Microstar MS-6153 Socket-370 BX Preview

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