µATX Part 2: Intel G33 Performance Review
by Gary Key on September 27, 2007 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
MSI G33M: Feature Set
The MSI G33M is also very similar to the other G33 offerings, with the only real difference being a slight change to the expansion slot configuration and the rear panel. DVI and HDMI are of course still MIA.
The BIOS options are the best of the three G33 boards we're looking at today, at least in terms of pure tweaking options. Besides bus speed and multiplier adjustments, MSI includes the ability to tweak the voltages for the memory, CPU, Northbridge, Southbridge, and the SB I/O. The voltage granularity is also finer than on the ASUS and Gigabyte boards, allowing 0.025V adjustments on the CPU and Northbridge and 0.05V-0.1V adjustments on the memory up to 2.6V. Memory timing options include the standard tCL, tRCD, tRP, and tRAS plus an additional four options. Final overclocking results are about the same as the ASUS P5K-VM, however.
| MSI G33M | |
| Market Segment | SOHO - $92.99 |
| CPU Interface | Socket T (Socket 775) |
| CPU Support | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo/Extreme/Quad |
| Chipset | Intel 8233GMH Northbridge and ICH9 Southbridge |
| Bus Speeds | Auto, 133 ~ 800 in 1MHz increments |
| Memory Ratios: DDR2 | Auto/Manual - 200FSB/1.25, 1.150, 1.20, 2.0; 266FSB/1.25, 1.50; 333FSB/1.25, 1.50, 1.20, 1.00 |
| PCIe Speeds | 100MHz~200MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Core Voltage | Auto, 1.1500V to 1.6000V in 0.0125V increments |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, 6x-12x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked, downwards unlocked, Core 2 Duo |
| DRAM Voltage: DDR2 | 1.80V ~ 2.60V, in .05V or .10V increments |
| DRAM Timing Control | Auto, Manual - 9 DRAM Timing Options (tCL, tRCD, tRP, tRAS, tRFC plus four) |
| NB Voltage | 1.25V ~ 1.65V, in .025V increments |
| CPU VTT Voltage | 1.20V ~ 1.60V, in .025V increments |
| SB I/O Voltage | 1.50V ~ 1.80V, in .10V increments |
| SB Core Voltage | 1.05V or 1.15V |
| On-board Video | GMA 3100, OpenGL 1.4, Shader 2.0 (DirectX 9.0c), 400 MHz clock, Four Pixel Pipelines, Vertex Shader 2.0 supported by software via CPU processing, max 2048x1536 resolution, Dynamic Video Memory Technology, Clear Video processing engine, MPEG-2 hardware decode acceleration. |
| GFX Memory Buffer | Fixed - 128MB, 256MB, DVMT 4MB ~ 256MB |
| Memory Slots | Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1 - PCIe x16 1 - PCIe x1 2 - PCI Slot 2.3 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | 4 SATA 3Gbps Ports - ICH9 (2 SATA, 2 eSATA) 1 SATA 3Gbps Port - Marvell 88SE6111 |
| Onboard IDE | 1 ATA133/100/66 Port (2 drives) - Marvell 88SE6111 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 12 USB 2.0 Ports - 6 I/O Panel - 6 via Headers Firewire 400 - VIA VT6308 - 2 ports - 1 I/O Panel, 1 via Header |
| Onboard LAN | Marvell 88E8056 - PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC888 - 8-channel HD audio codec |
| Power Connectors | ATX 24-pin, 4-pin ATX 12V |
| I/O Panel | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x D-Sub 2 x eSATA 1 x IEEE 1394 1 x Audio Panel 1 x RJ45 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| Fan Headers | 2 - CPU/Chassis |
| Fan Control | CPU/Chassis Fan Control via BIOS or Software CPU Fan Settings - Temperature 40C ~ 70C, Chassis Fan Setting - Duty Cycle 50%, 75%, 100% |
| BIOS Revision | 1.1 |
| Board Revision | v1.00 |
The MSI G33M is also very similar to the other G33 offerings, with the only real difference being a slight change to the expansion slot configuration and the rear panel. DVI and HDMI are of course still MIA.
The BIOS options are the best of the three G33 boards we're looking at today, at least in terms of pure tweaking options. Besides bus speed and multiplier adjustments, MSI includes the ability to tweak the voltages for the memory, CPU, Northbridge, Southbridge, and the SB I/O. The voltage granularity is also finer than on the ASUS and Gigabyte boards, allowing 0.025V adjustments on the CPU and Northbridge and 0.05V-0.1V adjustments on the memory up to 2.6V. Memory timing options include the standard tCL, tRCD, tRP, and tRAS plus an additional four options. Final overclocking results are about the same as the ASUS P5K-VM, however.
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sprockkets - Friday, September 28, 2007 - link
Sad how an AMD 7050 board can be had for $80, $40 cheaper with the same features. It is the premium you pay for having dvi.Oddly enough too is that the Gigabyte board you quote doesn't use all solid caps yet the lower end board does. And of course, they didn't bother with solid caps on their new AMD boards period, cause "AMD is second tier."
tayhimself - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
Preposterous!! Why do they even bother making this junk without DVI. More and more I find that I don't want a leet board that overclocks 100 Mhz higher but a stable board with the right features. -sigh-8steve8 - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
and on top of it, these igp's are not suited well for gaming or videos,,, (the two applications where you may not notice the difference between a digital and analog interface), so they will be used for text/office work... an application where the discrepancies in the user-experience of analog vs digital interfaces with an LCD are undeniable.again, great article.,, but in the end, I sort of wonder why waste ur time exploring these boards when your time is better spent on solutions that deserve our money?
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
I think both of those G33 + SDVO models launched long after Gary had started work on this uATX stuff. Good to see that some people are including the necessary chip, as uATX without DVI is simply unacceptable. Unfortunately, testing some of this stuff takes a lot more time than we would like. We're working to address that, however.jenli - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
I would love to see a review of motherboards with igpthat can be converted to raid servers by using the lone
pcie 16x slot.
Have fun,
CK804 - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
I'm doing exactly what you mention with an Intel DG965RY. I have an Areca ARC-1210 fitted in there with 3 320GB WD Caviar SE16s in RAID 5.