MSI is one of the first manufacturers to launch motherboards based on Intel’s new integrated chipsets, G965 and Q965. Intel G965 has many similarities with its sibling, P965, which is already available but with one great exception. G965 comes with an integrated graphics circuit in the form of GMA X3000 which is the most well-endowed graphics circuit from Intel so far. The budget circuit Q965 uses the GMA 3000 graphics circuit which is a bit smaller than its bigger brother but both Windows Vista support and DirectX 9.0c are things they share. MSI has announced three dfiferent motherboards using the new circuits where expanded features and formfactor separates them.
Below is a summarize of the three motherboads which all sports DDR2-800, Core 2 Duo, PCI-E x16 and Gigabit Ethernet.
G965M / Q965M (MS-7241)
- Intel® G965/Q965 Express Chipset Based
- Support LGA775 Intel Core™ 2 Processors
- Support FSB 1066/800/533MHz
- Support Dual Ch. DDR2-800/667/533
- 1 PCI Express x16& 1 PCI Express x1
- 2 PCI v2.3 slots
- 4 SATA2 3Gb/s
- Support 7.1Ch.HD Audio
- Support Gigabit LAN
G965MDH / Q965MDO (MS-7276)
- Intel® G965/Q965 Express Chipset Based
- Support LGA775 Intel Core™ 2 Processors
- Support FSB 1066/800/533MHz
- Support Dual Ch. DDR2-800/667/533
- 1 PCI Express x16& 1 PCI Express x1
- 2 PCI v2.3 slots
- 6 SATA2 3Gb/s support Matrix RAID
- Support 7.1Ch.HD Audio
- Support Intel® PRO Gigabit LAN
- Going to Support Intel® Viiv™ or vPro™ Technology
G965PBDH (MS-7278)
- Intel® G965 Express Chipset Based
- Support LGA775 Intel Core™ 2 Processors
- Support FSB 1066/800/533MHz
- Support Dual Ch. DDR2-800/667/533
- 1 PCI Express x16
- 4 SATA2 3Gb/s support Matrix RAID
- Support 7.1Ch.HD Audio
- Support Intel® PRO Gigabit LAN
- Going to Support Intel® Viiv™ Technology
- PicoBTX Form Factor
All three use a smaller formfactor than the regular ATX model. Something that clearly indicates what these circuits are intended for, small systems such as multimedia or office PCs. The MS-7241 and MS-7276 models are of microATX format while MS-7278 use the picoBTX standard.
