MSI motherboard question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wolf Kirchmeir
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Wolf Kirchmeir

Model is MSI KM4M-L. Any opinions or experience with this brand (and maybe
model, too)? Supposedly supports up to Athlon 3000 - what's its support for
Pentiums? Ad says it handles 200/333/400KHzFSB. How well? It's offered at
$100Can - good price, or are there better price-quality deals?

I want to build a screamin' machine for $1000-1500 (well, maybe not
screamin', just yellin' real loud :-)), and am in the early stages. I will be
re-using CD-ROM, monitor, case, so their costs don't figure into the
equation, but will need a new power supply (old box has 250W, not big enough,
I think.) OSs will be W2K, Linux, and OS/2.

Thanks for any and all advice and opinions.
 
Wolf - don't have that board and can't comment directly on MSI, but in
case you haven't seen MSI's own URL for it:
<http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=475>


Both Tom's Hardware Guide and AnandTech are very good tech sites:
<http://www.tomshardware.com/>
<http://www.anandtech.com/>

I believe the Athlon and Pentium chip form factors are different. The
board probably does not support any Pentium. But I've always been very
happy with Athlons.

The bigger the power supply the better. Much success to you!

PS: OS/2's a goody, still? How's driver support these days? That's what
drove me away...
 
PS: OS/2's a goody, still? How's driver support these days? That's what
drove me away...
Click to expand...

It's much improved, but not as good as for W2K/XP. Eg, Epson offers drivers
for their recent C8x series of printers. etc. CD and DVD drivers are
available, and there is support for some on-board video and sound. This
machine has both; I haven't installed the sound support because I don't need
it, but video/graphics is fine. I understand that that ECS (Warp 4.52
packaged by Serenity Systems, with added software) has good driver support. I
can't tell, since I'm happy with what I've got. Some apps are still being
developed as they have a loyal support base, eg PMView, which is somewhat
like ACDSee, but can do more image processing - it's getting closer to
Photoshop Elements in power. I use OS/2 for 'net access, and on dial-up it's
just fine, esp. with the recent Mozillas. This e-mailer and the stand-alone
news reader I have are IMO equal or superior to any browser based ones
(except that I can't HTML with them, wh/ IMO is no loss at all.) I'll be
getting Bell Sympatico's broad band pretty soon - I have a feeling that will
be the killer. :-( OS/2 is not a good platform for multi-media, especially
now that more and more consumer level video etc is being made with and for MS
software and formats.

Otherwise, I just love the ease of use of OS/2 - I can do things with it I
can't do with W2K, and that drives me nuts. I do think that W2K/XP is the
best that MS has done so far, but it still has a long way to go to - it's
resource hungry, it doesn't allow nearly enough customisation (I want to
excise Explorer and Outlook - is that possible?), and its interface is
inconsistent (Eg, Send To copies a file to everything except the Desktop,
where it creates a shortcut - sheesh!), and I can't tweak the way a program
runs the way I can with OS/2. There are a lot of small irritants with W2K,
and they're enough to keep me from making the switch. And to investigate
Linux (which no doubt has its own mess of little glitches.)

Oh well. "If the world were perfect, you'd die of boredom," as someone once
said. :-)

G'night, mate.
 
Wolf Kirchmeir said:
Model is MSI KM4M-L. Any opinions or experience with this brand (and maybe
model, too)?
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with this particular board (Intel man myself) but my
experience of MSI board generally has been good.
Supposedly supports up to Athlon 3000 - what's its support for
Pentiums?
Click to expand...

Absolutely none. Intel and AMD use different socket types so you'll
be confined to Duron and Athlon processors.
I want to build a screamin' machine for $1000-1500 (well, maybe not
screamin', just yellin' real loud :-)), and am in the early stages. I will be
re-using CD-ROM, monitor, case, so their costs don't figure into the
equation, but will need a new power supply (old box has 250W, not big enough,
I think.) OSs will be W2K, Linux, and OS/2.
Click to expand...

You'll certainly need a new PSU; something around 350W would probably
suffice unless you plan to build a small disk farm in the same case.
;-)

You didn't mention what you already have but it's likely you'll also
need to replace the RAM. Bad memory can be the cause of so many
obscure problems that it's best to avoid "cheap" unbranded junk and go
for good quality guaranteed stuff, like Crucial or Kingston; you'll
pay marginally more but it's worth it!

--
 
Thanks, Wolf. I still have a soft spot for OS/2's architecture, incl
HPFS, and was sad (as a retired IBMer) to see what I considered
mismanagement of its development and marketability some years ago. I
wasn't aware that new versions continue to appear. I'm not much of a
multimedia user either, but bumped into unavailability of drivers for
scanners and the like, and was finally pushed over to NT351 when it came
out and at the same time the Austin lab informed me management had
ordered them not to take any direct tech support calls like mine any
more. The lab guys were frustrated and chagrined themselves but
powerless. For a few years I ran OS/2 along with NT via the OS/2 BM,
which I still keep around.

As far as Linux goes, I watch it from afar; never installed it.

As far as the MS browser and emailer go, I've never used them for
several reasons. They're lightning rods for the bad guys. But pieces of
them are inextricably (?) integrated into the various op sys. I just
remove all visible traces, leave the basic must-install packages of code
alone, and keep various firewalls & filters daily up to date. I've never
been damaged by any intrusions, and I don't bother with the constant
barrage of MS security and other updates [knock on wood]. MS is pretty
sophisticated about handling large and complex system dev, but it
remains a flawed process with inbuilt dangers. Probably will for
generations of systems to come, since to stay in business new more
'powerful' systems are required. Thus, exponentially growing code
interdependencies. I like to ride behind the bleeding edge.
 
MSI makes good boards.

The model you are looking at only supports AMD Processors. I dont run this
board, but I have run several AMD Athlon XP setups, and I really like them.
I have also used MSI boards in the past, and like them very much. They dont
offer much for overclockers, but they are very stable and feature rich.

You should be able to build a "screamer" for $500 ~ $650. For the money you
are talking, you should be able to build a whole new machine. Maybe even an
Athlon MP (Dual CPU) system.... Unless of course you are talking about $1500
Canadian... which is still a nice chunk.

The choice on the OS is up to you. I highly doubt you will find hardware
drivers (live VIA Hyperion Support) for OS2 as it is largely a dead OS.

NuTs
 
On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 13:34:29 +0000, Paul Hopwood wrote:

[quoting me:]
Absolutely none. Intel and AMD use different socket types so you'll
be confined to Duron and Athlon processors.
Click to expand...

I went to vendor's website, and found the same board with a Pentium socket,
same price, too. So now I have a choice. :-)
You'll certainly need a new PSU; something around 350W would probably
suffice unless you plan to build a small disk farm in the same case.
;-)
Click to expand...

That's what I thunk.
You didn't mention what you already have but it's likely you'll also
need to replace the RAM. Bad memory can be the cause of so many
obscure problems that it's best to avoid "cheap" unbranded junk and go
for good quality guaranteed stuff, like Crucial or Kingston; you'll
pay marginally more but it's worth it!
Click to expand...

Yes, I expect to shell out a few extra $$$ for good RAM. The Vendor notes
that the mobo in question can be tuned to different varieties of RAM in BIOS.
Never heard of this before, is it a newish feature, then? Anyhow, I expect
have a stable board bec. of this feature.

Some prelim pricing exercises suggest I can cobble up a system that's twice
as powerful as one I could get for the same money in a readybuilt. And that's
with particular price breaks on the components, apart from the fact that they
are all a step or two behind the latest-n-greatest. Eg, an ATI Radeon w/ TV
out ranges from about $100 to over $300, depending on whether you the most
recent or one- to two-year old model. Yet for my needs the older model is
more than good enough.

Ta!
 
The choice on the OS is up to you. I highly doubt you will find hardware
drivers (live VIA Hyperion Support) for OS2 as it is largely a dead OS.

NuTs
Click to expand...

Well, in that case I'll just keep this machine (AMD Duron 800MHz), as OS/2
runs really, really fast on it. I have two other boxes to put new hardware
into, so that's not a problem., and form factor doesn't faze me, so long as I
can find standoff holes that match, or drill a couple new ones. If anything,
I think a larger box might be easier to keep cool.

Ta!
 
Thanks, Wolf. I still have a soft spot for OS/2's architecture, incl
HPFS, and was sad (as a retired IBMer) to see what I considered
mismanagement of its development and marketability some years ago. I
wasn't aware that new versions continue to appear.
Click to expand...

IBM has changed its focus to supporting the enterprise user, wh/ in practice
appears to mean to shepherd them through a transition to either Windows or
Linux, whenever the time comes, and maintaining plain vanilla hardware
support, and supplying occasional fixes, in the meantime. Warp 4.52 is one
fixpack beyond what I have, and to get it from IBM, I'd have to subscribe to
their support plan, wh/ is around $200/year IIRC. Not worth it to me.

There are scanner drivers available, but I haven't tried any. That's one of
the things I use W2K for.
 
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