VGA Card Buyer's Guide 07/2003

MSI FX5600-VTDR128 [Editor's Choice], Continued

The FX5600-VTD128 offers both TV-Out and TV-In (Philips SAA7114H encoder chip). A large plastic adapter is included, which is used to connect sources and external displays to the card, either via S-VHS or composite video. MSI ships this model with a 2 m S-VHS cable.

The software bundle is very extensive and extraordinary. In addition to the aforementioned 3D! Turbo Experience tool, MSI ships a number of other utilities with the board. These are: Live Update 2 (automatic check for, download and installation of new BIOS files and drivers), MSI Secure Doc (file encryption utility), MSI GoodMem (a tool to flush the system memory), MSI LockBox (security software which allows the user to lock the computer when he or she leaves the workstation), and MSI WMI Info (a system information tool).

Beyond these utilities, MSI's bundle also includes the programs E-Color 3Deep, TwinSoft BeTwin (a tool for managing multiple user accounts on a PC), Trend PC-Cillin (Anti Virus software), Media Ring Dialer, Virtual Drive (VirtualDrive Copy DVD and Virtual CD-ROM ), RestoreIT! (RestoreIT! Data Recovery & System Backup ) as well as MSI 3D Desktop, Supreme Foreign Language Learning Machine (a language learning software), and Intervideo's WinDVD 5.1 software DVD player.