MSI

MSI does not have a 512MB 6800U design yet, but their "engineers are working on it. Maybe at Computex".


The MSI P4N Diamond is MSI's first board using NVIDIA's nForce4 for Intel chipset:

• Socket LGA 775 for Pentium 4
• 1066 MHz FSB
• Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
• 2x PCI-E x16, 1x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
• 6x SATA RAID
• Soundblaster Live! 24-bit Audio
• Dual Gigabit Ethernet

The 955X Diamond is equipped with Intel's latest i955X chipset:

• Support for Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
• 1066 MHz FSB
• Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
• 1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E X1, 3x PCI
• Dual Gigabit Ethernet
• 6x Serial ATA RAID
• 7.1 Channel Audio Soundblaster Live! 24bit

The BTX-Form Factor 915 GMB is using Intel's i915G chipset:

• CPU Support for Pentium 4 LGA 775
• 800 MHz FSB
• Dual Channel DDR2 533 Support
• 1x PCI-E x16, 3x PCI
• 4x SATA RAID
• 7.1 Channel Audio
• 10/100 MBit Ethernet

I talked to many people at Cebit about the current state of BTX and its future.
Basically nobody is selling any products in high numbers yet, but everybody has one or two products, mainly for PR.
All motherboard manufacturers say the case manufacturers are very slow in putting out cases which support BTX. The case manufacturers say they "live off volume production" and will not really bother with it until they see some serious demand from the end user side.
Also there are some uncertainties, because Intel might change a few things around and has not really been pushing it in the last year.
When asked, when we will see BTX sales grow, the answers ranged from "never", over "christmas" to "mid 2006".


MSI's MicroBTX K8NMB uses NVIDIA's nForce4 Ultra Chipset with following features:

• Socket 939 for AMD64
• 2000 MHz HTT
• Dual Channel DDR400 Support
• 1x PCI-E x16, 1x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
• 4x SATA RAID
• 5.1 Channel ADI SoundMax
• Gigabit Ethernet

Last but certainly not least is the RX480 Neo which uses ATI's XPRESS 200P chipset (and also the ATI Southbridge - many manufacturers use ULI here).

• Socket 754 for AMD Athlon 64
• 1600 MHz HTT
• DDR 400 Support
• 1x PCI-E x16, 1x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
• 4x SATA RAID
• 5.1 Channel Audio
• Gigabit Ethernet

MSI was also showing off their "own development" called PowerCube. These are some MOSFETs which are more stable, especially under high load and have better thermal properties.

Continue to Cebit Day 3.