MSI 746 Ultra-L review

With all the fuss surrounding Intel's 3.06GHz Pentium 4 and Hyper-Threading, it's easy to forget that AMD is also producing powerful high-end processors. The Athlon XP 2700+ already rivals Intel's champion, and the new Athlon XP 2800+ Barton core is just starting to appear. Recent nForce2-based motherboards such as MSI's K7N2G LISR are currently the top choice for AMD chips, but SiS is looking to rock the boat with its new 746FX chipset, supporting DDR 400 memory and AGP 8x.

Although considered as an 'alternative' choice by many, SiS shouldn't be underestimated, particularly as its recent SiS655 Pentium 4 chipset is more than capable of challenging Intel's E7205 Granite Bay. The new 746FX builds on the existing 745 chipset, adding AGP 8x and support for the new Athlon XP processors with a 333MHz FSB (front side bus). Support for 400MHz DDR memory is included too, but it's only single channel, unlike Nvidia's dual-channel DDR 400 controller in the nForce2. In theory, however, the single-channel 400MHz mode still offers more than enough bandwidth for the current processors.

SiS has partnered the 746FX with its 963L south bridge controller, linking them with its MuTIOL 1G interconnect, which delivers 1GB/sec of PCI bandwidth. This is a good feature, particularly for applications requiring high levels of PCI bandwidth, such as video editing using specialist editing cards. The 963L also supports USB 2 and Ultra ATA/133 and provides support for up to six PCI slots. A six-channel AC97-compliant audio codec and 10/100BaseTX Ethernet MAC are integrated too. The only real omission is built-in FireWire.

Rather than adding a host of extra features to this base specification - such as Serial ATA or RAID - MSI's 746 Ultra-L is very much a value offering and includes just the basics. The only notable difference is that it features five PCI slots instead of the maximum of six, although this still provides plenty of potential for upgrades. An MSI D-Bracket adds another two USB ports, increasing the total complement to six, and there's a header for MSI's S-bracket too. However, this doesn't come supplied with the board, limiting audio to stereo output only.

To test the 746 Ultra-L, we added an Athlon XP 2700+ CPU, utilising the 333MHz FSB, 512MB of Corsair XMS 3200 memory (running at 333MHz), a 180GB IBM Deskstar 180GXP hard disk, a Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card and installed Windows XP.

Application-based performance as measured with our PC Pro 2D benchmarks was superb, scoring a massive 1.86 - one of the best results we've seen. The 3DMark2001 SE score of 13,944 at 1,024 x 768 in 32-bit colour is also excellent, although by no means the fastest we've seen for an Athlon XP 2700+. For example, the Mesh Matrix XP 2700+RD97 (see Reviews, issue 98, p128) scored 14,649, mainly due to its nForce2 motherboard.

If you want great performance at a bargain price, the 746 Ultra-L is a great buy. That said, it's minimalist, lacking the extra features of MSI's K7N2G LISR nForce2 board, which includes Serial ATA, RAID, dual-channel memory and six-channel audio out of the box. Bargain hunters should go for the 746, but more demanding users are better served by the nForce2.

Author: Gareth Ogden