In the past, Microstar has had a fairly successful line of motherboards that have unfortunately been limited in their exposure in comparison to products from ABIT, AOpen, ASUS, and other such companies.   The reason for this isn't because Microstar's motherboards are lower in quality than the competition, in fact they have quite high quality and stability track records.  

The problem seems to be that Microstar (MSI) hasn't been given their 15 minutes of fame like the other companies have.   ABIT, with their jumperless CPU setup, AOpen with their incredible history of stability, and ASUS with their overclocking-friendly motherboards have all been given their 15 minutes of fame, mainly because they offered something unique that the rest of the market failed to deliver.  Unfortunately the same can't be said about MSI, which means that their products will ultimately gain less attention than those by ABIT, AOpen or ASUS. 

One of MSI's most solid products, their single processor BX motherboard, the flagship MS-6163 brings all of the features those three specific motherboard manufacturers have brought their customers, in one package.  Is the 6163 deserving of the same 15 minutes of fame granted to motherboard manufacturers in the past?  Based on the available features, not really, however that doesn't mean that the board isn't worthy of your attention.  Let's find out how well this BX board stacks up to the competition...

AnandTech Report Card Rating
86/B

The Good

Following the rare yet finally present trend of competing with ABIT's BH6/BX6R2 on all platforms, the 6163 features both a jumperless CPU setup controlled from within the Award BIOS as well as the ability to adjust the core voltage of your installed CPU.  The clock generator on the 6163 supports the 66/75/83/100/103/112/124/129/133/138/143/148/153MHz FSB settings as well as the 1/4 PCI clock divider for use when taking advantage of some of the higher FSB frequencies. 

The 6163 comes outfitted with an on-board Creative Labs ES1373 audio controller which is the OEM equivalent of the SoundBlaster PCI 64, a fairly high end audio controller chip.  The board features the standard MIDI/Game output, 1 line out, 1 line in, and a mic input jack.   The board AnandTech tested did feature SPDIF output controller however it did not feature any SPDIF output ports.

MSI has quite a few fancy names for the features on the 6163 such as CPU Plug & Play, PC Alert II, Soft Cooler II, and 3D! Turbo II.  The CPU Plug & Play, as discussed before is the jumperless setup provided by the 6163 as well as the special voltage configuration utility that has been present in the most recent of MSI motherboard releases.  The PC Alert II is the software front end for the hardware monitoring support provided by the on-board Winbond 83781D.  The 83781D is used to monitor both onboard fans, 7 voltages, and up to 3 temperatures, the 6163 only has two fans so there is no need to worry about a third fan going un-monitored.  The reason for "up to 3 temperatures" is that the Winbond hardware monitor can only monitor one temperature on its own - the temperature of the Winbond chip itself. In order to monitor the other two temperatures, such as that of the CPU, the Winbond chip requires an external thermistor.  The SC242 (Slot-1) connector has a built in thermistor adjacent to it, and there is another thermistor header on the opposite side. 

Soft Cooler II is essentially a Software CPU Cooling Device that allows the processor to essentially "rest" while it is waiting for user input to begin processing another item, and depending on your CPU usage patterns, this software may significantly reduce the heat production and power consumption of your CPU.  For most gamers, and high-end users that are always doing something with their PC, don't expect SoftCooler to do all that much for you, although it is nice to know that it is included.   Finally, 3D! Turbo II is a little utility that basically functions as something like PowerStrip although not quite as useful.  All of these utilities are bundled on a CD that also contains drivers, and is packaged with the 6163.

The stability and performance of the 6163 was top notch as we've come to expect from Microstar, and as you can probably expect, the performance of the board is on par with the BX6 Revision 2 and other such competing boards.  Finally, the written documentation provided with the 6163 is also classic Microstar, as it covers the basic functions of the motherboard, and offers a quick "how to" installations guide as well. 

The Bad

The positioning of the ATX power supply connector does interfere with the installation of the CPU, however it is something that you'll only have to deal with once so it shouldn't be that much of a hassle.

The availability of the 6163 doesn't match that of its born competitor, the ABIT BH6, which is another unfortunate downside, however if you search you can probably find a fairly good deal on the 6163 from a reputable vendor.

The on-board sound (ES1373) can be viewed as a downside, since you will have to pay for the controller regardless of whether or not you're going to use it.  However if it can save you a few bucks on buying a PCI sound card, then you probably won't mind. 

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; 1 x 256MB Corsair PC100 SDRAM DIMM (for compatibility testing only)

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.

AnandTech Motherboard Testing Methodology

The Final Decision

All in all, the 6163 should definitely have received more attention that it has been given, however that seems to be the result since ABIT beat MSI to the punch with the jumperless CPU and voltage configuration tweaks that captured the hearts of so many overclockers last year.

How it Rates

Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.