I ordered this board + Duron 850 to upgrade my parent's old PC Chips crapola system. Since this is the 3rd major revision of this board, I expected it to be highly revised. Overall it does seem to be a well-designed board with a favorable layout and it has been working flawlessly (Win98SE). The integrated ProSavage is an adequate solution for your basic SVGA needs.
My only complaint is that there is NO FREAKING hardware monitor! The VIA 686B is supposed to have the function built-in, but MSI didn't offer the feature on this board. That's like taking possession of your new car and it not having an instrument panel! As inaccurate as the 686B HWM is, being 10% off is better than having NONE at all. I don't even know if this board has the thermal protection feature that shuts down the system after the CPU fan stops working.
I never considered the possibility that a brand new model using the 686B might not have the HWM feature. The last 20 boards I've used had it, hell the crappy three year old PC Chips board I replaced had HWM feature. I thought it was as "standard" as an instrument panel in an automobile. Wrong!
No HWM is suck!
My only complaint is that there is NO FREAKING hardware monitor! The VIA 686B is supposed to have the function built-in, but MSI didn't offer the feature on this board. That's like taking possession of your new car and it not having an instrument panel! As inaccurate as the 686B HWM is, being 10% off is better than having NONE at all. I don't even know if this board has the thermal protection feature that shuts down the system after the CPU fan stops working.
I never considered the possibility that a brand new model using the 686B might not have the HWM feature. The last 20 boards I've used had it, hell the crappy three year old PC Chips board I replaced had HWM feature. I thought it was as "standard" as an instrument panel in an automobile. Wrong!
No HWM is suck!
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