MSI S430-AX2
The MegaBook S430’s biggest draw-card is its price. It’s an affordable notebook with some decent features, such as 802.11g Wi-Fi and a DVD burner, but its performance has been sacrificed in order to achieve the low price-point.
The MSI S430 AX2 is equipped with a Processor of AMD X2 64-bit Mobile Technology (Athlon 64 X2 TK-57 1.90GHz), 14″ TFT WXGA (1280×800) Display, a 1 GB DDR2-667 of Memory and a hard Disk Drive of 60 GB SATA. It has a 1.0 GB Lan / 56K Modem, 4 x USB 2.0 and it is weighing 2.1 kg.
- AMD X2 64-bit Mobile Technology
- Athlon 64 X2 TK-57 1.90 GHZ dual core Processor
- nVIDIA Gefore 6100 256MB dedicated video
- MSI Wireless 802.11G
- 14″ TFT WXGA (1280×800) Display
- 1GB DDR2-667 Memory (Max: 2GB)
- 60GB Sata Hard Disk Drive
- Super-Multi DVD /-RW Drive (dvd writer)
- 1.0GB Lan/56k Modem
- 4 x USB 2.0, PCI Express Card Slot
- Weight 2.1kg, batterlife: 3 Hours (6-cell)
Physically, the S430 has clean lines, is solidly constructed, and weighs 2kg as it isn’t overloaded with ports and buttons. Two USB 2.0 ports reside either side of the unit; a 10/100 Ethernet port and a VGA port reside on the left-hand side; an ExpressCard slot can be found on the right-hand side, along with a DVD burner; the rear of the unit is home to a 3-cell battery, as well as a modem port. The battery lasted 104min in our worst-case scenario test, in which we loop a DVD until the battery runs out of puff. This is a decent result for a 14in notebook. However, DVDs didn’t play smoothly, nor look good on this notebook. Images were ‘blocky’ and image-tearing was visible.
The location of the audio ports on the front of the unit is an inconvenience, especially when the notebook is resting in your lap. Its built-in speakers are small and produce shallow and tinny sound. They’re okay for listening to voice-quality audio, but headphones or speakers should be used for listening to music.
