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MSI's Montevina Mini-ITX Motherboard
July 16, 2008

MSI look like they will be one of the first out of the blocks to release a Montevina-based Mini-ITX motherboard, after an early MS-9818 arrived at the Mini-ITX.com underground lair yesterday. The board is so new, we don't have a processor that will actually run on it.

Montevina is of course the codename for Intel's latest mobile platform, better known as Centrino 2. Mobile platforms have traditionally been a starting point for low power consumption Mini-ITX motherboard designs with socket CPUs.

Intel has introduced a range of 45nm dual core mobile processors together with the Centrino 2 platform, all of which are supported by the MS-9818. For instance the P8400 runs at 2.26GHz with a TDP of just 25W, whilst the 2.8GHz T9600 has a TDP of 35W. For the speed freaks there is the 3.06GHz X9100 Core 2 Extreme processor or even the soon to be launched Quad Core 2 Extreme QX9300 running at 2.53GHz, which we think will have a TDP of about 44W.

MS-9818 Specifications

• Supported processors: 45nm Socket P Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo/Celeron processors
• FSB: 1066/800/667 MHz
• Chipset: Intel GM45 North Bridge;Intel ICH9M-E South Bridge (with integrated TPM)
• Memory: 2x DDR2 800/667MHz SO-DIMM (up to 4GB max RAM)
• Graphics: Intel GMA X4500 Graphics with DirectX 10 support
• Display Outputs: VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, LVDS
• Audio: Realtek ALC888 5.1 Channel HD Audio; 6W Class-D Amplifier
• LAN: 2x Gigabit LAN ports (82567LM & 82574L)
• Storage:4x SATA II with RAID 0/1/5/10; 1x 44pin IDE
• Peripheral Connectivity: 4x USB 2.0 ports + 4x additional USB 2.0 headers; 1x RS-232/RS-422/RS-485 + 5x additional COM headers
• Expansion: 1x PCI; 1x Mini PCIe; 1x PCIe x1; 1x Compact Flash (underneath board)
• Size: 17cm x 17cm

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