Microstar BXMaster i440BX Slot-1 ATX

The Bad

Our complaints with the BXMaster were minimal, but as always no board is perfect.

While complete from a technical standpoint, MSI's manuals include little information for the first time installer.

Despite support in the Winbond 83782D for reading CPU temperature from the on-die thermal diode, MSI is still using a thermistor mounted right in front of the Slot-1 connector.

The ATX power connector is not in the ideal location, meaning that you'll have to stretch that power cable over your CPU and memory. This clutters things up and impedes air flow.

The D-LED feature, while extremely powerful, would be even more useful if they could be seen from the outside of the system, perhaps by placing them on the ATX I/O shield.

Not a fault with the BXMaster specifically, but rather the i440BX in general is that FSB settings in the 133 MHz and up range are ineffective due to the lack of a 1:2 AGP ratio.

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: 1 x 64MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin SEC Original PC133 SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Mushkin SEC Original PC133 SDRAM

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

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com