Overclocking

The overclocking capability of this motherboard is a mixed bag. Whereas the motherboard itself supports a variety of bus speeds (66, 68, 74, 83, 100, 103, 112, 133), not all of these are accessible. What do I mean by that? Well, as a protective feature, the BIOS will automatically detect the CPU type (Celeron or PII), and thus automatically set the bus speed. After you plug in the CPU and boot up the system, you can change the bus speed within BIOS. However, when using a Celeron CPU, you are only given the options of 66, 68, 75, and 83 MHz. It's only when using a PII that you are given the options of 100 (default), 103, 112, and 133.

Additionally, the multiplier settings are jumpered. This struck me as a little bit strange, as you would expect the multiplier settings to be in BIOS since the bus speed settings are in BIOS . This isn't completely unusual however, as several other manufacturers also take this approach. Lastly, the voltage setting is not changeable by normal means on this board. There are no jumpers or "soft" settings which allow you to change voltage settings, which limits the board's overclockability somewhat.

MSI built this board to be stable, and to provide maximum protection for the system, which is why they've implemented auto-detecting voltage, so newer users won't fry their CPUs by incorrectly setting a jumper or BIOS setting. The only thing that I found strange is that in their description of their software cooling program, the Softcooler. They claim that the Softcooler can provide a better atmosphere for overclocking, yet they don't make the other features of the motherboard as overclocking-friendly as they could easily be.

At the same time, this board is not really for the power user, so overclocking is not as big of an issue. At least the user is given some options, should they look for a bit of extra performance, but the 66 to 100 MHz jump will not be as easy to achieve, unless more physically drastic actions, such as pin masking are taken.