Published on PS, we started researching motherboards in the lower price range, which are not perceived by most users as "overclocking" products. Compared to a similarly priced product called Biostar TP45 HP, the MSI P45 Neo-F motherboard has only one significant advantage - widespread availability. When looking for the next candidate for review, it was decided to find a board that combines the same prevalence as the MSI P45 Neo-F, but is neither a direct nor an indirect price competitor for the Biostar TP45 HP. After a short search, I found such a motherboard - MSI P35 Neo.
INTRODUCING THE MOTHER'S BOARD
Launched over a year ago, MSI P35 Neo comes in a small blue box.
advertising
The front side contains information about compatibility with processors and the supported frequency. system bus... The reverse side provides information about the main technologies and capabilities:
On the side there is a sticker with the main characteristics:
The delivery set is typical for all MSI motherboards in the lower price category, it includes.
Published on PS, we started researching motherboards in the lower price range, which are not perceived by most users as "overclocking" products. Compared to a similarly priced product called Biostar TP45 HP, the MSI P45 Neo-F motherboard has only one significant advantage - widespread availability. When looking for the next candidate for review, it was decided to find a board that combines the same prevalence as the MSI P45 Neo-F, but is neither a direct nor an indirect price competitor for the Biostar TP45 HP. After a short search, I found such a motherboard - MSI P35 Neo.
INTRODUCING THE MOTHER'S BOARD
Launched over a year ago, MSI P35 Neo comes in a small blue box.
advertising
The front side contains information about compatibility with processors and the supported frequency of the system bus. The reverse side provides information about the main technologies and capabilities:
On the side there is a sticker with the main characteristics:
The delivery set is typical for all MSI motherboards in the lower price category, it includes.
MotherboardMSIP35NEO-F
MSI's current line of motherboards are based on Intel chipset The P35 consists of five boards that differ in both price and functionality.
The NEO series boards are positioned as solutions for economical users. The bundle of such boards is, as a rule, an example of reasonable minimalism. The Platinum and Diamond series are designed for the computer enthusiast. For their manufacture, high-quality Japanese capacitors are used; copper radiators and heat pipes are used to cool the heating elements.
Packaging and equipment
The MSI P35 NEO-F board comes in a glossy cardboard box with the image of the clawed paw of an unknown monster clawing its way to the board with steel claws through an obstacle:
Opening the box, you, in addition to the board itself, will find a minimum set of additional accessories:
2 disks with software and drivers for various operating systems: Windows XP and Windows Vista (information on the official website says that WinME / 9x OS is not supported by the board);
user guide;
loop UDMA-66/100/133;
SATA cable;
power cord for SATA devices (MOLEX-SATA adapter);
Rear I / O panel (not shown).
This is a typical bundle for lower-end motherboards, and MSI could add a couple of additional brackets to the bundle, especially since, according to the manual, this is optionally possible.
Board capabilities, design and layout,BIOS, software included
The main features of the board are described in the table:
| Supported processors | - Intel Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium and Celeron (LGA775) |
| Supported FSB | - 1333/1066/800 MHz |
| Chipset | - Northbridge: Intel® P35 - Southbridge: Intel® ICH9 |
| Supported memory | - DDR2 667/800 SDRAM (240pin / non-ECC) - 4 DDR2 DIMM slots (8 GB Max) |
| Network | - Gigabit Network (Realtek RTL8111B) |
| Audio | - Realtek ALC888 - 7.1 channel audio output - Compatible with Azalia |
| IDE | - 1 IDE port supported by Marvell 88SE6111 - Supports Ultra DMA 66/100/133, PIO and Bus Master modes |
| SATA | - 4 SATA ports (SATA1 ~ 4) supported by ICH9 south bridge - SATA 5 supported by Marvell 8SE6111 - Bandwidth up to 300 MB / s |
| RAID | - SATA1 ~ 6 support RAID 0/1/0 + 1/5 |
| Floppy | - 1 floppy port - Supports 1 FDD (360 KB, 720 KB, 1.2 MB, 1.44 MB and 2.88 MB) |
| Rear panel | - 1 PS / 2 connector (mouse) - 1 PS / 2 connector (keyboard) - 1 parallel port supporting SPP / EPP / ECP mode - 1 port COM1 - 4 USB port - 1 LAN connector - 6 audio outputs |
| Connectors soldered on the board | - 4 USB 2.0 - 1 Front Panel Audio - 1 CD-In - 1 SPDIF-out |
| Slots | - 1 PCI Express x 16 - 3 PCI Express x 1 - 2 PCI slots, 3.3V / 5V PCI |
| Form Factor | ATX (30.5 cm X 22.0 cm) |
| Number of mounting holes | 6 |
Design and layout
You can evaluate the layout of the board by looking at the following picture:
As a rule, when designing a budget-level motherboard, engineers do not have to puzzle over the placement of various components due to their scarcity. Among the main drawbacks of the wiring, we should note the too close location of the memory slot, power connector and IDE connector: if it is not difficult to assemble the system on an open stand, it will create some problems in most cases.
Bulky cooling of some modern cards can block the first couple of memory slots, and by the way, this problem is common in most motherboards. The FDD connector is located at the very bottom of the board, but given the widespread dying off of "floppy disks", we can safely close our eyes to this.
After evaluating the layout, it's time to pay attention directly to the board:
Any sophisticated user will immediately understand by the bright red color of the PCB that there is an MSI board in front of him, and a budget one. More expensive MSI products prefers to make on black PCB.
The north bridge, Intel P35, is covered with a rather large passive heatsink, which, as mentioned in the introduction to the review, fully complies with the chipset manufacturer's recommendations.
The processor power supply module is assembled according to a three-channel scheme, which is quite enough provided that processors of the lower and middle levels are used. But for overclocking, especially if you want to overclock, for example, a top-end quad-core processor, this may simply not be enough. However, it is difficult to blame MSI engineers for this: they usually purchase a corresponding motherboard in conjunction with a top-end processor, and for this, MSI has Platinum or Diamond series motherboards in store. On the board under test, you can find both classic capacitors from different manufacturers(there are traces of economy) and modern polymer electrolytes:
The board under test supports up to 8 GB of DDR2-800 memory; for this, 4 memory slots are soldered, displaced in pairs relative to each other:
The board is equipped with three PCI-E 1x slots, which, in our opinion, is somewhat redundant: the corresponding peripherals cannot be found in the afternoon with fire, so it would be better if MSI engineers unsoldered at least one more PCI slot. Judge for yourself, in the computer of a digital lover you can often find a TV tuner or video capture card of high quality sound card that's all if the board provides only two PCI slots. You have to go for additional expenses by purchasing an external sound card or modem, but this is not the end of the list of common peripherals.
The Clear CMOS jumper (JBAT1) is also conveniently located - near the two lower PCI-E 1x slots, near the battery, so that even in system unit it will be enough to simply reset the BIOS settings in case of unsuccessful overclocking.
The south bridge is also covered with a passive radiator, but this is quite enough: according to a digital thermometer, during testing, the radiator temperature did not exceed 40? C. The ICH9 south bridge is used on the board, so only 4 + 1 SATA connectors are wired, support for the fifth SATA connector is provided by a chip manufactured by Marvell (Marvell 88SE6111):
The rear I / O panel also lacks functionality:
As can be seen from the figure, on back panel only the most necessary items are shown: PS / 2 connectors for a mouse and keyboard, four USB connectors, Serial and Parallel ports, and outputs and inputs of the audio subsystem. The user manual mentions that on the rear panel you can optionally find a VGA D-SUB connector. Perhaps in the future, MSI plans to provide the budget board with an integrated video core. However, why not? Naturally, it will use the G33 north bridge.
On the reverse side, the board does not contain any unsoldered elements, so there shouldn't be any problems with mounting some back-plates.
System monitoring is carried out thanks to the Fintek F71882FG chip:
BIOS and overclocking capabilities
MSI is one of a small group of motherboard manufacturers using AMI BIOS.
The most interesting, of course, is the Frequency / Voltage Control section, where overclocking functions are concentrated. For inexperienced users, the option of automatic overclocking is provided. A similar feature is available for motherboards from other manufacturers, in particular, ASUS. In MSI's interpretation, this function is called D.O.T., which stands for Dynamic Overclocking Technology. The names may be different, but the essence remains the same: the board gradually increases the system bus frequency and stops at a certain stable frequency, which is proposed to be used. Needless to say, CPU overclocking in manual mode will bring much better results. User can disable this function and choose one of the following options:
Everything is extremely simple: choosing, for example, the Commander option, the board will increase the system bus frequency by 15%, thus overclocking the processor.
More experienced users can independently change the bus frequencies, as well as the operating voltage on the processor, memory and northbridge.
To the credit of MSI engineers, they did not cut the board's overclocking capabilities, even though it was clearly positioned in the budget segment: maximum values voltages are very high, they are most likely typical for top-end overclocking solutions, judge for yourself:
So, you can increase the voltage on the processor up to 1.55V, which in the presence of a highly efficient cooler or more serious cooling will allow you to successfully overclock most processors supported by the board. Only a three-channel power subsystem can become a hindrance (and will probably become), but this is already a little off topic. From the default value for DDR2 voltage of 1.8 V, the user has the opportunity to increase it right up to 3.3 V. Considering that such a voltage without signs of long-term destruction could only be tolerated by the legendary BH-5 chips, which, as you know, comply with the DDR standard, and even modern overclocking DDR2 modules are designed for an operating voltage of about 2.4 V (with a further increase in voltage, the memory will simply collapse), then 3.3 V is clearly too much. The board designers could, for example, hide the increase in voltage in the 2.4-3.3 V range from most inept experimenters, but this did not happen.
As for the voltage on the north bridge, you can increase it from 1.2 V to 1.6 V. Perhaps, in this case, passive cooling of the chipset will not be enough.
For more fine tuning, the user is given the opportunity to use different dividers FSB: DRAM.
An unpleasant surprise awaited us here: the board set the values at its own discretion, and sometimes, to get the memory functioning at 800 MHz, we had to set the values at random - at 200 MHz FSB, the 1: 2 divider gave absolutely incorrect results. Naturally, the correctness of memory operation had to be checked with several information and test utilities, for example, Everest. Obviously, this is an annoying flaw in the BIOS, which should be fixed in the latest firmware versions.
The hardware monitoring section provides the ability to monitor the following parameters:
Nothing special, everything is modest, just like in GigaByte boards.
Supplied software
As for the branded software then MSI offered the Dual Core Center utility. As the name suggests, the utility provides access to the monitoring and settings of both the motherboard parameters and the video adapter. But with a small caveat: the video card must also be manufactured by MSI. The check showed that quite often the utility gives out a complete nonsense, and the usefulness of its use is highly questionable.
In the absence of overclocking, however, no such bugs were observed.
Another, utility Live Update which is intended for safe update BIOS in Windows environment, stubbornly insisted that the latest BIOS for this board had already been installed, although an update had already appeared on the site:
Thus, the utilities supplied by the manufacturer turned out to be absolutely useless toys, and they also do not shine with design delights.
In this article, we propose to look at another more a budget option designed for fans of overclocking and performance systems with modern processors- MSI P35 NEO motherboard.
Note that when a FireWire controller is installed on this motherboard, the index F is added to the model name, and its name looks like MSI P35 NEO-F.
Motherboard specification MSI boards P35 NEO:
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Manufacturer |
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North bridge |
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South bridge |
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CPU socket |
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Supported processors |
Intel Core 2 Quad-Core / Core 2 Duo / Pentium / Celeron Intel Yorkfield, Wolfdale |
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System bus, MHz |
1333/1066/800 MHz |
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Memory used |
DDR2 800/667 MHz |
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Memory support |
4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM dual channel architecture up to 8GB |
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Expansion slots |
1 x PCI-E x16 |
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Disk subsystem |
ICH9 Southbridge supports: The optional Marvell 88SE6111 controller supports: |
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Sound subsystem |
Realtek ALC888 8-channel audio codec |
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LAN support |
RTL 8111B network controller (10/100/1000 Mbit) |
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24-pin ATX power connector |
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Cooling |
Aluminum radiators on the north and south bridge |
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Fan connectors |
1 x CPU |
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External I / O ports |
2 x PS / 2 ports for keyboard and mouse |
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Internal I / O ports |
8 x USB |
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Overclocking capabilities |
Changing the frequency: FSB, PCI-Express, memory. |
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Equipment |
1 x SATA cable |
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Form factor Dimensions, mm |
ATX |
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Products webpage |
A new BIOS version for MSI P35 NEO2-FR / FIR can be downloaded from the official page. |
MSI P35 NEO motherboard is packed in a small cardboard box, decorated in MSI style. The package notes the presence of support for 1333 MHz system bus and 45 nm processors.
MSI P35 NEO motherboard package includes:
- two CD-ROMs with drivers for Windows Vista and Windows XP;
- user manual and installation instructions,
- loop UltraDMA 133/100/66;
- Serial ATA ribbon cable;
- I / O panel blank;
- SATA power adapter.
MSI P35 NEO motherboards have a fairly good layout - power connectors and ports are located mainly along the edge of the PCB. Although there are drawbacks - in not quite an advantageous position, under the PCI slots, there is an FDD connector, as well as the opening of the latches of the green slots random access memory the inserted video card will interfere. When upgrading a computer, perhaps many users would like to have three PCI slots instead of two existing ones, so we will also note this fact as a small drawback of MSI P35 NEO. Also not pleased with the lack of sufficiently "fashionable" currently polymer capacitors. It is worth noting that MSI releases the MSI P35 Neo Combo on such a PCB, which supports both types of DDR2 and DDR3 memory, and the MSI G33 Neo with integrated graphics.
To cool the north bridge, a relatively large, but not very high aluminum radiator... The cooler on the south bridge has a much smaller size.
Since several sets of logic can be used to fill the PCB of the MSI P35 NEO motherboard, there are empty spaces for two more SATA connectors, which are installed when using the Intel ICH9R south bridge, and there is also a place reserved for the FireWire controller. In our case, the MSI P35 NEO uses the Intel ICH9 chip, which supports four SATA II ports without the possibility of creating RAID arrays. To ensure the operation of the IDE port and one more SATA, it is used additional controller Marvell 88SE6111.
For ease of connection, the eight internal USB ports and the system panel connector are color-coded.
MSI P35 NEO motherboard has only two PCI slots, three PCIE x1 and one PCIE x16 slot. Of the controllers integrated on the board, one can note the gigabit network card on RTL 8111B, eight-channel Realtek ALC888 audio codec, the front panel connector of which supports connections in HDA and AC`97 formats.
The processor power regulator for the MSI P35 NEO motherboard is only three-channel, but this fact is not surprising for a motherboard of this class.
The following ports are displayed on the rear panel: two PS / 2 for keyboard and mouse, four USB connectors, COM and LPT ports, an RJ45 connector for network connections and connectors for 8-channel audio.
MSI P35 NEO motherboard has three fan headers, one of which is 4-pin for cpu cooler, and the rest, intended for connecting case fans, are 3-pin. All connectors are located in different parts of the board, making it easier to choose where to connect.
MSI P35 NEO motherboard uses BIOS on AMI code with a lot of customization. Almost all overclocking settings are located in a separate section of the Cell Menu.
Settings required for overclocking:
|
Parameter |
Menu name |
Range |
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Processor technology |
EIST, CPUID MaxVal, Execute Bit |
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Proprietary Intelligent Overclocking Technology |
1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 % |
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CPU multiplier |
Adjust CPU Ratio |
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System bus frequency |
Adjust CPU FSB Frequency |
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Frequency PCI bus Express |
Adjust PCI-E Frequency |
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Dividers for memory |
FSB / Memory Frequency |
1:1.25; 1:1.5; 1:1.67; 1:1.2; 1:1; 1:1.2; 1:1.6; |
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Memory timings |
CAS, RAS to CAS, RAS Precharge, RAS Act to Prechar, tRFC, tWR, TWTR, TRRD, tRTP |
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CPU voltage |
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Voltage on memory modules |
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FSB bus voltage |
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Northbridge tension |
1.25 - 1.65V |
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Voltage at I / O controller |
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South bridge voltage |
The BIOS has the ability to activate proprietary D.O.T. (Dynamic Overclocking Technology), with which you can overclock the processor from 1% to 15%.
There are seven dividers to set the memory frequency, with which you can best set the frequency during overclocking.
As usual, it is possible to adjust the timings and sub-timings of the RAM, but you can notice the absence of the 1T / 2T Memory Timing setting, which changes the decoding time of commands.
Wide ranges of voltage settings will make it possible to increase the stability of the system during overclocking. In addition, the critical value levels are shown very conveniently to help less experienced users navigate.
In the Hardware Monitor window, you can monitor:
- temperature of the processor and motherboard;
- rotational speed of the processor cooler and two case fans;
- voltage on power lines 3.3V, 5V, 12V, 5V SB and the processor core.
In the "CPU Smart FAN Target" item, you can enable the function of automatic control of the rotation speed of the processor cooler.
The MSI P35 NEO motherboard was able to run with a system bus frequency of 530 MHz. Given the large set of settings in the BIOS, one can assume very good opportunities overclocking processors with it.
Testing the audio path based on the Realtek ALC888 codec
Overall Results (RightMark Audio Analyzer)
Performance testing
The following hardware was used to test the capabilities of the motherboards.
|
CPU |
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (LGA775, 1.86 GHz, L2 2 MB) |
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Thermaltake Sonic Tower (CL-P0071) + Akasa AK-183-L2B 120 mm |
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RAM |
2x DDR2-800 1024 MB PQI PC6400 |
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Video card |
EVGA GeForce 8600GTS 256 MB DDR3 PCI-E |
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HDD |
Samsung HD080HJ 80GB SATA-300 |
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Optical drive |
ASUS DRW-1814BLT SATA |
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Power Supply |
Chieftec CFT-500-A12S 500W 120mm fan |
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CODEGEN M603 MidiTower, 2x 120 mm blowing / blowing fans |
MSI P35 NEO shows excellent level performance as for a motherboard of its class.
conclusions
The MSI P35 NEO motherboard is a relatively inexpensive solution with good functionality and good overclocking potential, which, in a sense, has managed to exceed our expectations. Although overclocking enthusiasts should take into account the far from the most powerful processor power regulator. The MSI P35 NEO cost is one of the lowest among the offers on the Intel P35 chipset, while it has almost no obvious drawbacks. Unless, perhaps, some future owners would like to see large quantity PCI slots, instead of the same PCI-E x1.
Advantages:
- support Intel processors Penryn, made using 45 nm technology;
- a large number of BIOS settings required for overclocking;
- tested ability of the bus to work at 530 MHz;
- 8-channel High Difinition Audio;
- low cost for its class.
Disadvantages:
- lack of official support for DDR2-1066;
- very modest equipment;
- only two PCI slots;
- no external S / PDIF;
- no FireWire controller.
We express our gratitude to the company PF Service LLC (Dnepropetrovsk) for the motherboards provided for testing.
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Doom 3 equalizes both boards. MSI P35 Neo3 wins one frame at low resolution, however at 120 frame rate this is not significant. Increasing the resolution cancels out the results. This shows that in real applications we will not see the difference between the compared boards due to the fact that they are based on the same system logic. But nevertheless, it is worth saying thanks to the MSI engineers who were able to "squeeze" out of their brainchild a little more than competitors. Perhaps this is achieved due to the reduced latencies of the memory controller, or perhaps the difference is explained in different secondary memory timings that the boards set themselves.
Output
Model MSI P35 Neo3 can be called a worthy representative of the middle price segment in the motherboard market. High-quality performance with the use of long-life capacitors guarantees stable operation of this model in an ordinary system unit at home or in the office. The board is also a good option for those who are aiming at an upgrade and are faced with choosing a new product, but at the same time want to connect all the remaining devices with a PCI interface. If desired, it is possible to install one expansion card with a PCI-Express x1 interface. Mainstreaming RAID modes will allow creating simple arrays from hard drives to increase the performance of the disk subsystem. The lack of external digital audio interfaces and FireWire 1394 in this model is a bit upsetting, but it is fully justified by the price. By connectivity peripheral devices MSI P35 Neo3 is indeed slightly inferior to some other representatives on Intel P35, but, as we have seen, in performance it even bypasses a little more expensive models competitors. For a common user, this board, given its initial performance, would be a good buy.
But for the enthusiast and overclocker category, the MSI P35 Neo3 doesn't offer anything outstanding. No cooling on the power elements of the processor power system and 8-pin connector additional food... There are not many overclocking options in the BIOS, but all the main functions are present. A small heatsink on the chipset will only be enough to cool the P35 at the nominal frequencies. Therefore, it is not recommended to get carried away with excessive overclocking on this board without additional cooling components, although the model has potential.
