Motherboard: ATI RADEON 9100 IGP(MSI RS3M 7003) :: The Board

MSI 7003 RADEON 9100 IGP
Board Revision	1.0
BIOS Version	RS300 42302e31 10/31/03
Default Clock Speed (MHz)	2999.92
North Bridge	ATI IXP150
South Bridge	ATI RS300
Number of PCI slots	3
Memory type	DDR266/333/400
Number of memory slots	2
Maximum Memory (GB)	2
Universal AGP support *	N/A
AGP Pro Support	N/A
Number of Physical USB 1.1 ports **	0
Number of Physical USB 2.0 ports **	4
Active Cooling on Chipset	Yes
Adjustable AGP Voltage	Yes
Adjustable Memory voltage	Yes
Southbridge UDMA 133 Support	N/A
IDE or RAID Controller other than Southbridge	N/A
Auto speed-down/shutdown on fan failure	N/A
Auto speed-down/shutdown on heat alarm	N/A
On-board Sound	ATI Integrated Digital Audio
On-board LAN	Realtek RTL8100C
* Voltage and Physical support for previous generation of AGP
** Not just pin headers onboard

My reference RADEON 9100 IGP came in a UATX sized board. This design is excellent for small computers that don't need the full med-Tower ATX case. I imagine many OEMs will use this form factor, as most of the features one would want on the motherboard are already integrated into the chipset. I kind of like the fact that I can easily work with the board without hassle as to size.

ATI's 9100 IGP supports all current Socket 478 Intel Pentium 4 CPUs (Williamette/Northwood/Celeron 478). This includes the 400 MHz/533 MHz/800 MHz FSB CPUs and Celerons and the Extreme Edition P4s just reaching the market place. The documentation that came with the motherboard indicates that it supports up to 3.2 GHz and higher speed.

The BIOS chip is a Phoenix BIOS. This is a 256 megabit BIOS that's extremely popular with motherboard manufacturers. The date on the BIOS was 10/31/2003, and version 10P. Interestingly enough, there's a setting for SurroundView, which allows 3 monitors to be attached to the motherboard when a ATI card is attached.

The board is a MSI 7003 reference board from ATI. As such, there are only 2 DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Modules) on the board set in 2 different banks 1 and 2. The board supports up to 2 GB of unbuffered DDR 200/266/333/400 DIMMS. When the 9100 IGP is in use on this board, dual channel memory is enabled and the full 512MB is detected by the system. I used the recommended 64MB frame buffer with 448 MB for system memory.

The layout of the board is fairly standard and pedestrian for a UATX form factor. The ATX power supply connector is in the correct position, as are the IDE connectors and floppy connector. There was no difficulty in installing the standard HDDs or other IDE devices with the motherboard in terms of placement of the connectors.

MSI included an AGP 3.0 compliant 1.5V slot. This slot supports AGP4x/8x operation, giving a maximum memory bandwidth to the AGP slot of 2.1 GB/second. AGP 1x/2x cards are not supported. On the other hand, cards supporting those standards would likely be slower and have less performance than the integrated graphics of the RADEON 9100 IGP.

The 7003 board only boasts 3 PCI slots and a CNR. Again, as a board meant for the OEM market, this is more than sufficient for everyday use, especially with the included integrated peripherals The back panel of the board includes the following 4 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire port, a Realtek 8100C LAN port, VGA Port, COM1, and parallel port.

North Bridge duties are handled by the RS300 chip (RADEON 9100 IGP). These handle the graphics chip capabilities of the motherboard. South Bridge duties are handled by the IXP150. This handles the AC'97 2.2 sound (using a Realtek CODEC with 5.1 surround sound capability), 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 onboard 2 more via a front header) and a 2 channel Ultra ATA33/66/100 Master IDE contoller.