MSI K9MM-V Socket AM2 Barebone Computer with AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz

Friday, November 23rd, 2007 | Barebones Computer Reviews, Desktop Computer Reviews

MSI K9MM-V Socket AM2 Barebone Computer with AMD Athlon 64 2.2GHz CPU

A barebone computer kit taking advantage of the best of AMD’s previous technology, this Athlon 64 based computer offers enough punch for a decent day-to-day computer, as our desktop computer review will reveal.

AMD has a lost a bit of its star status as the competitive underdog with its delayed release of quad-core CPUs and delays in a lot of their newer products. The last generation of chips are nothing to be laughed at and still offer enough for home computing applications.

The Athlon 64 managed to pose a serious challenge to the Pentium 4 a few years back, and when the Pentiums were becoming hot enough to warm a family during cold winter nights, the AMD processors were still taking things in their stride.

The 2.2 GHz model represents the mid-range of the old AMD Athlon 64s. And good prices are available because stock needs to move and make way for new models.

Here are some of the main features:

Mid-tower case
AMD Athlon 64 2.2 GHz
MicroATX motherboard
100Mbps Ethernet
AGP 8x expansion slot
SATA with RAID 0 and RAID 1
200 GB IDE hard drive
20x DVD writer
1 GB PC4200 DDR2
USB 2.0

My preference is for functional computers that are meant to do a task, despite what the latest technology might be. The fastest computer I run is an Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz, which is more than adequate. It’s for that reason that I find this deal so appealing.

Firstly, a processor that more than meets the needs of Internet browsing, listening to audio and typing documents, with enough to do other things from time to time.

Secondly, its smaller than a full-size computer. MicroATX is a little smaller than ATX, which I like, don’t need a huge PC if it’s not necessary. The case is also plain looking, but not ugly, serves its purpose.

A gigabyte of memory is fantastic for running multiple applications. Although the processing power might be too little for Windows Vista, it will work wonders on an XP system and allow many applications to run at the same time.

One gripe is the specification of an IDE hard drive, if a computer has SATA, use it. With that said, this is an older model and gets the price advantage. To use SATA and the RAID functions you will have to buy two more hard drives.

Overall the deal is great. Good system with the right extras in the right places, there is also a DVD burner to top things off. A well-rounded system with a tried and test processor and a little extra memory to boot.