msi ms-6526gl - p4

Approx Price: $85USD

MFG Link: MSI MS-6526 Northbridge Intel i845GL Southbridge Intel ICH4 Supported FSB 100 MHz Form Factor Micro ATX DIMM Slots Two PC1600/2100 Max Memory 2 GB Integrated video Yes, Intel i845G Shared Video memory 1MB, 8MB IDE 2 Ultra/100 AGP None PCI 3 32bit PCI's ISA None CNR/AMR/ACR 1 CNR LAN 10/100 Intel 82562ET Audio Avance Logic 5.1 AC'97 USB 2 USB 2.0 Power Supply Pentium 4 Misc 1 Serial, 1 Parallel

The 6526GL is based on Intel's 845GL chipset which supports 100 MHz based Pentium 4's in the Socket m478 form factor. Like all most of the other motherboards in this round up, the 6526GL has everything you would need peripheral wise integrated right into the small micro ATX PCB.

Video is taken care of by Intel's 845G "Extreme Graphics" chipset. Unlike Intel's earlier ventures into the videochipset market (i740, i815) the i845G is actually a decent 2D, and 3D videocard. Text was sharp all the way up to 1280x1024-32bit and the 3D performance was among the best of all the integrated videocards (performance close to that of a GF2 MX200).

Life is about the little things and we were happy to see that MSI put heatsinks on the MOSFET's. Naked MOSFET's do get very warm and even hot to the touch and since they control the voltage the processor gets cooling them down can improve stability.

The layout of the motherboard is also very good, nothing gets in the way of anything else. Specifically we like the position of the main ATX power connector. The Floppy drive connector and the two IDE ports are all located to the right of the DIMM slots.Even though it's only using an AC'97 codec, it would have been nice to see MSI include one that allows for 5.1 audio rather then the bundled Avance Logic ALC201A which can only do 2.1.

The onboard LAN is taken care of by Intel's own 82562ET chipset and allows for 10/100Mb transfers.

Since the 6526GL uses the Intel ICH4 southbridge it has support for six USB 2.0 ports, but MSI didn't include the two extra USB brackets rendering the headers basically useless.

Stability of the motherboard was excellent, we didn't encounter a single problem during testing, or even when both DIMM slots were filled with double sided memory. Retailing for about $170 CDN, and with everything integrated the MSI MS6526GL does fairly well in the benchmarks - constantly scoring very high for its class.