Bundle and extras
The box is larger than most motheboard's. MSI also doesn't do small. Most of the pertinent information is shown on the cover. MSI doesn't fail to mention the 11 included CDs.
The card itself is neatly sandwiched between some antistatic foam and general presentation is first class. The manual is written in good English and covers more ground than most rival's. A strange hardbacked notepad with a calendar that's out of date - literally - in June 2004 is the most unusual extra. We're then left with a comprehensive software bundle.
MSI includes a handy dongle that connects to the S-Video socket on the back of the graphics card. The breakout box has been an MSI trait for some time now. There's ports for Video-In, both RCA and S-Video, and the same for outputs. MSI supplies a generous length of S-Video cable but there's no accompanying RCA lead. The ubiquitous DVI-to-VGA dongle and molex extender are expected extras.
Software-wise, a single CD covers the display drivers (52.16s), MSI's in-house overclocking tool, a gaggle of MSI utilities that often have little to do with the card, and DX9.
The overclocking tool supplies lots of useful information and is html based. Core and memory clocks can be adjusted but only in large increments, making it poor for fine-tuning purposes.
MSI's Media Center Deluxe II provides more than just the basics:
The TV software only works with a compliant tuner, hinting at the generic nature of this bundle. Think of it as a front-end to most of a PC's multimedia activities, most of which are included. The package is designed by InterVideo who provide the extra multimedia software. MSI is a large enough company to receive deep discounts from the various programmers of add-on software. We see this kind of overwhelming bundle in most of MSI's more expensive graphics cards.
Further CDs include Adobe's PhotoShop Album SE, WinDVD4 5.1-channel software player, WinDVD Creator which, as the name suggests, allows one to create playable DVDs from recorded video, and VirtualDrive Professional / RestoreIT. Games-wise, there's full titles of Ghost Recon, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, and Morrowmind - The Elder Scrolls III. If that's not enough, another CD contains a series of gaming demos.
The software element is excellent. We encourage MSI to include more hardware cabling and a better overclocking tool in future bundles.