MSI 5169 ATX Super 7 Motherboard
Reviewed by Jackie Lee Choon Yau (19/07/98)

<Introduction><The Good><The Bad><Conclusion><Rating>

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Introduction

I have finally laid hands on the earliest Super 7 motherboard that arrived in Singapore. The other two Super 7 motherboards are both MVP3 chip based motherboard; AOpen AX59Pro and FIC VA-503+ motherboard. I have personally experimented on the AOpen AX59Pro but no luck on FIC VA-503+ . Perhaps someone can enlighten me on where I can lay my hands on this board.

Anyway, this ALi Chipset based Microstar Super 7 motherboard has already proven its stability @ 100 Mhz bus speeds in many homes. I was excited when I was finally given this chance to test it out. I have created two test configuration to cater for both the relatively higher end users and the others who just wanted a board upgrade.

     The following can be found

• 01 x packet of data cables

• 01 x Drivers CD

• 01 x User Manual

• 01 x MSI 5169 ATX Motherboard

Thus, I decided to compare a Intel Pentium MMX 200 Mhz and an AMD K6-2 300 Mhz separately. Before I proceed, let's take a look into the plus and minus points of this board.

The Good

The best good point is that this board runs rock stable at 100 Mhz bus. Its stability is unmatched by any ordinary 100 Mhz AGP Socket-7 motherboards that have been selling very well back sometime ago. It has the ability to run 200 MMX at a configuration of 2 x 100 Mhz which results in a boost of system performance. The AMD K6-2 300 Mhz @ 3 x 100 Mhz is also another reason why you should should consider this board.

The availability of the 0.1v intervals make this board a good overclocker's test bed too. Installation of Windows 98 on this board was also a breeze. In fact, its quite a happy work. Why? cos all the ALi Chipset related devices are beautifully and the drivers are correctly installed. No more "!" in the device managers in system properties.

This board uses high quality 4ns SRAM which significantly stabilize the system @ 100 Mhz. The location of the jumpers is at the edge of the PCB. Thus, it is convenient for users to change both the multipliers and bus speed which is of relative importance to me when I decide to buy a new board.

Wintune 98 Result for Intel Pentium MMX 200 Mhz
@ 2 x 100 Mhz

Wintune 98 Result for AMD K6-2 300 Mhz
@ 3 x 100 Mhz

Next, I will list the all the combinations of setting that I have tried.

Brief Summary of Overclocking of K6-2 300 Mhz on MSI 5169 Super 7 512K

3 x 100= 300 Mhz stable @ 2.3V
4.5 x 66.6 = 300 Mhz stable @ 2.2V
4 x 75 = 300 Mhz stable @ 2.3V
3.5 x 90 = 315 Mhz cannot finish loading into Windows 98

5 x 66.6 = 333 Mhz stable @ 2.5V
4.5 x 75 = 338 Mhz stable @ 2.5V
4.0 x 83.3 = 333 Mhz stable @ 2.4V (recommended)

3.5 x 100= 350 won't post too...regardless of anything.
4.0 x 90 = 360 Mhz won't post too...regardless of anything.
4.5 x 83 = 375 Mhz cannot finish loading into Windows 98
5.0 x 75 = 375 Mhz won't post too...regardless of anything.
5.5 x 66.6 = 366 Mhz cannot finish loading into Windows 98

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The Bad

Being a Super-7 board does not mean that it is super all round. This board does house a few unsatisfactory sections.

Firstly, all your expensive 72 pins EDO rams cannot be used on this board as it only holds 168 pins DIMMS. This board has only 512k L2 cache which is rather typical but not ideal from my perspective. There is also not setting for 112 Mhz (undocumented) bus speed for this board.The board uses the AMI BIOS not the familiar AWARD BIOS. Thus configuration of the CMOS is not as familiar. There is also no setting for the SDRAM to syncronize either with the CPU/AGP clock. (This is present in AOpen AX59Pro) MSI 5169 provides a 0.1V interval increments in voltage core of the CPU but lacks the control of I/O voltage which is kept constantly at 3.45V. The last bit is probably the most annoying part. There is a 3V floating in the board even after shutdown from Windows 98. The power supply has to be disconnected from the mains for a complete shutdown (0V in board) The fact that there is a floating voltage present made tweaking of busspedd and multipiers and adding of peripherals relatively more troublesome. One has to put out the power cord before changing settings and cards.

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Conclusion

The price of this board is at a reasonable S$ 169. The stability at 100 Mhz bus is really a selling point of this board. However, if you are looking for a board equipped with tough features like 1Mb L2 cache and a 112 Mhz bus setting, this is not a board to choose. Other than this, the MSI 5169 is a very good upgrade option.

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