Bij FiringSquad hebben ze vast een preview gemaakt van een pre-release versie van de MSI 850 Pro. Dit Pentium 4 plankje heeft 1xAGP Pro, 5xPCI, 1xCNR en 4 RIMM slots. In vergelijking met Intel's D850GB bord wist de 850 Pro nu al een paar procent beter te presteren, zonder dat er sprake was van instabiliteit. Helaas ontbrak in het BIOS nog wel de mogelijkheid tot FSB en Voltage tweaking, dit wordt gelukkig wel geïmplementeerd als het mobo in productie gaat.
So far, the 850 Pro is looking good -- performance is on par with Intel's 850 motherboard, the D850GB, and system stability is excellent. MSI chose a slightly different board layout with the 850 Pro that places the power cables a little closer to the power supply. In our opinion, both implementations get the job done well.
Since all the early 850 motherboards will support the same basic featureset (5 PCI slots, 1 AGP Pro, 1 CNR, etc.), the key deciding factor will be the extras. In the case of the 850 Pro, MSI bundles their Fuzzy Logic 3 utility and (eventually) EZ-BIOS for updating your BIOS within a Windows environment. These software programs make the 850 Pro a little easier to use for those who are less experienced with overclocking and keeping your BIOS up to date. MSI's diagnostic LEDs are also present on the 850 Pro, which should ease troubleshooting problems with your system.
So far, we're pleased with our results with the 850 Pro. Now if MSI can add a few more features to the BIOS, we'll have a solid 850 board on our hands! Stay tuned for our review of the final product, we'll take a look at it once MSI completes the design.