 |
| Benchmarks
With MSI's MS-850Pro |
| More
of the same... |
|
As we
can see in these test, the MS-850Pro is still in
need of a little polish. Although the scores
are within 5-10% of each other, the slightly less
aggressive timing setup of the 850Pro proves to hold
it back somewhat from the Intel reference board and
the Asus P4T, clock tick for clock tick.
Gamers
take heart, we have your Quake 3 scores right
here...
Surprisingly
or perhaps not, the MS-850Pro holds its own in the
Quake 3 Arena Time Demo tests and actually edges out
the Asus P4T by a hair. Our feeling is that
memory throughput on the 850Pro is definitely
competitive which is why the board places right in
the middle between these two competitors.
So, what
do we know now of MSI's first entrant into the
Pentium 4 i850 Platform? A few things come to
mind. First and foremost, it seems as if this
board could have benefited from a few more hours in
the test lab back at the factory. While the
quality and stability of the board are top notch,
its performance is a little lack luster. In
addition, those of you that enjoy delving into the
netherworld of overclocking (we know, perish the
thought...), may find this board somewhat limited
since it offers no BIOS or fixed hardware options to
change front side bus speed or CPU core voltage.
However
it goes almost without saying that the layout and
mechanical attributes of the MS-850Pro, are by far
the best we have seen to date. Its CPU Heat
Sink Retention Clip mechanism is extremely effective
and the most convenient design we have ever worked
with. In addition, those of you upgrading to
the P4 platform will be able to just drop this board
into any ATX case as it will mate perfectly with
legacy form factors. You'll only need to
concern yourself with the your current power supply,
which needs to be ATX12V compliant.
In the
final analysis, we think the MSI MS-850Pro - i850
Pentium 4 Motherboard is worthy of a Hot Hardware
Heat Meter rating of...
Are
you going to sit there eating bon-bons, watching the
Flintstones or will you make a difference? Get
into the Hot Hardware Conference Room!
|
