Labs

The 645 Ultra won our recent Pentium 4 motherboards group test (see Labs, issue 88, p96) and returns this month to defend its crown. It didn't quite succeed, but it remains a solid choice because it's such fantastic value. Based on the SiS645 chipset - still the only Pentium 4 chipset to support PC2700 DDR RAM - the MSI supports up to 3Gb of memory, 1Gb more than the Intel 845D boards.

We sourced a

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new 645 Ultra for this Labs, and retested it to ensure fairness. This sample could only manage a third-placed 3.44 in our 2D benchmarks, a drop of 0.1 from the last Labs test. However, all six boards perform virtually identically, and you wouldn't be able to detect the difference without using benchmarks. Using PC2700 memory, the 645 accelerated to 3.55 in 2D and 6,607 in 3D - it scored only 6,386 with PC2100 memory.

In terms of expansion, the 645 is fairly average, with five PCI slots and one shared CNR slot. The basic integrated AC97 sound is adequate for general use and MSI's usual D-Bracket is bundled for diagnostics and also provides two extra USB ports. Overclocking features aren't as comprehensive as others on offer, but the CPU/DRAM ratio is adjustable, which could prove a useful feature, especially as you can't increase the DIMM voltage.

Although MSI loses its A List status, the 645 Ultra is a bargain at £70. If you don't need the Gigabyte's extra features, buy the 645.