MSI KM4M-V - motherboard - micro ATX - KM400

The MSI KM4M-V is the mainboard behind my current gaming pc.

At US $60, last year, this mainboard was very much worth the while, with everything onboard, so I did not have to purchase any other components besides RAM.

Complaints: only 3 PCI expansion slots, the AMD CPU does not always read properly, giving wrong bus speed info and wrong settings (My AMD Sempron 2400 is reading as an AMD 1000).

Otherwise, ...
...to hardware (the only time I have had serious issues is when I installed Linux and certain software applications). Using 1GB of RAM with the Sempron 2400 and a GeForce4 FX5200 256MB 8X AGP, this is a very capable pc.

The onboard SATA also helps with the configuration of hard drives and optical drives. Currently, I have two Seagate 80GB SATA hard drives and four 16X DVD+/-RW dual layer drives in this machine. And when using Alcohol ... more

The MSI KM4M-V is the mainboard behind my current gaming pc.

At US $60, last year, this mainboard was very much worth the while, with everything onboard, so I did not have to purchase any other components besides RAM.

Complaints: only 3 PCI expansion slots, the AMD CPU does not always read properly, giving wrong bus speed info and wrong settings (My AMD Sempron 2400 is reading as an AMD 1000).

Otherwise, this mainboard performs very well - no lock ups due to hardware (the only time I have had serious issues is when I installed Linux and certain software applications). Using 1GB of RAM with the Sempron 2400 and a GeForce4 FX5200 256MB 8X AGP, this is a very capable pc.

The onboard SATA also helps with the configuration of hard drives and optical drives. Currently, I have two Seagate 80GB SATA hard drives and four 16X DVD+/-RW dual layer drives in this machine. And when using Alcohol 120% for CD and DVD duplication, I can burn images to each drive at 16X for CD and 8X for DVD (I prefer to use slower speeds for compatiblity and assurance that disks are not damaged in the process, as opposed to faster speeds for bragging rights).

The nice about this mainboard (which I think is standard, but I have come across mainboards that did not have this feature) is that I could install a video or sound card and the onboard card is automatically disabled, (or easily disabled in the case of the sound card) with no hardware conflicts.

For the budget conscious, this mainboard is a very choice for building a system for use at the office, since it can use the onboard video and sound, and came with a built-in network card. The onboard sound is actually quite good, since its 5.1 positioning is very convincing, even if the signal is a bit lower than I would like. The onboard video is rather good, but don't expect miracles from it, since it pulls memory from your RAM to generate the video memory.

Network performance is exceptional, since I use this machine as my "music server" - all my mp3s and videos are on a USB external hard drive, connexcted to the computer, and I access it from any pc in the house (mainly my laptop). Network performance is 100MBPS, at its highest, but it works very well, allowing for remote control (think that Windows Desktop utility that you never use) with great ease and speed.

Installation is "brainless" according to a friend of mine - when it comes to software, merely place the CD in the drive and let the autorun install the recommended drivers - and you are ready to go.

Long story shortened: mainboard for the budget-minded consumer, with enough room to expand later on. However, with the speed of other systems currently on the market, users may want to think twice about purchasing. Otherwise, a very good choice.

An addition: for the do-it-yourselfers out there, if you plan on using this system with bootable SATA hard drives (like I do) then be prepared for some headaches with diskettes. If you are using Windows XP and loading onto the SATA drives with no IDE hard drives in the machine, then you have to use floppy disks to load the SATA drivers for Windows XP to load properly. As a result of diskettes' unreliability, I would recommend using an IDE hard drive (preferably a Seagate) as your boot drive and then the SATA as your backup drives - as a real network server has it setup. In my case, I needed ready access to my DVD burners, hence the 4-burner setup. 

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