Product Listing

MSI P6NGM (NVIDIA GeForce 7150/nForce 630i)

By Zachary Chan - 13 Oct 2007

Motherboard Features

Motherboard Features

The MSI P6NGM makes full use of all the features that are offered by NVIDIA's new GeForce 7150/nForce 630i chipset and even includes FireWire support through a JMicron JMB381 2-port FireWire-400 controller. Combined, you actually have a very well balanced motherboard with some pretty high-end support. The board will support the full range of Intel LGA775 processors with FSB up to 1333MHz and comes with two single-channel DIMM slots for up to 4GB DDR2-800 memory.

Decently spaced CPU socket with a 3-phase PWM design. While the rest of the motherboard uses normal capacitors, those surrounding the CPU are based on solid capacitors.

There is plenty of room between the DIMM and CPU socket for better placement of the memory subsystem without having to squeeze it close to the IDE connector.

As expected, the board features four SATA 3.0Gbps ports and one IDE without any additional storage controllers to enhance its offerings, which means no eSATA support out of the box. HD Audio uses the familiar Realtek ALC888 CODEC while MSI chose to pair the onboard Gigabit LAN MAC with a Realtek RTL8211B Gigabit PHY.

Internal graphics is powered by a 630MHz GeForce 7150 mGPU with a maximum 256MB framebuffer support. The P6NGM features a native HDMI port (HDCP compliant), but no DVI. Instead, MSI chose to offer a VGA output for standard monitor connectivity. Expansion slots include two PCI, one PCIe x16 for discreet graphics card upgrade and one PCIe x1.

Our MSI P6NGM features the GeForce 7150/nForce 630i chip under the hood.

A pretty standard expansion layout for a PCI Express mATX board today.

Layout

The general layout of the PGN6M is quite decent for a standard mATX motherboard. Storage connectors are all within range and does not block each other. Even if you do chose to go with a discreet graphics, only some of the largest cards will interfere with the SATA ports. We do think that the front part of the board is a little cramped though. Since this chipset has only single-channel memory support with two DIMM slots, they could possibly have been moved a little higher to improve overall airflow. Another thing that didn't seem to sit right was the location of the remaining USB 2.0 headers, all of them at the back of the board. Although the P6NGM is a short length board, front panel connectors for some casings do not reach out to the back. Instead MSI chose to put the Serial (COM) port header out in front, which doesn't make a lot of sense.

Why, oh why are all the extra USB slots at the back of the board?

SATA port grouping on the bottom corner. Notice the COM port header to the left.

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