There are times when you simply amaze yourself with some hardware products. The MSI 694D Pro AR motherboard, is one of those gadgets, but it will amaze you, not because it is any good, but because it is a complete crap. AVOID IT!, but first read how AWFUL it is.

One year ago, I made my debut on DUAL CPU systems, using a Tyan S1834 motherboard. You can read about that PC, on update 130700. Basically it consisted of two P3@733, 1 GB RAM, plenty of HDs, and a Voodoo 5500 AGP VGA card. It is a dream system, that runs rock stable.

Recently, while doing some OpenGL rendering, I found that the Voodoo 5500 drivers were NOT doing a nice job, and because of 3DFX's death, I decided I would do better buying some GeForce card. Unfortunately, the Tyan is incompatible with the GeForce... so I was forced to also buy a new motherboard... and because recent dual motherboards only support socket 370 CPUs, I also had to buy new CPUs... Ouch!

After some reading, I decided to buy a MSI 694D Pro. I didn't want the PRO-AR model - which added a Promise RAID controller that I didn't need - but it was the only model available...
My decision towards the 694D Pro (694D from now on) was based on MSI experience with GeForce cards - they sell their own GeForce cards -, as I didn't want to risk another dual incompatibility with NVidia products... but I would regret that buy, like nothing else I can remember of!

Straight to the point: after installing all the hardware, Windows 2000 (w2k) wouldn't boot, but I was kind of expecting it not to, because a motherboard change remains the worst thing you can do to your operating system. So I decided to do a CLEAN Windows 2000 install, from a low level formatted HD.

Installation was hell (single or dual cpu mode, and with other OSs too). After days of attempts and tweaks that included a NEW bios, I did manage to have w2k up & running, but it would CRASH randomly, and it WOULD NOT INSTALL any devices on PCI slots greater than PCI3, *when* I had all the HDs installed.
I started to suspect of serious hardware problems: problems so serious that they resulted from HARDWARE DESIGN FLAWS.

After hundreds of hours, I really was convinced that the 694D BIOS is UNCAPABLE of dealing with all my hardware, and starts negotiating resources it already gave away. This motherboard is a menace to user data!

Just before packing the crap that MSI builds, I found that ALL THE DATA on the 80 GB HD was corrupted. This data had been copied from several SCSI HDs... It hurts just to remember the massive amount of *important* stuff I lost.

But I learned my lesson. MSI NO MORE. MSI is crap. MSI is total crap. MSI is granted problems. MSI is risking your data. DO NOT BUY THIS MOTHERBOARD.

So you might ask "how come some famous hardware www sites, rank the 694D nicely?". Answer: those "famous www sites" are crap too. Those sites only test products with a single VGA card inserted. Real life production PCs, have more than just a VGA card installed! Go search those famous sites and check their test configuration! That is another lesson I learned: never trust websites who only "half review" products.

If you want to know more about the 694D, its specs and the many problems it brings, go visit 694D.com.

For me, this motherboard is dead and buried. I am now running a superb ASUS CUV4X-DLS (check 220501).

You have been warned.