Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/220



It's that time again, a new processor has been released, and with it, a new wave of motherboards will follow.   Intel's highly criticized move back to a socketed design with the Socket-370 seems to have been widely accepted by motherboard manufacturers, as all of the big names in the industry have already adopted the Socket-370 platform in many of their newer designs.

Unlike most implementations of the AMD supported Super7 motherboard standard, Socket-370 is being approached with a more high-end approach, most motherboards featuring the same basic configuration as their more expensive slot-1 counterparts, with a few more features to keep up to date with the times. 

Case in point would be Microstar International's first attempt at a Socket-370 creation, the MS-6153.  How successful was AnandTech with the pre-release MS-6153 AnandTech managed to take a look at?   Let's find out...


New Anand Tech Report Card Rating
83/C+
Do not compare newer ratings to older ones, the newer ratings are much more aggressive

Motherboard Specifications

CPU Interface Socket-370
Chipset Intel 440BX
L2 Cache N/A (on-chip)
Form Factor ATX
Bus Speeds 66 / 68 / 75
100 / 103 / 112 / 117 / 124 / 129 / 133
138 / 143 / 148 / 153
Clock Multipliers 3.0x - 6.0x (Auto Detect)
Voltages Supported 2.0v / 2.05v / 2.1v / 2.2v
Memory Slots 3 168pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots 1 AGP Slot
5 PCI Slots (5 Full Length)
2 ISA Slots (1 Shared / 2 Full Length)
BIOS Award BIOS

The Good

Imagine an ATX Pentium II BX motherboard, outfitted with 5 PCI slots, 2 ISA, and that single AGP slot we've grown so accustomed to seeing on motherboards.  Now remove the Pentium II's slot-1 CPU interface, and replace it with Intel's latest step in the opposite direction, a Socket-370 interface, and you have the MSI 6153.  The Socket-370 board makes use of the same Intel 440BX chipset found in slot-1 motherboards, meaning that the features the market is used to have been ported over with a few new surprises. The 6153's Excellent Layout

The board starts off with an extremely well laid out design, the ATX power supply connector is placed at the very edge of the motherboard, away from any major components like the CPU socket and allows for the ATX specification to be properly adhered to.  The 3 DIMM slots on the board support up to 768MB of DRAM, however at the time of testing the motherboard, registered 256MB DIMMs were not available in the lab and therefore the highest attainable memory configuration was 384MB.  As mentioned before, the chipset used on the board is the Intel 440BX (coupled with the updated PIIX4E Bus Master Controller) which does allow for a maximum DRAM size of 1GB.  In the case of the Celeron processor, all 768MB of RAM you could possibly install in the 6153 is completely cacheable meaning you aren't penalized (performance-wise) for adding in more RAM as was the case during the days of the Intel 430 TX chipset with Socket-7 motherboards. 

Surrounding the Socket-370 are 6 large and 4 mid-sized electrolytic capacitors, allowing for a cleaner signal to be present between the installed CPU, the chipset, and the memory banks among the components on rest of the motherboard.  Just south of the 3 DIMM slots are the HDD/FDD ports, the secondary IDE port is signified by an off-white connector bracket around it to help separate itself from the primary port.  The board itself features a total of two on-board 3-pin fan connectors, which should be more enough for a single fan Socket-370 Celeron processor.

Like many high-end Tyan and Supermicro motherboards, the MSI 6153 features an on-board PC speaker that can be disabled via a jumper, however for those users that want a little more than the annoying beeps out of your PC speaker, the on-board Creative Labs ES1373 PCI sound processor will fill in the void.  The sound quality isn't the greatest, however it gets the job done, and is more than enough for a user that isn't such a serious gamer that he/she requires a 3D audio card.  Luckily, if you happen to be that hard-core gamer type, MSI offers the on-board sound as an option, and you can knock a few bucks off the final cost by opting to stick with the plain board and no on-board sound. 

Somewhat hinting at the trend motherboard manufacturers will follow in 1999, MSI equipped the 6153 with Wake up Lan, Modem, and Keyboard support, in addition to the increasingly popular Power-On Keyboard feature which was originally introduced by Epox with their motherboards.  Also borrowing from previously innovated technology, the 6153 features a very familiar jumperless CPU setup utility called CPU Plug & Play II.  The utility allows you to select the Front Side Bus frequency of your system, as well as tweak the core voltage from 2.0v to 2.2v.  Although MSI claims that their 6153 has a total of 15 selectable FSB settings, including an interesting 117MHz setting for those users that can't make it up to 124MHz as well as an insane 150MHz FSB setting, the pre-release board AnandTech received only had support for the 66, 68, 75, 83, 100, 103, and 112MHz FSB settings.  The final retail version of the board may change that, however we'll have to wait to find out. 

Due to the fact that the Socket-370 Celerons are clock-locked, MSI auto-detects the clock-multiplier of the installed CPU and doesn't even bother with allowing you the option of configuring the inconfigurable setting, makes sense.  At bootup, the Award BIOS, by default, outputs the current values of the power supply voltages, chassis fan revolution speed, CPU/motherboard voltages, system temperature, CPU temperature and more.  This feature is extremely useful in diagnosing any power related problems, as the outputted values are the actual values not what they should be, the table also provides the user with a recommended range that the detected item should fall within (i.e. 1.95 - 2.19v for the core voltage on a Celeron). 

The software bundled with the 6153 consists of MSI's SoftCooler, a Software CPU Cooling Device that allows the processor to essentially "rest" while it is waiting for user input to begin processing another item, and depending on your CPU usage patterns, this software may significantly reduce the heat production and power consumption of your CPU.  For most gamers, and high-end users that are always doing something with their PC, don't expect SoftCooler to do all that much for you, although it is nice to know that it is included.  The bundled CD-ROM includes all the basic driver files, in addition to the SoftCooler utility mentioned above, and Microstar's inhouse developed System Monitor software that basically outputs the same information values (voltages, etc...) under Windows 9x for careful monitoring of your system.



The performance and stability of the 6153, even when overclocked, was top-notch during the AnandTech tests, in spite of the board's pre-release nature.  The Celeron 366 failed to boot at any core voltage above 2.05v, and the 550MHz setting wouldn't post, however other than that, the system crashed once during the aggressive stability tests.  If the pre-release sample AnandTech received is this stable, just imagine what the final release will bring...

The Bad

Although Microstar had the best intentions in mind when they surrounded the Socket-370 interface with those capacitors, they do make the installation of the bulky retail Celeron fan a somewhat tricky if you have larger fingers.   Aided by a small, flat-head screw driver, the installation of the heatsink/fan combo's clips onto the Socket-370 became a bit easier, but if you're prone to breaking things in close quarters, you may want to approach this installation with a little more care.

The Specification and User's Guide AnandTech received bundled with the 6153 was nothing more than a rehash of the MSI website, and didn't even contain an ounce of help on physically installing and configuring the motherboard, a definite disappointment.  Although the setup of the board is simple enough, the physical installation of the board itself and the components on it can always be a bit intimidating at first, and MSI's lack of any proper documentation on how to approach the installation is a bit disappointing.  Advanced users won't find that as a problem at all, since virtually everything else (as it should be) is properly documented.


USB Compatibility

  • Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

  • Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

  • USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

  • USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes


Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: Mushkin SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM; Memory Man SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.mushkin.com


The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

How I Tested

  • Each benchmark was run a minimum of 2 times and a maximum of 5 times, if the motherboard failed to complete a single test within the 5 allocated test runs the OS/Software was re-installed on a freshly formatted Hard Drive and the BIOS settings were adjusted to prevent the test from failing again.  All such encounters were noted at the exact time of their occurrence.

  • Business Winstone 98 & 3D Winbench 98 was run at each individually tested clock speed, if reliable scores were achieved with the first two test runs of the suite an average of the two was taken and recorded as the final score at that clock speed.  If the test system displayed erratic behavior while the tests were running or the results were incredibly low/high the tests were re-run up to 5 times and an average of all the test runs was taken and recorded at the final score at that clock speed

  • All video tests were conducted using an AGP video accelerator

  • No foreign drivers were present in the test system other than those required for the system to function to the best of its ability

  • All foreign installation files were moved to a separate partition during the test as to prevent them from effecting the test results

  • All tests were conducted at 1024 x 768 x 16-bit color

  • Quake 2 tests were conducted at 800 x 600 x 16-bit color in Software Rendering Mode



Test Configuration

Processor(s): Intel Celeron 366
RAM: 1 - 64MB Memory Man PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Caviar AC35100 - UltraATA
Video Card(s): Matrox Millennium G200 (8MB SGRAM - AGP)
Bus Master Drivers: Microsoft Win98 DMA Drivers
Video Drivers: MGA Millennium G200 Release 1677-411
Operation System(s): Windows 98
Motherboard Revision: MSI MS-6153 Pre-release Revision 0B

 

Windows 98 Performance

  Winstone Quake 2
Business 98 Business 99 Quake 2 demo1.dm2 crusher.dm2
Intel Celeron 366 (66MHz FSB) 26.0 18.1 15.1 11.0
Intel Celeron 413 (75MHz FSB) 27.7 19.3 17.0 12.0
Intel Celeron 458 (83MHz FSB) 29.6 20.6 20.9 13.3

The Final Decision

The MS-6153 brings high quality, performance, reliability, and stability to the table without removing itself from the low-cost pricing bracket.  Who said a low-cost motherboard had to be a poorly made one?  Not Microstar.  The MS-6153 is a clear example of how Socket-370 motherboards should be made, with the high-end user in mind, yet without the high-end budget to complement that.   Once the board finally ships, AnandTech will take another look at the final release, hoping to see some of those higher FSB settings enabled, and maybe even a couple more surprises, an improved user's manual would be desired, especially for those that would be setting up a system for the first time.


How it Rates

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

  Business
Performance 83%
Price 83%
Ease of Use 90%
Overclocked Stability 85%
General Stability 88%
Quality 88%
Documentation 65%
Reliability 85%
Overall Rating 83%

The New Rating System
Each motherboard is rated in 8 areas, Performance, Price, Ease of Use, Overclocked Stability, Stability, Quality, Documentation, and Reliability.

Do not compare newer scores to older ones, the newer scores are much more aggressive

  • Performance - How well the motherboard compares to others in its class

  • Price - How competitive the price of the motherboard is when compared to others in its class

  • Ease of Use - How easy it is to setup the motherboard, jumper settings, jumperless configuration etc...

  • Overclocked Stability - How stable the motherboard is at overclocked CPU/Bus speeds

  • Stability - How stable the motherboard is at normal CPU/Bus speeds

  • Quality - How much effort went into producing the motherboard

  • Documentation - How helpful is the manual and bundled support manuals

  • Reliability - How long will this motherboard last, will it fail? Deals with quantity/size of capacitors, known bugs, etc...

  • Overall Rating - an average of the eight above areas

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