# MSI RS480M2-IL: My review



## drvarunmehta (Jul 22, 2005)

The MSI RS480M2-IL is pretty much the only mobo available for the Athlon64 socket 939 proccy's that has integrated graphics.
I find a lot of forum members comparing the MSI RS480M2-IL and the nForce4 series. I recently purchased a rig with the MSI RS480M2-IL.
My first choice was an nForce4 based mobo but I couldn't afford to add a graphics card right now, so I bought this instead.
So am I satisfied with it? Lets find out.

*My rig:*
MSI RS480M2-IL mobo
Athlon64 3000+ S939 Venice
Transcend 2x512 MB DDR400 RAM (3 3 3 8 )
Seagate 80 GB SATA HDD 7200 RPM
VIP ATX cabinet with 400w PS
(No additional cooling in the case)
Other components don't affect the performance so no use mentioning them.

I think this rig is fairly similar to what most of us would be considering purchasing right now.


*Features:*
Socket 939 proccy
PCI-E x16 slot
3 PCI slots
Integrated Radeon Xpress200 graphics
4 DIMM slots (upto 4 GB memory)
Supports dual channel mode
Onboard RAID 0 or 1
Onboard AC97 6 channel sound
2 IDE channels
4 SATA ports
8 USB 2.0 ports
1 Firewire port
10/100 Mbps ethernet integrated
SPDIF connector
S-video out
Composite video out
1 Serial port


*Performance:*
I don't believe in synthetic benchmarks, so no 3DMark and Sandra scores here.
I've used Fraps 2.6.3 to test the FPS in a few games.
All scores are calculated without disabling essential programs during testing (avast!, Spyware Guard, Spybot-SD resident) as that is how the PC is mostly used.
All games were tested at the maximum possible PLAYABLE frame rate. 


*GTA San Andreas:*
Visual FX quality: High
Anti aliasing: Off
Resolution: 1024x768x32
21 FPS

Might seem a little less, but I found the gameplay quite smooth.


*No One Lives Forever 2:*
Visual quality: Max
Effects (AA/AF/Bump mapping): On
Resolution: 1024x768x32
37 FPS

37 FPS with everything at max.


*NFS Underground 2:*
Visual quality: Medium
Effects (AA/AF/Bump mapping): Off
Motion blur/Particle system/Light trails: On
Resolution: 800x600
22 FPS

Playable, but not without disabling a few effects.


*Unreal Tournament 2004:*
Visual quality: High
Anti aliasing: Off
Resolution: 1024x768x32
39 FPS

Very quick load times and no lag during gameplay. The quality can be pushed higher, but this seems good enough.


*Half-Life 2*
Visual quality: High
Anti aliasing: Off
Resolution: 1024x768x32
29 FPS

We know Half-Life 2 obviously works well with ATI graphics, but this was just incredible.


*C&C Generals Zero Hour:*
Visual quality: High
Resolution: 1024x768x32
30 FPS

I couldn't figure out how to disable the frame limiter. But what matters is that it delivered the max possible FPS throughout the test at the highest settings.


*Positives:*
Reasonably priced socket 939 mobo
Great graphics (by integrated graphics standards)
PCI-E x16 slot
Firewire port
SPDIF connector
S-video, composite video connectors
Runs very cool without any additional cooling
Comes with good quality round IDE cables
Enough space around the socket for a larger heatsink
Supports 4 GB RAM in dual channel
Really easy to update/flash the BIOS


*Negatives:*
No overclocking
Dosen't match up to the nForce4 chipset
Integrated graphics uses up system memory
No SATA2 support
No support for NCQ
No Gigabit ethernet
No PCI-E x1 slots
Really old sound chipset (AC 97)


*Conclusion:* Quite obviously it loses out to the nForce4 in pretty much all performance benchmarks. But if you have a shoestring budget and can't afford a graphics card right now, this is the board for you. If you intend to use a dedicated graphics card, the nForce4 is a much better buy.

 Note that I don't exactly have the fastest RAM (3 3 3 8 ). I haven't disabled my antivirus and antispyware applications. Expect better performance by disabling all other applications.


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## AlienTech (Jul 22, 2005)

You also need to add some small extras, 1 is getting CPU FSB or CPUZ to over clock it to 220MHZ FSB or 229FSB with CPU COOL by enabling the spread spectrum option in the bios..  Rightsmark CPU clock RMClock will use the AMD quiet and cool to adjust the CPU multiplier form 5x to 9x so it keeps the CPU cooler, It runs @ 50C with it and 59 without it under normal load so there is a big difference ... Another 2 things would be a heat sink for the south bridge and a small fan for the north bridge in case you over clock and set the GFX chip to run @ 300 MHZ async instead of the default 200MHZ sync modes so you need this even if you don't over clock the CPU and memory.

Also using the memory slots closest to the CPU gives you increased speed as the other slot adds an extra wait state. Difference of 200MB bandwidth. 

Memory is cheap now so what if the GFX takes some of it? 512K costs  2500. 

The board is very close to the performance of NForce4. Considering the ATI runs @ 199MHZ while the NF4 runs @ 201MHZ. There is a 2-3% performance difference at the most.

Also using the NEW ATI drivers shows quite a big performance difference in graphics.

Of course if I were a gamer I would not get this board. I would get some of the others that let me over clock to 300MHZ FSB which gives more performance than anything else as well as faster graphics with the external card. Then again, I could have saved 50% on this by just getting a 2800 sempron and a 754 NF3 board for 7500  but then I wont be able to install xp64 on it.


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## drvarunmehta (Jul 22, 2005)

AlienTech said:
			
		

> You also need to add some small extras, 1 is getting CPU FSB or CPUZ to over clock it to 220MHZ FSB or 229FSB with CPU COOL by enabling the spread spectrum option in the bios..  Rightsmark CPU clock RMClock will use the AMD quiet and cool to adjust the CPU multiplier form 5x to 9x so it keeps the CPU cooler, It runs @ 50C with it and 59 without it under normal load so there is a big difference ... Another 2 things would be a heat sink for the south bridge and a small fan for the north bridge in case you over clock and set the GFX chip to run @ 300 MHZ async instead of the default 200MHZ sync modes so you need this even if you don't over clock the CPU and memory.


The purpose of the review was to show that you get playable frame rates at a decent resolution (1024x768) with most new games. I could run all the games I tried at 1042x768 except NFS:UG2. Someone who is using his system only for casual gaming is not likely to overclock, so I used stock settings.

It would be great if someone with a similar rig overclocked his graphics core and posted what kind of framerates he gets, so we know if its worth OCing the graphics or not.



			
				AlienTech said:
			
		

> Also using the memory slots closest to the CPU gives you increased speed as the other slot adds an extra wait state. Difference of 200MB bandwidth.


I didn't know that. Point noted.



			
				AlienTech said:
			
		

> Memory is cheap now so what if the GFX takes some of it? 512K costs  2500.


What I was trying to imply was that the graphics core could have come with its own dedicated memory, but it dosen't.



			
				AlienTech said:
			
		

> The board is very close to the performance of NForce4. Considering the ATI runs @ 199MHZ while the NF4 runs @ 201MHZ. There is a 2-3% performance difference at the most.


At stock settings. Not after you're done OCing on the nForce4.



			
				AlienTech said:
			
		

> Also using the NEW ATI drivers shows quite a big performance difference in graphics.


MSI recommends the use of their own drivers rather than standard ATI ones.


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## AlienTech (Jul 22, 2005)

//MSI recommends the use of their own drivers rather than standard ATI ones.//

This might very well be. Because I upgraded to BIOS V3.5 and now the system gets real slow. I haven't been able to trace it down yet. The CPU load shows over 50% even if nothing is running and task manager don't show what is taking up so much CPU power. Yet system idle process shows 95-98%. And 3Dmark went from 6000 to 2000 now. I also noticed they removed the Chassis fan speed control among a few others. MSI seems to be the only company I know off that removes options with each upgrade. Seems they haven't changed much in 10 years. My P2 MSI mother board kept loosing functions at each new upgrade.

Since I was not keeping track of everything not  sure where it went wrong. URGH!!!!

//What I was trying to imply was that the graphics core could have come with its own dedicated memory, but it dosen't. //

You think they give it away for free? Cheaper for you to add this memory than if they do it. There is no performance difference between UMA and dual channel MB memory.

//At stock settings. Not after you're done OCing on the nForce4. //

If you follow how chips are made and tested, you would know that they are rated, The rating defines how fast something will work without problems. Companies do not take a faster chip and rate them slower to sell them cheaper. Yes sometimes they get very good yields and once they fill their quota of the fastest they mark down the rest as slower to fill those quotas, but only then. The ones marked down always have problems getting the higher rating. Just like when they started to sell 512K cache CPU's because the 1Meg cache CPU's failed and they marked it down. So you can get lucky and get one of them faster rated chips. But generally, the chip you get should work about 10% better, but the rating is around +/-5% so there is a - in there too but not in CPU's so for good measure they up it to +10% for margin of error. The more you OC, the chances of you breaking the chip goes up exponentially.

There are companies out there that will take lower rated chips and test them and sell them as higher rated chips... For less cost...


Well back to trying to figure out why the CPU load shoots sky high sometimes...


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## drvarunmehta (Jul 22, 2005)

Which VGA driver are you using? Live Update shows 6476 (MSI version) as the latest driver update, but it refuses to install on my PC as it says I don't have the requisite hardware. Are you using MSI drivers or ATI ones?


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## imjimmy (Jul 22, 2005)

> Really old sound chipset (AC 97)




Yes i was very disappointed with the sound. Supposed to use the ALC 650 5.1 codec. But the sound is not in the same league as the new Mobo's (AMD or Intel Based) that feature the ALC 860/861 codec.

This sounded as bad as my old system on an Intel 865 chipset based mobo.[/quote]


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## AlienTech (Jul 22, 2005)

drvarunmehta said:
			
		

> Which VGA driver are you using? Live Update shows 6476 (MSI version) as the latest driver update, but it refuses to install on my PC as it says I don't have the requisite hardware. Are you using MSI drivers or ATI ones?



I was using ATI ccc Catalyst 5.7 drivers which showed almost a 50% gain in 3D marks. But now went back to the MSI RS480-AP01 drivers. 

*www.rage3d.com/index.php?node=r3dtweak

I also went back to bitcomet .58 from .59... I am not sure if that was what was causing the problem but the CPU usage is now back down to under 5%. Have to test some more to see...  It seems ATI has really optimised their drivers from 5.6 to 5.7. And for graphics I have noticed that even the ones from microsoft is very slow compared to the ones from ATI.


I usually just go to the MSI site and download it myself and install it. 

ATI System Drivers for  RX480M2, RS480M2 

â€¢ ATI RX/RS480 system driver package.
â€¢ SMBus: 5.10.1000.5
â€¢ VGA: 8.12
â€¢ IDE: 5.0.0.2
â€¢ New support WinXP 64-bit OS, version: 6.14.10.6525

*www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_detail.php?UID=640&kind=1

You install the ATI drivers after you install this package since ATI dont supply the IDE/SMBUS drivers...


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## drvarunmehta (Jul 22, 2005)

AlienTech said:
			
		

> I was using ATI ccc Catalyst 5.7 drivers which showed almost a 50% gain in 3D marks. But now went back to the MSI RS480-AP01 drivers.


Why did you go back??
Was Catalyst 5.7 responsible for high CPU utilization or BIOS ver 3.5?

Finally which is the ideal BIOS version and graphics drivers for the mobo?


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## KHUBBU (Jul 23, 2005)

Thanks varun. This wud surely help a lot of ppl. 
Well plz post Sandra benchmarks also atleast memory bandwith.


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## AlienTech (Jul 23, 2005)

The CPU load problem was caused by the RTL network card drivers. Dont know the fix other than going to some older version of the driver.

3D Mark 2001 gives 5500

Sandra SR2a gives 4445MB in DIMM1 slot DDR400, and around 2700 for DDR266.

Over clocking to 229FSB pushes it up to 5200MB.


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## AlienTech (Jul 23, 2005)

3Dmark03 gives a rating of like 1500  IE you can watch but it is s         l         o         w.....

Wings of fury played at full speed but battle of procycon gave 9FPS, Trolls layer was 8FPS and mother nature was 8FPS. In some scenes it dropped to 1FSP and speeded up in others.

This was with the MSI gfx drivers, have to see if the ATI ones speed it up.


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## drvarunmehta (Jul 23, 2005)

I installed the new Catalyst 5.7 over the MSI drivers. Framerates are still the same in all games but UT2004 gave 5 FPS more.

btw i'm using the latest network card drivers and I don't have the high CPU util problem.


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## darklord (Jul 23, 2005)

> Also using the memory slots closest to the CPU gives you increased speed as the other slot adds an extra wait state. Difference of 200MB bandwidth.



Really ???
I didnt knew that,care to explain,how is this possible ?  :roll: 



> The board is very close to the performance of NForce4. Considering the ATI runs @ 199MHZ while the NF4 runs @ 201MHZ.



Didnt get you.Are you talking about the HTT Bus ?

Well if there is variation in the speed not being 200 exact,then i guess Mobo makers are to blame for it,not the chipset,isnt it ?  



> Memory is cheap now so what if the GFX takes some of it? 512K costs 2500.



You call that cheap ? acoording to you 512k costs 2.5k then how much will a stick of 512MB cost ? :roll: 
Joking,i know its a typo.

Anyways,
varun, good job there.I had tested this board around 2 months back,really decent one for the price.


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## AlienTech (Jul 23, 2005)

Well the ATI V5,7 drivers gives a 3D Mark 03 of get this 1375.. Its lower than the MSI Gfx drivers, but on some games where it used to be really slow on the MSI drivers like getting 1 FPS, you get 2 FPS on the ATI drivers. So I guess thats what they mean by being 50% faster. Instead of it being extremely extremely slow, its only extremely slow on some and become slower on others.

You update the service packs from microsoft and you will loose or get/have develop network problems. This is a known problem and seems its not just for the real tek drivers but others too.

I noticed microsoft removed their network loop back fix service pack. It used to drop my net connection as soon as it got installed.

//Quote: 
Also using the memory slots closest to the CPU gives you increased speed as the other slot adds an extra wait state. Difference of 200MB bandwidth. 

Really ??? 
I didnt knew that,care to explain,how is this possible ?  //

I read this somewhere but I was not sure about it. Like well huh... But I tried it myself and there was the difference in Sandra... Benchmark it yourself and see. The explinaiton I saw said the motherboard makers add an extra wait state in there because the RAM is a little further away from the CPU. Seems about right as it drops 200MB bandwidth which is about what you get when you change oen of the timings.


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## navino87 (Jul 23, 2005)

*Overclocking*

I want to know what is over clocking ?


What is the use of it ?


what r the advantages & disadvantages in it?


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## AlienTech (Jul 24, 2005)

oops


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## AlienTech (Jul 24, 2005)

Over clocking is running something faster than it is rated at. Everything has a rated speed mechanical or electrical. You can run a 240V light bulb @ 200V and have it last for 10 years instead of 1.

But what you loose is power, It does not give as much light at 200V as 240V and consumes more electricity in the long run to give off the same amount of light. 

You can run a car at higher RPM's to give more power, but instead of the engine lasting 5 years it will now last only for 1 year but the power you get in that 1 year sure is great. 

Elecronics are designed to run at a certain speed. But since it is so complex not all parts can run at the designed speed. So they slow it down until all parts are able to pass the stress test of running at a certain speed. But like most things there is a also a margin of error so it can run faster than they are rated at but it is not guaranteed. 

What Oc'ers expect is to find parts that are only tested at a slower speed even though they are manufactured for higher speeds. And use this to speed up their system without paying for parts that are testing at the higher speeds and cost more. Once a manufacturing process matures, your chances of finding parts that will run faster than rated becomes rather good. But in brand new products, the company will always try to find as many fastest parts as they can to fill demand and orders.

One of the problems with running things faster is they can fail much sooner, But no one expects to use a computer for more than an year or 2 even if they are rated to last 5-10 years so it is not that much of a problem. They would rather run their hyndai like it like a ferrari for that 1 year than 5 years.

Of course I would not do this if I was running something critical... Like a bank ATM machine... But for games its just fine. You cant run something slower or faster than it is designed and rated for since thats what design and rating are there for in the first place. 

You can always pump in more juice to run something faster. And like anything that gets more juice it also runs down faster and you can always give something less juice to run it slower and like anything, it under performs and wastes energy.


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## navino87 (Jul 24, 2005)

*Power Supply*

what is that ATX , Micro ATX , AT etc.... 


What is the difference between ATX & MicroATX ? Which one is the best ?


what type of thing is this MSI RS480M2-IL mobo?atx or m atx


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## drvarunmehta (Jul 24, 2005)

That is the form factor (size) of the mobo.
ATX is the larger size and microATX is smaller. You need a larger cabinet to fit a ATX mobo and a smaller one for microATX.


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## navino87 (Jul 24, 2005)

*best*

which 1 is the best?latest ?


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## drvarunmehta (Jul 24, 2005)

Nothing like which is better. Depends on the particular model.


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## darklord (Jul 24, 2005)

Full ATX is always better to have.


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## darklord (Jul 24, 2005)

Full ATX is always better to have.


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## AlienTech (Jul 24, 2005)

darklord said:
			
		

> Full ATX is always better to have.



Other than if you use a lot of extras I am not sure what the extra size would be good for. Now that I dont have to use a 1394 card a network card, a sound card, that took 3 slots. A gfx card if you dont want that. 

I know that even 8 slots were not enough when you did not have any of this stuff on the mother board. Those serial/parallel combo cards were the greatest thing since sliced bread since you had 2-4 serial ports on it and 1-2 printer ports. It also saved a mouse port. A real life saver that saved you 3 slots right there. I think all mother boards made since the pentium came out had serial/parallel/mouse ports already built in.


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## darklord (Jul 24, 2005)

Well mostly mATX boards have onboard vide, may be thats the reason why i hate small boards...lol..just kidding.

Anyways i have always found Full ATX boards to be more robust, no specific reason as such but still.

this does NOT mean mATX is Bad.Period.


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## AlienTech (Jul 24, 2005)

ATI tray tools allows you to change the GFX GPU MHZ rates. But I dont see a differnce in anything. Other than Everest says GPU clock rates have changed...

*atitray.fangel.ru/viewtopic.php?t=42


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## mohit (Jul 24, 2005)

The latest form factor is BTX (Balanced Technology Xtended) ... it offers better cooling and many other features. it is also available in diff sizes such as pico btx , full btx etc... newer boards are supporting BTX and the good part is that our old ATX power supplies will work with BTX boards. so u will only have to change the cabinet and not the PSU.


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## navino87 (Jul 28, 2005)

*hard disk*

hi,
  what is ment by sata harddisk?What type does this mobo support?

sata1 or sata2 0r..............................


what is the difference between them?


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## akshayt (Jul 29, 2005)

say you got a cpu of 2ghz, by overclocking you can increase its speed say you made it to 2.4ghz which has chances that it would be faster than 2 ghz as it is 2.4ghz

advantage:
faster speeds

disadvantage:
you may spoil your h/w,maybe cpu,mb,if ram is synchronised to rasied fsb in amd 64bit then maybe ram etc
you mya loose warranty
you may sploil your h/w reducing life,
you may loose stability
though as for life who uses parts for more than 1-3yrs


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## navino87 (Jul 29, 2005)

*sata*

what about sata?


please tell me


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## wizrulz (Aug 1, 2005)

*different zone*

@navino87 ur taking the thread to different directions by asking such questions, u can ask such questions but u can always start a new thread or ask them in Q & A member.   
Anyways i also have a MSI RS480 mobo i would like to know finally that which is the latest or the best BIOS version, graphics drivers etc available to improve the performance of this mobo???
I also bought this mobo long back i could not squeeze in a seperate graphics card so settled for onboard option and this board allows me to play each and every game. i am also a gamer but for me more than graphics playing a game at decent speed matters than the background graphics, so anyone with such requirements can sttle for this board if still no such better mobo for such a price and PCI-E option is avaiable in market, is there any


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## akshayt (Aug 1, 2005)

asus a8n-e may be available onwards or 8100 or lower
though i bought for 9400 and at other places ou may find >8.5,<9k etc

also,don't take corsair value select etc other ram with asus nforce 4 and check manual for rams supported and consult others after that 
this mobo doesn't have onbaord video


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## wizrulz (Aug 2, 2005)

*desperate*

hey somebody with MSI rs480 mobo solve my query inmy previous post, i am desperate to improve the output of my mobo na donboard graphics option?


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## AlienTech (Aug 2, 2005)

Try Guru3d.com as they have most of the stuff for this GFX card. But I am not sure just how much this gfx chip can be pushed. It is a rather lame gfx cpu to begin with. But you can get the atiodngov157 graphics drivers which are compatable with the ATI CCC 5.7 drivers but are more optimized for 3D. It also lets you push the gfx clock by using ATI tools built in. 

The north controller chip on the mother board already heats up a lot so I had to put in a very small fan on the heat sink even with it running at the current 300MHZ, pushing it to 350 will heat it up a lot more without a fan, also whats the use of pushing it another 50mhz? It might give another 1/2 frame speed increase in some games???

The New V3.8 Bios lets you use dual core CPU's with this mother board.


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## AlienTech (Aug 2, 2005)

Wonder what happened to Versions 3.6 and 3.7.. V3.5 also lost your chance to control the chassie FAN speeds.

RS480M2 

BIOS Type AwardÂ® BIOS   File Sizes 348KB 
Version  3.8   Update date 2005-7-29 
Update Description - Support Cool and Quiet function.
- Support AMD Dual Core CPU.
- Update CPU ID. 
 Download  7093v38.zip  
*www.msi.com.tw/program/support/dow...e_record.php?folder=1&kind=1&name=7093v38.zip

ATI System Drivers for RS480 
Support model  RX480M2, RS480M2 
Description â€¢ ATI RX/RS480 system driver package.
â€¢ SMBus: 5.10.1000.5
â€¢ VGA: 8.12
â€¢ IDE: 5.0.0.2
â€¢ New support WinXP 64-bit OS, version: 6.14.10.6525
Date 2005-6-23 
Your System OS WinXP 64-bit(20092KB)
*www.msi.com.tw/program/support/dow....php?folder=2&kind=1&name=ATI_RX480_64bit.zip

Your System OS WinXP 32-bit/2000/XP( ATI_RS480_AP01.zip 24366KB) 
*www.msi.com.tw/program/support/dow...d.php?folder=2&kind=1&name=ATI_RS480_AP01.zip


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## AlienTech (Aug 3, 2005)

Really strange but I went back to using the MSI gfx drivers (ATI_RS480_AP01.zip) and installed V3.8 bios, I did not notice any difference in the bios but in XP now my load is under 10%, It used to be 20% with V3.5 bios. The OS load is 0-3% most of the time when it used to be closer to 10%. CPU shows its running @ 995MHZ due to the cool and quiet stuff. Also there are occassional spikes in the CPU/OS load history, unlike before when it used to much flatter but with a higher load all the time.


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## wizrulz (Aug 4, 2005)

@ alientech UR all three post r confusing..... means i did not understood them asu cleary have not mentioned which bios  and drivers for onboard graphics is better or may i say best for RS480 and can u explain bit more>


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## taken (Aug 4, 2005)

hi, 

  as am on to this MBD, i ve a little question. 

  IS THIS MBD SUPORTING ONLY DDR2 RAM OR IS IT THAT IT HAS BACKWARD COMPATIBILTY WITH EARLIER VERIONS OF RAM'S?

 having a bit of confusion on this issue. if it supports ONLY DDR2, then i think i will have to stick to it striclty, hai NA!!!!

 pls advice.


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## AlienTech (Aug 4, 2005)

taken said:
			
		

> hi,
> 
> as am on to this MBD, i ve a little question.
> 
> ...



This board supports DDR400, DDR333 and DDR266 ram sticks, But if you have 2 ram sticks, it can use them in dual channel mode to access memory in 128bit's and give a 10% performance increase.

Using DDR 400 ram instead of DDR 266 gives almost a 80% increase in memory access speeds. All 4 ram slots run at the same speed, so I could not use the 512MB ram I already had which were DDR266 in it. Well it works but it works at 1/2 the speed and slows the system down a lot.


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## navino87 (Aug 5, 2005)

*sata*

does this motherbourd support sata2 ? 
what is the difference between sata 1 & sata 2 ?


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## taken (Aug 5, 2005)

thanks Alien tech for the re but have still some confusion.

 reg the DDR400 etc.. am cleared. but what am a bit confused is that there comes DDR1 (184 pins module) and DDR2 Models (240 pins module). does the MBD suport both or just DDR2. 

 as the future is for DDR2 RAM's, as per my tech knowledge goes, why go for  lower when we have faster ones, isnt' it??

 any clearification???


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## drvarunmehta (Aug 5, 2005)

DDR2 RAM is not faster than DDR RAM as of now. Although the clock speed is higher, it also has a higher latency. Until DDR2 RAM crosses 667 Mhz, it won't be significantly faster than DDR RAM.


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## AlienTech (Aug 6, 2005)

You can read the specs here

*www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RS480M2-IL&class=mb

I am not sure ANY motherboard currently uses DDR2. Except some high end Intel ones. AMD plasn to use DDR2 next year or something.


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## wizrulz (Aug 6, 2005)

@alientech can u please specify the versions n driver which r best for RS480 mobo wrt ti bios and onboard graphics?


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## cyrux (Aug 6, 2005)

Sata 1 has a transfer rate of 150Mbits/sec and Sata 2 has faster rates of 300 Mbits/sec/. Altough we have boards supporting sata 2 it will still take longer to get hdds supproting sata 2. Sata 1 hdds also isnt too common due to its higher cost  compared to the pata ones


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## KHUBBU (Aug 10, 2005)

Can a 20 pin Power supply work on this mobo. My dealer says it 'll work w/o any problems. Digit says that u cant add other extra devices if u use 20 pin PSU.

I have 2 hdds, cd writer, dvd rom, dlink modem pci, pinnacle pv tv tuner. Will it work ? 
I'm going for Amd 64 3000+ with this mobo.


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## AlienTech (Aug 19, 2005)

Yes the 20 pin power supply with work with this mother board.

As yet another new GFX driver...
CATALYST 5.8 Windows XP - Motherboard/IGP Drivers 

*support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1699

WARNING!!!!! WARNING!!!!! WARNING!!!!! WARNING!!!!! 

You have to disable Windoes XP virtual Memory!!!!! Other wise the system will spontaneously reboot. Anywhere. Even if you are not doing anything. This only started happening after some Windows updates. Not the original SP2 update pack but the newier ones.  

The windows updates are getting as bad as Windows 95 bugs. Every update seems to cause more and more bugs.


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## technoteen (Aug 21, 2005)

AlienTech said:
			
		

> As yet another new GFX driver...
> CATALYST 5.8 Windows XP - Motherboard/IGP Drivers
> 
> *support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1699
> ...



its a BSOD which you are getting but the opion for restarting when BSODed must be on and your system is restarting, to disable it do the follwing
 Go to system properties by right clicking on my computer
 select the Advanced tab
 Under it select the startup and recovery settings
 uncheck the automatic restart option in the sytem failure area

now when you get the BSOD please post the information displayed in it

no probelms for me on the same motherboard with virtual memory enabled and my machine runs continiously for about 9 to 10 hours daily and 14 - 15 hours on weekends

i am using  catalyst 5.8, bios 3.8, kaspersky antivirus (ya antivirus can also cause bsod), all available updates for xp prof applied and the latest network drivers from realtek website

only i had to uninstall the ati catalyst control center in 5.8 and revert back to the catalyst control panel as it slowed down the games


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## AlienTech (Aug 21, 2005)

Its not a BSOD, its an ISOD. There is nothing between the reboots. Sometimes when you click on the ATI icon the screen turns black before it comes up with the control panel other times it reboots here. But the screen turns black on many things, I know Hu-Go does it when ever it changes screen modes or something. Hu Go is a TG16 emulator. 
It just rebooted right now after I entered a message and clicked the icon to test and dont feel like retyping it all here. But before it used to reboot at any time and any place with no warning even if you are not touching anything. Others reported the same. Using older versions of the drivers dont fix it. My computer is on 24x7.


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## AlienTech (Aug 28, 2005)

Just had a really weird problem. Seems while I was asleep the system locked up. Could not reboot. Could not reinstall WinXP. The bios said the CPU was running at over 60C. But touching it, it was pretty cool.... But it still would not boot all the way into windows. Used ERD commander to boot up and check out the hard disks and stuff and they seemed fine. 

The south bridge was hot.. Hot enough to burn fingers.... So I shut down the system for 10 Min's and the temperature dropped by 1C to 59... Still too hot to touch. Did it 3 times and it just is not dropping... Still cant boot or install Winxp....

So I shut off the power by switching off the power strip... The temperature dropped in under a minute and it rebooted and works fine...

So Just shutting down the system does not mean the system is actually shut down. Even if all the lights go off and the drives stop and fans stop. Seems the south bridge was still running. Running something that locked it up since it was as hot as I have ever seen it. Much higher than 60C maybe 80 or 90C's since you could not touch it for more than a second.

Its running now for 20 minutes and it is just warm. All I did today was try to use speedfan to see if they had it working with this mother board and guess not.


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## AlienTech (Sep 1, 2005)

New version of Everest is now available. This is the only program I have foudn to be realiable and works with this mother board.  It pretty much chows you everything you want to know but dont allow you to change anything since it is the free home version.

New features in EVEREST version 2.20 


Upgrade to the latest version of EVEREST to own the most accurate and powerful system diagnostics solution by getting up-to-date hardware information databases, support for the latest graphics processors and motherboard chipsets. 


*www.lavalys.hu/products/download.php?pid=1&dlid=2&lang=en

If the download does not start automatically, please click on the following link: *www.lavalys.hu/downloads/everesthome220.zip

 Advanced hardware monitor with OSD panel and cooling fans monitoring 
 Real-time alerting for hot-plug devices 
 Portable computer information 
 Extended Intel E8500 server chipset details 
 Extended optical drive details 
 Bluetooth PAN support 
 Support for the latest graphics technologies 
 File Scanner filtering 
 User benchmark results manager 
 Sharpness test (Monitor Diagnostics) 
download EVEREST Ultimate Edition 2.20

*www.lavalys.hu/downloads/everestultimate220.exe


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## blackleopard92 (Sep 2, 2005)

I have MSI graphics Drivers,sound drivers,network drivers.
Should I install ATI catalyst v3.8?

Someone said that realtek drivers load up the PC?I have a spare network card.should I install it?


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## AlienTech (Sep 3, 2005)

realtek drivers load up the PC if you use the Microsoft SP2 updated updates.. Or maybe they  fixed it. Who knows. Microsoft seems to be playing their old games again and its a royal pain. I am using the realteck right now but got anothe rcard installed just in case... But I havent updated my WINXP SP2 for a while now because of all the problesm I encountered.

The GFX drivers seem to not make much difference... Unless you want to use some of the special stuff like ATI tool to over clock the GFX core and stuff... maybe if I played more games I would notice a difference.


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## blackleopard92 (Sep 3, 2005)

No, realtek drivers do not load.i want to play half life 2 and doom 3.
i heared Doom 3 have probs with ATI.
i have upgraded form i810(played serious sam on it  )

graphics don't matter, everthing looks awesome


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## AlienTech (Sep 29, 2005)

New updates.. MSI now has a monitor program to see the CPU temp and other things..

*www.msi.com.tw/program/support/download/dld/spt_dld_detail.php?UID=640&kind=1

MSI PC Alert 4 ReleaseDate: 2005-9-15 

  Version 4.1.0.6   Support OS Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP   File size 2.352MB 

The utility is just like your PC doctor that can detect the following PC hardware status during real time operation:
â€¢ monitor CPU & system temperatures
â€¢ monitor fan speed(s)
â€¢ monitor system voltage
â€¢ monitor chassis intrusion 

*66.96.84.4/support/swr_exe/mbd_swr/PCAlert4_MB.zip
*66.96.84.4/support/swr_exe/mbd_swr/PCAlert4_MB.zip
*download.msi.com.tw/support/swr_exe/mbd_swr/PCAlert4_MB.zip



Also new system drivers

*66.96.84.4/support/dvr_exe/mbd_dvr/ATI_RS480_MA30001.zip
*66.96.84.4/support/dvr_exe/mbd_dvr/ATI_RS480_MA30001.zip
*download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/mbd_dvr/ATI_RS480_MA30001.zip


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## del_x (Sep 29, 2005)

Nice review buddy, this board is really good option for a budget system.


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## AlienTech (Oct 2, 2005)

There seems to be some problem with this new driver @ 1280x1024x32bit color... It looses H&V sync on the monitor and this is the first time I have ever encountered this. It makes your sreen turn weird like windows in the left will suddenly show up on the right side as it looses H sync stability. Even reinstalling the old versions seemed not to fix it. So they must have added something that autostarts.


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## p_d5010 (Oct 2, 2005)

Hi All people, Can anyone please tell me that msirs480ml2 motherboard with geforce6200 pcie 128 mb is a good performer or not?I am thinking of buying this combination as winfast distributors(DIGIT best buy winner) are not available here in Nagpur..........so this is the only option......Also please recommend me a good gaming pc upgrade.....i want to upgrade my pc to gaming needs.........my budget is rs.10000-11000
my current config. is:
amd2000+xp
384ddr ram 266 mhz
nvidia geforcefx5200 128mb agp card
asus a7n266vm se  motherboard


Please Help!


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## asdf1223 (Oct 2, 2005)

u need a cpu upgrade also since rs480 is s-939 motherboard.the onboard graphics is a derivative of the x300 gpu.therfore a 6200 wont give u great boost vs.the onboard if u good ram.


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## AlienTech (Oct 2, 2005)

This board is not for people that only want to spend 10K. You need 2 pieces of DDR400 at least and a AMD3000+ 939 CPU as well. So its not an upgrade board but an entry level high performance start up board for around 20K. Other wise go for the 64bit  sempron's which cost half the price and gives 75% of the performance.


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## p_d5010 (Oct 3, 2005)

*then what for upgrade?*

So what do you think? If 6200 gfx wont give a performance boost then would onboard x300 chipset be enough to play doom3 in high settings and latest games like F.E.A.R I just wanted to ask if amd3000+ 939pin with geforce6200 on msi480 would give me any good performance for games in high settings.............please guys help me...i m now in big trouble.......


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## AlienTech (Oct 5, 2005)

This board runs @ 198MHZ, most NF4 runs @ 201MHZ so there is a 2-3% performance difference. Its not that much slower than NF4. But if you want a board with a built in DX9 graphics that will run all the latest games just not super fast, nothing beats it. You can always add a card later on if you want. It only over clocks to 229MHZ max, 220MHZ normal. RAM timing can be adjusted using A64 Tweaker. Money is an object so well it matters to me, but if not, then well buy something else.


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## Kniwor (Oct 9, 2005)

AlienTech said:
			
		

> This board runs @ 198MHZ, most NF4 runs @ 201MHZ so there is a 2-3% performance difference. Its not that much slower than NF4. But if you want a board with a built in DX9 graphics that will run all the latest games just not super fast, nothing beats it. You can always add a card later on if you want. It only over clocks to 229MHZ max, 220MHZ normal. RAM timing can be adjusted using A64 Tweaker. Money is an object so well it matters to me, but if not, then well buy something else.



How did to manage to take it to 229, that's what i am searching for,  220 was the max i can go.


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## AlienTech (Oct 9, 2005)

You can now overclock this MB with either CPU cool @ 229MHZ or ClockGen for ICS951412 @ 220MHZ.  I am running an AMD3000+ with 2-512MB PC3500 in dual channel and using RMClock to do the cooling. So it now normally runs @ 1150MHZ and ramps up to 2060MHZ at load. You do need a heat sink on the South Bridge chip and a small fan on the North because of the increased speed as it does get really hot, which is why they under clock the GFX chip to 300MHZ normal instead of 350MHZ. You get like a 15-20% increase in memory bandwidth. The system is very cool most of the time. Just 5-10Â°C higher than room temperature. Oh yea when you set the FSB to 229 it will reboot WinXP but stay at that speed until shutdown. But 220FSB is not a problem. You also have to change the GPU speed from 200MHZ/300MHZ to 229/350MHZ in the bios setup. Think they did all this to save costs... No fan on the IGP/North chip and not even a heatsink on the South. I just used spare stuff from other cards.

Click here to download ClockGen for ICS951412 
*www.cpuid.org/cg.php?cgid=ICS951412

Field	Value
Sensor Properties	
Sensor Type	SMSC LPC47M192/997  (SMBus 2Dh)
Motherboard Name	MSI MS-7093

Temperatures	
Motherboard	40 Â°C  (104 Â°F)
CPU	48 Â°C  (118 Â°F)
SAMSUNG SP1604N	35 Â°C  (95 Â°F)


Motherboard Name	MSI RS480M2 (MS-7093)

Front Side Bus Properties	
Bus Type	AMD Hammer
Real Clock	230 MHz
Effective Clock	230 MHz
HyperTransport Clock	1148 MHz

Memory Bus Properties	
Bus Type	Dual DDR SDRAM
Bus Width	128-bit
Real Clock	229 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock	458 MHz
Bandwidth	7322 MB/s

Athlon64	2066 MHz	MSI RS480M2 (MS-7093)	RS480	Dual PC3700 DDR	5281 MB/s



NOTE!!! CPUZ now will only let you go upto 220MHZ, So you have to use CPU cool/CPU FSB.


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## Kniwor (Oct 10, 2005)

can u link me to CPU cool/CPU FSB


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## Kniwor (Oct 10, 2005)

Dont bother, got it.


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## AlienTech (Oct 17, 2005)

ATI has released a new set of CATALYST 5.10 graphics drivers. The new drivers are available for both 32- and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, and resolve a number of known issues and bugs. 

*support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293

Hopefully they fixed the bugs from the previous version but I am reluctant to try it since the last update trashed my system.


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## gxsaurav (Oct 17, 2005)

one thing which u guys miss that the onboard video had no vertex shader, so it won't give performance comparable to even a 6200 AGP or PCI-E in games


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## Kniwor (Oct 17, 2005)

AlienTech said:
			
		

> ATI has released a new set of CATALYST 5.10 graphics drivers. The new drivers are available for both 32- and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, and resolve a number of known issues and bugs.
> 
> *support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293
> 
> Hopefully they fixed the bugs from the previous version but I am reluctant to try it since the last update trashed my system.



I'll try that out soon, 5.8 was disaster to me...


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## blackleopard92 (Oct 17, 2005)

Hold on!
Firstly, the drivers.Is MSI offering older than ATI v5.10?
Should i install ATI's or MSi's??  

Secondly,
To overclock the Chipset, do i have to mod ?
I have 4 fans. 2 2000rpm fans side by side covering southbridge(?) and PCi-e slot placed on cabinet case.


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## supersaiyan (Oct 17, 2005)

i think that coupling the mobo with a 6200 would be gud enuf to play the latest games at atleast 800*600 resolution with high settings don't know abt higher resolutions. 
@blackleopard2- i think u should install msi's drivers cause mobo manufacturers do some or the other tweaking with the original boards and therefore the updates are released  acc to that.. the ati driver must be for those ppl who bought from ati directly. so install msi's drivers.


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## wizrulz (Nov 1, 2005)

*Still waiting*

I am still for answer to my query
*WHICH R THE BEST AND LATEST, DRIVERS AND BIOS VERSION FOR MSI RS480?*


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## drvarunmehta (Nov 6, 2005)

Install the latest system (chipset+graphics) drivers from the MSI site. Then install the latest Catalyst over it so that only the graphics part of the drivers are replaced.


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## wizrulz (Nov 14, 2005)

*Can u specify*

Can u please specify which one, and how to go abt as i do not wanna end up installing in wrong way and wrong drivers?


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## drvarunmehta (Nov 14, 2005)

Use the MSI Live Update utility on your driver disk to get the latest BIOS.

Get the system drivers here

Then download and install the latest Catalyst drivers from the ATI site.


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## RamboMaster (Nov 15, 2005)

I read in lot of forums that this Mobo has compatibility issues with Nvidia video cards like freezing up in games. Did somebody get a chance to test it?


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## blackleopard92 (Jan 5, 2006)

How much video memory can i devote to graphics?
I heared max was 128MB, but BIOS allows over 128MB.


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## blackleopard92 (Jan 5, 2006)

I am having a problem.
I simply can't use the serial port.
The computer detects the port but can't dectect devices connected to it.


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