Layout and features
Quite understandably, the first aspect that grabs your attention is the configuration of the DDR DIMM slots. As has been mentioned previously, you can run it in its preferred dual-DDR mode by inserting DIMMs of the same size and configuration next to each other. You can also run in single-channel mode by ensuring that DIMMs don't complete a set of slots.
The socket area is has just about enough room to mount a larger, aftermarket cooler such as an Alpha or Swiftech. Having said that, the CPU fan header comes mighty close in stopping you doing so. It's all very tight. I found that the main 21-pin ATX power connector was a little close to the floppy drive header, especially as the drive's cable is mounted facing the power connector. The location of the main IDE ports is fine, though.
The E7205 GB Northbridge has a stylish fan that's fairly quiet in operation. As you'll see later, there may be no need for it due to the fact that the motherboard doesn't support overclocking.
RAID is a strange affair on this motherboard. Powered by the Promise PDC20376 controller, it only has one IDE port, meaning that you can attach two IDE hard drives and 2 S-ATA drives (one on each port), but you can't have both at one time. Considering that S-ATA drives are yet to surface, I'd have liked to have seen 2 IDE RAID ports as standard and a separate S-ATA controller (Marvell, perhaps). You can. though, set each to support RAID 0 and 1. Obviously, with only 2 drives being usable at the same time, RAID 0+1 is an impossibility.
3 Firewire (1394a, 400Mbit/s) connection are available from the VT6306 controller. They're colour-coded in green and reside just below the 5 PCI slots on offer. Sound is provided by the capable CMI8738 6-channel CODEC. The capability of this chip is maximised by an optional (included in this case) audio card supporting S/PDIF and full 6-channel sound support. As usual, there may well be more than one MSI motherboard based on the same chipset.
Perhaps a nod to the server-orientated nature of this motherboard, we see Gigabit LAN make a second appearance on a MSI motherboard. The capable Intel chip supports 10/100/1000 MBit speeds depending on the environment in which it operates. With home networking being more popular than ever before, and hard drives getting faster and faster, the need to exceed the ~ 12MB/s that 100MBit LAN offers is growing. Kudos to MSI on this count.
Pretty standard here. We see 4 of the 6 USB2.0 ports from the ICH4 SB and the RJ45 connection for Gigabit LAN duties. It appears as if this server-based chipset has had the desktop makeover. Apart from the obvious dual-DDR banks, you'd be hard pushed to tell that this wasn't a fully-fledged home desktop motherboard.
