The MSI
661FM3-V is a nicely manufactured micro-ATX board which features an excellent
layout for such a small motherboard. Most components are well labelled and
spaced, and the overall impression is that MSI has paid a lot of attention to
designing this board.
As you'd expect from a budget motherboard, features are
not the strong point here. Integrated video, audio and 10/100 LAN ensure that
you can easily build a cheap system with this product however. Extras are
extremely sparse, with only a tiny manual, and one each of IDE, SATA SATA power
and floppy cables included.
The performance of the MSI 661FM3-V was
slightly slower than our test group in most of the benchmarks, but still very
much in the same bracket. As the centre of a work computer this board is
sufficiently capable, and with a good video card it makes a capable and cheap
gaming platform also. The single-channel memory system is the factor that
probably made the most difference in the 661FM3-V's slower performance in some
of the tests.
With a retail price of $80 CDN ($63 US), the MSI
661FM3-V is certainly not an expensive proposition. While it's lack of
dual-channel memory support hurts it in some benchmarks, it's an affordable and
stable platform for a budget office system, which is probably the position it's
best suited for too.
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