The Bundle, presentation and features Cont.
I wager that your attention has been drawn to the strange PCB and what looks like a marker to the right of the previous page's picture ?. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of this innovative motherboard. MSI, rather proudly state on their site that this is the 1st Bluetooth P4 motherboard. Bluetooth is basically a short-range radio-based, wireless medium for connecting various Bluetooth-powered devices to one another without the need for wires.
You receive a Bluetooth transceiver module (the red PCB) that simply plugs into the motherboard. The only problem with this is that it takes up a PCI slot as the module header sits astride the 5th PCI slot
The antenna that plugs into the back of the module serves as a conduit for sending and receiving data from other Bluetooth devices. Bluetooth will almost undoubtedly be the natural successor to infrared as a means to transfer data quickly between a variety of devices (cameras, PDAs, mobile phones, printers etc) and the main PC.
Bluetooth is a worthy addition if you already possess the relevant devices. The majority of people, as yet, don't own more than one Bluetooth device. Therefore, in an attempt to extend the usefulness of the kit provided, MSI have also had the foresight to bundle an USB-powered transceiver key so you can effectively connect up another PC / laptop (assuming it has USB support) for Bluetooth wireless connectivity. You simply install the software that is provided on a relevant disc and plug in the key and away you go.
The above picture highlights some of the options open to you once you have two PCs connected together. You need to set a few things up for your particular requirements but the basics are there. Bluetooth has a range of around 10m and an effective transfer speed of 1 Mbps or 125KB/s
The above picture shows me getting the Aquanox benchmark from my server via the Bluetooth connection. I timed a 10MB transfer chunk and found that my average speed was around 50KB/s, a reasonable amount lower than the 125KB/s maximum throughput. This has to be tempered by the fact that the server is 7 or so metres away and the signal has to travel through 2 walls.
The overall bundle and value-adding features are a notch above anything I've previously seen, rivaling that of the ABIT MAX series. Bluetooth connectively, especially as MSI have bundled in a transceiving key for peer-to-peer connectivity, is truly useful. My only gripe is that with 3 separate headers and the bluetooth header, you may have to sacrifice a few PCI slots if you want all the bells and whistles used concurrently.