, PWRFAN1 and CPUFA1. Note that only the CPU fan header is monitored through the BIOS. The northbridge chipset is passively cooled with a pretty solid heatsink. The heatsink is attached to the board with push pins, requiring the board to be removed from your case in order to remove the heatsink. In testing, the northbridge heatsink seems to become rather warm while overclocking. We would recommend replacing the heatsink with a better HSF unit if you plan to overclock the FSB with this board.

The board contains 2 sets of 2 DIMM slots to the right and below the CPU socket area. The DIMM slots are positioned along the outer edges of the board and do not get in the way of CPU HSF or AGP card insertion/removal. To activate dual channel mode, one DIMM must be placed in each set of DIMM slots. Otherwise, the memory will be accessed in single channel mode by the CPU.

The SIS 963 southbridge is located below PCI slot 2, with the CMOS battery, the front jumper block, and the SYSFA1 monitored fan header below that on the edge of the board. Directly to the left of the southbridge chipset are IDE1, IDE2, IDE3, and the floppy connections. Just above IDE slots 1 & 2 is the Promise SATA controller, which is also sandwiched between the two SATA ports.

Note that IDE3 and the two SATA ports can only be used in RAID mode. None of those ports support standalone mode. One interesting tidbit is the fact that you can use IDE3 with 2 drives connected to it in a RAID 0 configuration only. RAID 1 was not available when 2 drives were connected only to the IDE3 port.

The board’s 3 IEEE 1394 and single USB 2.0 headers are located along the edge of the board, next to PCI slot 6. Just below the blue colored USB 2.0 header is the board’s Bluetooth header. The D-Bracket2 header as well as the CMOS reset jumper are located at the edge of the board next to the floppy connector. D-Bracket2 is an LED based hardware diagnostic tool. Note the unique diagonal placement of the CMOS jumper.

Unfortunately, the placement of the IDE and floppy connectors will pose serious problems to system airflow. Also with a floppy drive connected, it is almost impossible to get to the CMOS reset jumper.

The 655 Max has a total of 6 PCI slots and 1 AGP slot. The board’s single CD-IN header is located at the edge of the board between PCI slots 4 & 5. At the upper right corner of the board is the front audio panel header, with the S-Bracket header directly below it. Note that if you do not have a front panel audio device for the system, you must jumper pins 5/6 and 9/10 on the front audio header. If you do not jumper the pins, the on board audio will not work at all.

The rear panel of the board contains the standard port arrangement. You have your PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, 4 USB 2.0 capable ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, a 2 serial ports, a parallel port, and 3 audio ports that can be configured by the driver software in the OS.