| msi ms-6378 -
amd |
Approx Price: $50USD |
| MFG Link: |
MSI
MS-6378 |
| Processor |
AMD Socket A |
| Northbridge |
VIA KLE133 |
| Southbridge |
VIA 686B |
| Supported FSB |
100/133 MHz |
| Form Factor |
Micro ATX |
| DIMM Slots |
Two PC100/PC133 |
| Max Memory |
1 GB |
| Integrated Video |
Yes, Trident Blade |
| Shared Video Memory |
8MB |
| IDE |
2 Ultra/100 |
| AGP |
None |
| PCI |
3 32bit PCI's |
| ISA |
None |
| CNR/AMR/ACR |
1 CNR |
| LAN |
10/100 ADMtek |
| Audio |
Realtek ALC101 |
| USB |
2 USB 1.1 |
| Power Supply |
Standard ATX |
| Misc |
1 Serial, 1 Parallel, WoL,
WoM | |
As the
MSI 6378 is the only SDR based Athlon motherboard in the round up, we already
know the performance of the board will be mediocre at best. Based on VIA's
KLE133 chipset, it's basically the good ole KT133A with a Trident videocard
integrated into the northbridge.
Using the
Micro ATX form factor MSI was still able to bundle quite a bit of goodness into
this motherboard.
Performance of this motherboard compared to the other
MSI entries wasn't as good, but it's not that surprising since this is one of
the oldest motherboards in the roundup, and the only one using SDRAM and an
AthlonXP; severely limiting the processor.
Still though, for office based work our harsh words
should be taken with a grain of salt. An AthlonXP and SDRAM is an alright
combination.
The only really downside here is that the onboard
Trident videocard is very weak at handling current level resolutions. We noticed
that text at 1280x1024 was quite fuzzy comparatively speaking. The motherboard
has integrated USB 1.0 and AC'97 audio which does make it seem a bit more up to
date if we forget about the ISA slot masking off the left.
The MSI
6378 was very stable and didn't crash once during testing.
This is
mainly thanks to a well engineered chipset with mature drivers. With three PCI
slots you do have upgrade options, it would have been nice to see maybe a fourth
PCI slot where the ISA silk screen is.
With
relatively old chipset technology the MS-6378 is one of the least expensive
motherboards in the integrated motherboard roundup, priced at just $100 CDN it
makes buying a motherboard for a low cost system very easy.
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