Tabula Rasa: Six Boards for the Pentium 4

Intel D850 GB: No Overclocking

The basic layout of this board, also known as "Garibaldi," is present in numerous PC systems. Among their main customers are OEMs like Dell and Gateway. There are conductor paths on the board for an Ultra-SCSI chip, a network chip and a sound chip, although the test board has none of these features.

The D850 GB is the Intel reference board whose design and electrical layout are the guidelines for the majority of Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers. The problem of attaching the CPU cooler was solved somewhat awkwardly. Four screws hold the cooler to the board, which often means that the entire board has to be disassembled.

The Intel D850 GB's performance was rather average, although it did pass one OpenGL benchmark, "SPECviewperf, Pro CDRS," with flying colors. Setting the CPU clock rates can get a little complicated. You have to insert a jumper, which will then have to be readjusted after the changes have been made. All in all, the Intel D850 GB is a standard OEM board that emphasizes system stability and rules out experimentation with overclocking.