MSI Pro 266 :: Conclusion

Compatibility

During the 48hours of testing/uptime, I experienced no compatibility issues. From my prior experience with VIA chipsets, little quirks can exist that would bother beginning end users. With the Apollo Pro266 chipset, there simply were no quirks whatsoever. Install your OS, install the 4 in1 Drivers, then install your video card/system drivers and you’re all set to go.

Stability

The Pro266 Master exhibited excellent stability, however, that isn’t too big of a surprise since the system was not Overclocked. With this particular motherboard Overclocking stability is nil, as both overclocking through Fuzzy Logic and with BIOS overclocking yielded crashes or no system POST. Stability with system components was excellent and is on par with most of their other products.

Support

The Manual provided for the Pro266 master is quite thorough. It should be able to get most end users setup and going. For those who need more assistance, technical support forums, e-mails and phone numbers can be found on the MSI U.S. Website.

Conclusion

If the overclocking issue is isolated, this is an excellent board for both beginning end users and enthusiasts. If the Overclocking issue is not isolated, then I would only recommend this board to beginning end users or those users who don’t want to Overclock their systems.

The feature set is not too compelling, and nothing really stands out other than the ability to use DDR ram with a Pentium III/Cyrix III and the inclusion of the Promise RAID controller.

RAID support, however, can be found on many motherboards nowadays, so that alone is not a reason to purchase this board. This is still a good, solid motherboard, but is probably not destined to become a favorite among enthusiasts like some prior MSI models due to these limitations. All in all a solid board that could be a little more performance oriented.