MSI G41TM-E43 Motherboard Review :: BIOS and Overclocking

MSI uses the American Megatrends Inc AMIBIOS with their G41TM-E43 motherboard. The main menu is split into Standard CMOS Features, Advanced BIOS Features, Integrated Peripherals, Power Management Setup, H/W Monitor, Green Power, BIOS Setting Password, Cell Menu and M-Flash. M-Flash allows you to update the BIOS from a USB Flash drive.

The Standard CMOS Features allows you to check and change the Date, Time, Detect the various SATA devices, the FDD A, Hold on error, and gives system information which includes the CPU installed, memory amount and BIOS version. The Advanced BIOS submenu is where you set the Full Screen logo, the quick boot, the CPU Features (like Execute Disable Bit), the Chipset features the Boot Sequence and Trusted Computing.

Battery

Easy OC

The Cell menu is where you tweak the motherboard frequencies and voltages. The top of the menu shows the current CPU frequency and Current DRAM Frequency. CPU Specifications shows the information of installed CPU including what technologies the CPU supports. EIST allows you to enable SpeedStep on CPUs that support it to save energy when not under heavy load. Adjust CPU Frequency allows you to change the FSB of the CPU. Adjusted CPU Frequency shows the adjusted CPU speed.

Standard clock E5200

Overclock to 3.32GHz

Memory-Z is where the board’s memory is changed. DIMM1/2 SPD Information is where the SPD information on the installed memory is displayed. Advanced DRAM Configuration is where the tweaking to the memory is done. You can change the CAS Latency, the tRCD, the tRP, the tRAS the tRTP, the tRFC, the tWR, tRRD, and the tWTR. FSB/DRAM Ratio can be changed to allow higher FSB while lowering the ratio, Adjust PCI-E Frequency allows you to change the PCIE frequency. As this board is not meant for the hardcore enthusiast there are no voltage modification options. The Easy OC switch on the board operates by changing the FSB of the CPU with the flip of a couple of switches. A 1333MHZ FSB CPU would operate at 1600MHz FSB assuming it can handle the clock speed. The E5200 which has a 12.5 multiplier and a 200MHz FSB would overclock from 2.5GHz to 3.5GHz (280MHz FSB) with the switch. It works as advertised with the E5200 we tried. The CPU would not overclock to 1333MHz FSB from the 800MHz default but that was a bit much to expect from an E5200.

Bios Screenshots