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Digging Deeper Under
the hood is a proprietary MSI MS6760 motherboard driven by a SiS651 North Bridge
and 962 South Bridge. This is a surprisingly feature-rich chipset let down mainly
by its lack of support for the newer 800MHz P4s. More specs
for those who care. For those who don't I'll meet you further down the page: 
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PC2001 Compliance
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High
Performance Host Interface
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Support
Intel Pentium 4 series CPU with data transfer rate of 533/ 400MHz
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64 bit high performance DDR-266/333 Memory Controller
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Supports DDR333/DDR266/200 SDRAM or PC133/100
SDRAM
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Support Up to 2 un-buffer DIMM DDR333
or up to 3 un-buffered Double-sided DIMM DDR266/200
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Up
to 1 GB per DIMM with max. memory size up to 3 GB
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Supports
16Mb, 64Mb, 128Mb, 256Mb, 512Mb SDRAM technology with page size from 2KB up to
16KB
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Sustains DDR SDRAM CAS Latency at
options of 2, 2.5, & 3 clocks
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Programmable
buffer strength optimizing performance and stability
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High
performance unified memory controller optimizing the DRAM bus utilization
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Integrated A.G.P. Compliant Target/66MHz
Host-to-PCI Bridge
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AGP v2.0 Compliant
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Supports Additional AGP4X/2X interface
and Fast Write Transaction
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High
throughout MuTIOL® Connect interfaced to SiS962 MuTIOL® Media I/O
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Bi-directional 16 bit data bus
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1 GB/s performance in 133MHz x 4 mode
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Distributed
arbitration strategy with enhanced mode of contiguous DMA data streaming
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Packet based, pipelining, and split transaction
scheme
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Dedicated Isochronous Response
Queue
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Built-in a high performance 256-bit
3D engine
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Built-in a high quality 3D engine
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High Performance 2D Accelerator
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Complete TV-OUT/Digital Flat Panel
Solution
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MPEG-2/1 Video Decoder
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NAND Tree for Ball Connectivity
Testing
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702-Balls TEBGA Package
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1.8V Core with Mixed 1.2V 1.5V 1.8V,
2.5V and 3.3V I/O CMOS Technology
+++ The Motherboard Here already?
That was quick! There's no real point dwelling too long on the motherboard as
you don't actually get any say in the matter but this is how MSI have arranged
things. 
For
the record, audio is handles by the popular Realtek ALC650, an 18-bit, full duplex
AC'97 2.2 compatible stereo audio CODEC designed specially for the PC and now
commonplace on motherboards from a variety of manufacturers. Features
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High-performance CODEC with high S/N
ratio (>90 dB)
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18-bit ADC and 20-bit
DAC resolution
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Compliant with AC'97 2.2
specifications
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18-bit stereo full-duplex
CODEC with independent and variable sampling rate
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4
analog line-level stereo inputs with 5-bit volume control: LINE_IN, CD, VIDEO,
AUX
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2 analog line-level mono inputs: PC_BEEP,
PHONE_IN
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Mono output with 5-bit volume
control
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Stereo output with 5-bit volume
control
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6 channel slot selectable DAC output
for multi-channel applications
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2 MIC inputs,
which are software selectable
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Power management
capabilities
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3D Stereo enhancement
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Embedded 50mW/20ohm OP at front LINE output
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External amplifier power down capability
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Digital S/PDIF output
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Digital S/PDIF input (ALC650 Rev. E or later)
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No external crystal/clock required
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Supports
1 general purpose I/O pin
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Power supply:
digital: 3.3V; analog: 5V/3.3V
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Standard
48-pin LQFP package
Internals Most
of these pictures are taken with the optical drive,hard drive, HSF and memory
installed to give an idea of the overall levels of space inside. For those of
you already concerned that things look a little cramped, welcome to the world
of the small form factor PC. Unless Doctor Who was involved in the design process
your SFF PC simply can't be small without compromising to some extent on internal
space. It's actually quite interesting that although many electronics related
things have shrunk over time, we're still using hard drives and optical drives
that are pretty much the size they've always been, and heat sinks of course have
managed to increase in size as CPU power consumption has escalated. I get a definite
feeling that as SFF computing begins to dig in we'll se all manner of manufacturers
start looking for ways to physically reduce the dimensions of their components
in a more mainstream fashion. Low height and low depth optical drives and hard
disks already exist but they're rare and need to become less so. 
Left Side (when viewed from front)
From the other
side we get a clearer idea of how things are organised internally. Behind the
two memory slots are three distinct bays stacked one above the other. Bay 1 is
where the 6-in-1 memory card reader lives by default though should you wish this
can be replaced with a floppy drive or a hard drive instead. Bay 2 is where you
bolt in your primary hard drive, upside down in case you were wondering, while
bay 3 becomes home for your optical drive. To the right of the memory you can
see the lever for fastening down the heat sink onto its two lug retainer. On the
subject of the memory I should mention that two slots are available and can support
up to 2GB. 
Right Side (when viewed from front)
There's a lot of
cable to worry about on this side of the unit and it certainly pays to take a
fair amount of care with your routing and positioning here. I found that it was
necessary to snip the cable tie (below) and move the slack to a higher position
in order to safely install a graphics card. From this side of the heat sink you're
left wondering how on earth you get to the retaining clip to position it.... 
....but
the secret is in the fan which can be slid up in the shroud. A simple but surprisingly
clever idea! 
By
far the MEGA PC's biggest failing is its lack of TV Out as standard. For a unit
so clearly and obviously targeted at the multimedia user this is a fairly major
omission in my view and it shuts out a whole sector of the market who want to
enjoy the features of a PC without having to find room for a bulky monitor. It
goes without saying that adding a TV-Out enabled graphics card completely removes
this problem but I would imagine the person least likely to want to add a dedicated
graphics card is the same who'd want to be using their TV so it's a catch 22 situation. Optional
TV Tuner MSI, quite naturally tout their own TV tuner and although
just about any PCI TV tuner card should work I actually think the MSI unit is
a good one featuring both a Silicon Tuner unit and the superior and higher resolution
Conexant CX23883 decoder. 
Hardware
Features
Invincible video quality supported by Silicon Tuner & Conexant
CX23883 audio/video decoder
Enable to perform excellent adjustable IF output
offers global video standards support, including NTSC-M/N,
PAL-B/G/D/K/H/I
Supports 10-bits video Analog to Digital converter
Adaptive 2-D Comb
Filter
FM Radio Tuner built-in
Software Features
MSI
PVS-with MSI unique TV@nywhere function
Free Scan
Time-Shifting
Scheduled Recording(MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4)
Channel Preview
Screen Capture
Parent Control
Special! MSI unparallel TV@nywhere solutions
MPEG4 link
(Support Internet TV Programs Browsing)
Distance-less adjust server site upload
bit-rate
Distance-less adjust all settings (channels, profiles)
Scheduled
Recording (MPEG4)
Fitting a Dedicated Graphics Card With
only 200 watts behind it you don't want to be adding anything too industrial to
the MEGA PC but one of the great advantages with having the AGP slot inside the
PCI slot is that it (in theory) allows you to use a two slot graphics card like
the GeForceFX 5800Ultra or 5900 Ultra. As you can see from the image below I probably
could have shoe-horned a 5800 Ultra in there but it was certainly tight and not
worth destroying the card for so I stopped at this point. 
Close, but no cigar!
Far easier, and more
sensible in the great scheme of things was the addition of an XFX GeForce4 MX
440 which looked good and fitted well. Arrowed "1" below you can just
about make out where MSI have attached a plastic strip to the side of the drive
cage to rule out any risk of shorting. There's also a small rubber buffer behind
there too as an added safeguard and the bottom edge of the PSU has a fabric bugger
strip on it too. To the left of the blue arrow you can see the slack in the power
supply cables where the cable tie was cut and I tugged up the slack to make room
behind the graphics card. 
It's
all very tight in there which certainly involves a certain level of caution and
planning as you put everything together but it's not horrendously difficult to
get right and most reasonably competent PC users shouldn't have any problems.
For those who are less confident I believe Simply
also offer the MEGA pre-built.
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