The MSI MK9132 Keyboard-Mouse Duo

When I did my most recent build last year, I just so happened to purchase an MSI A75MA-P35 motherboard and installed it on an MSI Eagle slim-ATX case. A few days ago I bought an MSI keyboard+mouse combo I've been eyeing at CD-R King for months. I didn't really know if this was an actual product from Microstar, but heck the price won me over.

For the low-low price (which is what CD-R King is best known for) of 320 pesos, I got this set:

The keyboard is actually quite good. The keycaps are made of ABS plastic. It's supposedly spill-resistant. A quick inspection of the bottom confirms the presence of drain holes. Well, sorry but I won't be testing that for you though. It's also supposed to have laser-etched markings so the letters printed on it should last at least a few years. What surprised me was how quiet this thing is when you're typing. It is quite silent compared to my trusty old A4Tech KLS-5UP mini-keyboard.

The mouse on the other hand felt quite flimsy in comparison. The material for the right and left buttons felt so plasticky I was afraid I'd chip it if I pressed too hard. The wheel was noisy compared with how quiet the keyboard was...LOL. The sensor was spot-on though. No complaints there. I mean, this ain't gaming quality, but for simple everyday browsing, it works fine. I did put it back in the box though. I still preferred my A4Tech V-Track N-400.

I now have a complete system though. I won't be buying an MSI monitor any time soon, so scratch that. But I think having a set like I have now is quite satisfactory.

Intel Cougar Point Recall, Burns Early Adopters

Intel announced January 31 a design flaw in the P67 and H67 Cougar Point chipsets for its Sandy Bridge platform. In its press release Intel disclosed, "As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel 6 Series, code-named Cougar Point, and has implemented a silicon fix. In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives... Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue."

In the wake of the announcement, several manufacturers have either announced recalls or promised fixes in the next few months. Dell was one of the first to post an update in it's blog Direct2Dell, "Customers experiencing issues will be supported under the warranty and service terms. Once we have new chipsets from Intel in early April, we will provide a motherboard replacement that corrects the design issue at no cost to our customers. Replacements will be provided at the customers’ location and convenience via authorized Dell service providers. Affected customers may also take advantage of the applicable return policy, which may vary by region."

Lenovo also took it's turn to assure it's customer that, "Following Intel's announcement confirming a design issue in their recently released support chip, the Intel 6 Series, Lenovo will be putting in place a special service program that will enable customers who purchased affected PCs to receive a system board replacement free-of-charge, as soon as those parts become available."

MSI made public a somewhat similar announcement for it's products, assuring it's customers that, "MSI takes the quality of our products very serious, so at this moment we are investigating product batches that may be affected and, meanwhile, have stopped all shipments to our distributors and resellers."

HP, Acer, Toshiba and Samsung have reportedly made announcements about recalls and release delays for their own products.  The recall is supposed to cost Intel $300 million in lost revenue and $700 million in repairs and replacements.

If there ever was a perfect time not to be an early adopter, this would be one of them. I count myself as one conservative upgrader. This time around, that actually worked to my advantage. And I'm thinking it's about time everyone give AMD a second and well-deserved look.

Isaiah, Where Art Thou?

A lot of news recently about Via's other products(most recently, its latest Pico-ITX board), but nary one about Isaiah-based products. Most of articles about the Isaiah have to do with conjecture at this point. No product announcements of any sort. That's opposed to Intel's Atom, with a few final products already announced and waiting to be launched. One of them, MSI's Wind was already launched in some countries, AFAIK. No announcements have been made of any Isaiah-powered product that will launch in the next few weeks.

When will they launch an updated Zonbu Mini Desktop with Isaiah in it? Any products that will compete with say the likes of the MSI Wind? Or at least a Via Artigo powered by the Isaiah chip? I'm waiting, still.

MSI Titan 700 SFF Solution

Not to be outdone in the small form factor (SFF) side of things, MSI has released its own entry into the low-power "green machine" market. Compared directly to the Zonbu Desktop Mini, the Titan 700 ups the ante by including a DVI output, a DVD Dual-RW drive, a 120GB 2.5" hard drive and 1GB of RAM. This is (in my opinion) as close to having a full desktop in a small form factor that still saves on power consumption. It's a bit pricey though, as to be expected. That may change as similar machines come to market. As it stands, this machine is definitely worth the money.

Incidentally, I found out about this product after reading a post on Net Traveller (you can read the article here). There also posts on the GameRoom Blog, Slash Gear and Engadget about it, mostly based on MSI's announcements.

Back to the Titan 700. If your into the nitty-gritty, the specs are listed in detail below:

MB Specification
PCB Size	. Mini-ITX form factor, 170mmx170mm
CPU	. VIA C7D (V4 Bus) NanoBGA2 , 2.0GHz
Chipset	. North Bridge: VIA CN700 . South Bridge: VIA VT 8237R+
Memory	. DDR-2 400/533 SDRAM (1GB Max) . 1 DIMMs DDRII memory slot
LAN	. Realtek RTL-8110SC LAN 1Gb
Audio	. AC97 CODEC by VIA VT1618, 5.1 channel audio output
IDE	. Support Ultra DMA 66/100/133 mode
SATA	. Support two SATAII 150MB/sec device
DVI	. VIA , VT 1632AG
TV-Out	. S-Video output by VIA VT1622AG
Barebone Specification
Front I/O	. AC97 Mic-in x 1, Headphone-out x 1 , USB2.0 x 2
Rear I/O	. PS2 x 2 (1 for Keyboard,1 for Mouse), Serial Port x 2, D-Sub15 VGA x 1, Mic-in x 1/ Line-in x 1 /Line-out x 1(5.1 channel), RJ45 LAN x1, USB2.0 x 2, TV Out x1, DVI x 1
Power Supply	60Watt Adapter, Active PFC
Driver Bay	Support NB Slim ODD x1 and 2.5" HDD (Hidden )
Dimension	70mm(H) x 185mm(W) x 240mm(D) (with Bezel) ; Volume ,3.1 Liter
System Configuration
ODD	. slim type, SATA Supermulti DVD Dual RW
HDD	. 2.5", SATA HDD 120GB
DDR2	. 1GB DDR2, 533 MHz