MSI P35 Neo and MSI P35 Neo Combo are motherboards based on Intel chipset P35

• Chipset Intel P35 (P35 northbridge and ICH9 southbridge (ICH9R can be used))

MSI P35 Neo Combo

When boards based on new chipsets are released, the greatest interest of the reading public is caused not so much by the features of specific models as by the general trends that manifest themselves in the new generation. This is understandable: it's hard to study reviews of all boards in a row, but it's necessary to get an impression of how interesting the new products are and deserve a timely (or even immediate) purchase. Well, anticipating these first reviews, we can note a few differences. The main thing we would call the P35/G33's significantly reduced heat dissipation, which leads to a very comfortable thermal regime while maintaining the old chipset heatsinks (this issue is discussed in more detail in the review of the new chipset line). Of course, some new products will have slots for DDR3 memory, but this change is quite obvious and expected. As for the rest, these are the same Intel chipsets (you can simply install a new board instead of the i915-based model, and Windows XP will boot without problems), we didn't find any unpleasant or unexpected moments.

Speaking now about specific boards, it is clear that we chose the combo model from MSI provided to us first for consideration. Generally speaking, boards with support for two types of memory at once seem to us an unnecessary thing in everyday life, and if you have no purely research interest, we cannot recommend such a purchase. (Let's leave the ideas of a "staged upgrade" on the conscience of forum dreamers, since DDR2 and DDR3 modules will not work at the same time.) However, MSI offers two almost identical mid-range models, differing only in DDR3 support for one of them, so we, in fact, In fact, today we will consider two boards at once.

The appearance of the board is quite familiar, only the memory slots attract attention. Firstly, because two of them are designed to install DDR3 modules and have a different location of the key in the slot. Secondly, their unusual mutual arrangement attracts attention: pairs of slots are shifted relative to each other, and in the second pair - the slots themselves (literally by half a contact, which suggests that the reason for this decision is the desire to more conveniently spread a wide loop of tracks across the board ). As for the general ease of wiring, there are no serious complaints about the board, except that the only IDE connector should be placed elsewhere, since in this design option access to it will be blocked by a cable from the power connector. Among the shortcomings, not the wiring, but the design, we note the presence of only two PCI slots (with three PCIEx1) - it is possible, however, that this should already be taken as the norm, since the range of expansion cards with the PCI Express interface is constantly expanding and even includes modern sound cards from Creative. (However, on the basis of the P35 it will soon be possible to find more unusual models - for example, without IDE support.)

There are 2 SATA connectors wired, but not soldered, on the PCB of our copy of the board (they are used in the version of the board with the ICH9R south bridge). In addition to the two models reviewed today, MSI is releasing another exactly the same one based on the G33 (G33 Neo with support for DDR2 only), as well as a number of boards on the P35 and G33 in the Platinum and Diamond series - these are based on a different PCB design (in particular, providing two PCIEx16 slot for CrossFire graphics) and use a complex heatpipe design to cool the chipset and FETs. It's interesting that another motherboard, P35 Neo2, is also based on the PCB design of the Platinum models. Access to the only available jumper (clear CMOS) is a bit difficult due to its proximity to the expansion slots, its functionality is described on the textolite. The board size is 305x225 mm (slightly narrower ATX), fastened to the case with six screws, the near edge of the board sags and causes some inconvenience when using the connectors located on it.

The three-channel switching voltage regulator of the processor power supply uses 4 field-effect transistors per channel, which is quite enough to not worry about overheating of these transistors even despite the absence of additional cooling with radiators. In addition, in the new line of boards, MSI uses ferrite cores instead of iron cores, which has a beneficial effect on power consumption. The set of capacitors in the key power circuits can be assessed as good, although not the best (when, as in the top boards of most major manufacturers, only polymer capacitors are used on the entire board): 8 polymer capacitors of 680 uF each (from an unknown manufacturer) are used for the processor, 4 at 1000 uF and 1 at 3300 uF from United Chemi-Con, and the memory voltage regulator (enhanced with the use of inductive elements) includes 10 capacitors at 1000 uF from United Chemi-Con.

System monitoring (Fintek F71882FG, according to BIOS Setup)

• Processor voltage, +3.3, +5 and +12 V, +5 V Standby;
• Speed ​​of 3 fans;
• Temperature of the processor (by the built-in sensor of the processor) and the board (by the built-in sensor of the board);
• The technology of automatic regulation of the CPU fan rotation depending on the temperature (the temperature limit and the cooler rotation speed are set if this limit is not exceeded).

Ports, connectors and connectors on the board surface

• Processor socket (Socket 775, all current Core 2, Pentium Dual Core and Celeron processors (with Core microarchitecture) are declared supported for this socket, including latest processors with FSB frequency 1333 MHz; of models with Netburst microarchitecture, only those with a bus frequency of 800 MHz and higher are supported);
• 2 x DDR2 SDRAM DIMM slots (up to 4 GB DDR2-533/667/800; supports dual-channel operation when both channels are full) and 2 x DDR3 SDRAM DIMM slots (up to 4 GB DDR3-800/1066; supports dual-channel operation when filling the slots of both channels); simultaneous operation of DDR2 and DDR3 is not possible; later, a list of certified modules should appear on the site;
• PCIEx16 slot for video accelerators;
• 3 PCIEx1 slots;
• 2 PCI slots;
• Power connectors: standard ATX 2.2 (24 pins, you can connect a regular 20-pin connector, but it is not recommended to use powerful video accelerators that do not have their own power connector) and 4-pin ATX12V to power the processor;
• FDD connector;
• IDE (Parallel ATA) connector, powered by an additional Marvell controller, for 2 ATA133 devices;
• 5 SATA-II (Serial ATA II) connectors for 5 SATA300 devices, 1 of which is powered by an additional Marvell controller and 4 "chipset" drives connected to the latter can be combined into a RAID array of levels 0, 1, 0 + 1, 5 and Matrix RAID if ICH9R chipset is used on the southbridge board;
• 4 connectors for brackets for 8 additional USB ports;
• Bracket connector for 1 additional FireWire port;
• Connector for audio signal output from CD/DVD drive;
• Block of connectors for connecting analog inputs and audio outputs on the front panel of the computer;
• Connector for digital audio output S/PDIF-Out on the bar;
• Undocumented SPI connector;
• Connector for the chassis intrusion sensor (Chassis Intrusion);
• 3 connectors for connecting fans (all with the ability to control the number of revolutions), 4-pin processor has the function of automatic speed control.

The back panel of the board (from left to right, block by block)

• PS / 2 connectors for connecting a mouse and keyboard;
• 1 LPT and 1 COM port;
• 2 USB port and 1 FireWire;
• 2 USB ports and 1 RJ-45 ( gigabit ethernet);
• 6 analog audio connectors (Line-In, Front, Mic-In, Rear, Center/Sub, Side).

The free space next to the COM port is obviously reserved for the video output (D-Sub) on the G33 Neo Combo board with integrated graphics.

Contents of delivery

By the release of boards based on new chipsets, MSI has updated the design of the box, making it quite spectacular. (In this case, we provide a photo of the P35 Neo box.) We describe the package with reference to MSI data, since our pre-production samples were incomplete. It seems that this is the first time that the box (in the standard package) does not have a cable for connecting a floppy drive.

• Packing: regular size box;
• Documentation: user manual in English;
• Cables: 1 SATA (with power adapter for one device) and 1 ATA66;
• Bracket on the back of the computer with 2 additional USB connectors;
• Bracket on the back of the computer with an additional FireWire connector;
• A plug on the back panel of the board for the output of the corresponding connectors;
• CDs with the necessary drivers and proprietary utilities, including Dual Core Center and DOT Express (for monitoring, controlling the speed of coolers, overclocking, etc.) and Live Update (for searching and updating drivers, utilities and BIOS firmware via the Internet).

Integrated controllers

• Audio, based on a 10-channel (7.1+2) HDA codec Realtek ALC888, with the ability to connect 7.1 audio systems, a connector for connecting front audio inputs/outputs and a connector for connecting an optical S/PDIF-Out output;
• Network, with support for speeds of 10/100/1000 Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet), based on the Realtek RTL8111B chip (PCIEx1 interface);
• IDE/SATA-II, based on Marvell 88SE6111 chip, supporting 2 devices on ATA133 channel and 1 SATA300 device (PCIEx1 interface);
• FireWire, based on the VIA 6308P chip, supporting 2 ports.

The quality of the integrated sound solution we evaluated in 16-bit, 44 kHz mode using the RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.5 test program and the Terratec DMX 6fire sound card:

Overall rating: Very good(). In this case, a high-quality, but “simple” 10-channel ALC888 audio codec was used, which does not have “additional” functions of interest to a home user (such as a set of DTS technologies implemented in drivers and on-the-fly coding of an audio stream in AC-3 for output via an S / interface PDF). But the quality of the analog output is at a very good level, corresponds to the best representatives of the integrated sound.

It is curious that since the release of the Intel 965 chipsets, almost all motherboard manufacturers have unanimously begun to use JMicron controllers to implement (now missing in the chipset) support for IDE (PATA) devices. MSI is one of the few companies that is not satisfied with standard solutions like JMB363 and JMB361 (which do have some drawbacks) and is constantly looking for alternatives. In the case of P35 and G33 boards, MSI uses Marvell's solution, and we must say that the first acquaintance made a favorable impression on us: the board booted smoothly from a CD drive with IDE interface, allowed you to install the OS from CD / DVD, did not require updating specific managers to work with disk images and drivers in Windows XP. However, only after some time, having collected statistics from different users, it will be possible to conclude that there are or are no problems with the implementation from Marvell. Well, for those who do not want to wait or take risks, we strongly recommend purchasing a drive with a SATA interface.

Settings

We used BIOS version 1.0B10 (one of the beta versions of the first firmware), as the latest available at the time of testing. The listed BIOS features are available in the specified firmware, the performance of non-standard settings has not been tested. The board allows you to call up a menu to select a boot device by pressing a certain key during the POST procedure, which makes it possible to conveniently perform a one-time boot, for example, from a CD drive, without making appropriate changes in BIOS Setup.

It should be noted that during testing we used one of the early beta versions of the BIOS, which did not even provide for the implementation of DDR3 memory features (which we will discuss below). In this regard, it is worth considering all data on the ranges of permissible voltages and frequencies, etc. as preliminary, and before buying it is advisable to check them with the owners of the board in Internet conferences if this issue is important to you.

MSI P35 Neo

So, as we have already said, the MSI P35 Neo version with DDR2 only support functionally and externally fully corresponds to the combo model (with a clear exception in the issue of DDR3 support). It's curious that this board also has memory slots arranged in more than one column, but, however, here their arrangement is less exotic - "only" a pair of slots are shifted relative to each other. Another interesting detail is the size of the board: it is 305×220 mm, i.e. 5 mm at same as the combo board, and without any visible changes in the wiring.

Obviously, everything said above about the MSI P35 Neo Combo fully applies to this model; even the variations of these boards that came to us for testing were the same: with the ICH9 south bridge (ICH9R is possible) and with the FireWire controller (it may be absent). As for the BIOS firmware, they were also the same for these boards (at the time of our testing), so we have nothing to add on this point. Thus, we will consider the question of the performance of MSI P35 Neo boards in one section, and then we will sum up the results for both models at once.

Performance

Test stand configuration:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4 GHz)
• Memory:
  • 2 x 1 GB modules Corsair CM2X1024-9136C5D (DDR2-1142)
  • 2 x 1GB Corsair XMS3-1066C7 (DDR3-1066) modules
• Video card: ATI Radeon X1900 XTX 512 MB
• Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 (SATA, 7200 rpm)
• PSU: HiPro W460GC31
• OS: Windows XP SP2

Note that the BIOS version of the P35 Neo Combo available at the time of testing did not provide the ability to set the normal (for DDR3) supply voltage (1.5 V) and timings (they were limited by the standard DDR2 scheme, so it was impossible to set values ​​greater than 6). As a result, our options for using DDR3 memory turned out to be very limited. For testbed setup details and performance comparison results, we refer you to the Intel 3x chipset presentation, here we also present the results of the new boards in the standard configuration ( [email protected]) and with DDR3-1066 at 7-7-7 timings.

We repeat that we made more detailed conclusions in the above article, but here we only note the absolute equality in performance of MSI P35 Neo and MSI P35 Neo Combo, as well as the fact that new boards, at least with current BIOS firmware, are a little slower representatives of old chipsets, and DDR3 does not help them to get ahead in speed, even at a frequency of 1066 MHz.

Outcome

So, motherboards based on P35 have not become a revelation, they are quite suitable for purchase by almost anyone (although we have not yet seen a full-fledged implementation of DDR3 support). As for the two specific MSI motherboards reviewed, these are solid mid-range models, without "frills" both in terms of packaging and branded features. But only computer enthusiasts can make claims to their functionality, and the convenience of wiring and the design of the power unit also deserve praise. We really liked these models in everyday life, especially the chipset cooling, and we see no reason why MSI P35 Neo boards should be avoided.

Boards provided for testing by the manufacturer

In this article, we offer a look at another more budget option, designed for fans of overclocking and high-performance systems with modern processors - the MSI P35 NEO motherboard.

Note that in the case when a FireWire controller is installed on this board, the index F is added to the model name, and its name looks like MSI P35 NEO-F.

Specification motherboard MSI P35 NEO:

The MSI P35 NEO motherboard is packaged in a small MSI styled cardboard box. The package notes the support for 1333 MHz system bus and 45 nm processors.

The MSI P35 NEO motherboard package includes:

• two CDs with drivers for Windows Vista and Windows XP;
• user manual and installation instructions,
• cable UltraDMA 133/100/66;
• Serial ATA 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 textolite. Although there are drawbacks - in a not entirely advantageous position, under the PCI slots, there is an FDD connector, as well as opening 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 the two available, so we will also note this fact as a small drawback of the MSI P35 NEO. Also not pleased with the lack of a fairly "fashionable" at the present time polymer capacitors. It is worth noting that MSI releases the MSI P35 Neo Combo, which supports both types of DDR2 and DDR3 memory, and the MSI G33 Neo with integrated graphics on such a PCB.

To cool the north bridge, a relatively large, but not very high, aluminum radiator is used. The cooler on the southbridge is much smaller.

Since several sets of logic can be used to fill the PCB of the MSI P35 NEO motherboard, there are empty places 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 Intel chip ICH9, which supports four SATA II ports without the ability to create RAID arrays. An additional Marvell 88SE6111 controller is used to ensure the operation of the IDE port and one more SATA.

For ease of connection, eight internal USB ports and a 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 a gigabit network card based on RTL 8111B, an eight-channel Realtek ALC888 audio codec, the front-panel connector of which supports connections in HDA and AC`97 formats.

The MSI P35 NEO has only a three-channel processor power regulator, but this fact is not surprising for a board 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.

The MSI P35 NEO motherboard has three fan headers, one of which is 4-pin for the CPU cooler, and the rest are 3-pin for case fans. All connectors are located in different parts of the board, which simplifies the choice of a place for connection.

The MSI P35 NEO motherboard uses an AMI-coded BIOS with a lot of settings. Almost all overclocking settings are in a separate section of the Cell Menu.

Settings required for overclocking:

The BIOS has the ability to activate proprietary technology for automatic overclocking D.O.T. (Dynamic Overclocking Technology), with which you can overclock the processor from 1% to 15%.

To set the memory frequency, there are seven dividers, which can be used to optimally 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 command decoding time.

Wide ranges of voltage settings will quite improve the stability of the system during overclocking. In addition, the levels of critical quantities are very conveniently shown, which will help less experienced users navigate.

In the Hardware Monitor window, you can monitor:

• temperature of the processor and motherboard;
• the speed of rotation of the processor cooler and two case fans;
• voltage on the power lines 3.3V, 5V, 12V, 5V SB and the processor core.

In the "CPU Smart FAN Target" item, you can enable the automatic control of the rotation speed of the CPU cooler.

The MSI P35 NEO motherboard was able to run at a system bus frequency of 530 MHz. Given the large set of settings in the BIOS, we can assume very good possibilities for overclocking processors with its help.

Testing the audio path based on the Realtek ALC888 codec

Overall Results (RightMark Audio Analyzer)

Performance Testing

The following equipment was used to test the capabilities of motherboards.

MSI P35 NEO shows an excellent level of performance for a motherboard in its class.

conclusions

MSI P35 NEO motherboard is relatively inexpensive solution, which has good functionality and good overclocking potential, which, in a sense, managed to exceed our expectations. Although fans of overclocking should take into account far from the most powerful processor power regulator. The cost of MSI P35 NEO is one of the lowest among offers based on the Intel P35 chipset, while it has almost no obvious drawbacks. Unless, perhaps, some future owners would like to see more PCI slots, instead of the same PCI-E x1.

Advantages:

• support Intel processors Penryn, made on 45 nm technology;
• a large number of BIOS settings required for overclocking;
• tested bus capability at 530 MHz;
• 8-channel High Definition 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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MotherboardMSIP35NEO-F

MSI's line of motherboards based on the Intel P35 chipset currently consists of five motherboards that differ in both price and functionality.

NEO series boards are positioned as solutions for economical users. The package bundle of such boards is, as a rule, an example of reasonable minimalism. The Platinum and Diamond series are designed for computer enthusiasts. 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 box made of glossy cardboard with an image of the clawed paw of an unknown monster pushing its steel claws through an obstacle towards the board:

Opening the box, you, in addition to the board itself, will find a minimal set of additional accessories:

2 discs 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;

UDMA-66/100/133 cable;

SATA cable;

power cord for SATA devices (MOLEX-SATA adapter);

rear I/O panel (not shown).

This is a typical bundle for motherboards in the lower price range, and MSI could add a couple of additional brackets to the kit, especially since according to the manual this is optionally possible.

Board features, design and layout,BIOS, included software

The main features of the board are described in the table:

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 rack their brains over the problem of placing various components due to their scarcity. Of the main disadvantages of the wiring, it should be noted that the memory slot, power connector and IDE connector are too close: if it is not difficult to assemble the system on an open bench, then in most cases this will create some problems.

The cumbersome cooling of some modern cards can block the first couple of memory slots, and by the way, this problem occurs all the time in most boards. The FDD connector is located at the very bottom of the board, but given the widespread death of floppy disks, we can safely close our eyes to this.

After evaluating the wiring, it's time to pay attention directly to the board:

Any sophisticated user will immediately understand by the bright red color of the textolite that there is an MSI board in front of him, and a budget one at that. MSI prefers to produce more expensive products on black textolite.

The Northbridge, Intel P35, is covered by a rather large passive heatsink, which, as was said in the introductory part of the review, fully complies with the recommendations of the chipset manufacturer.

The processor power module is assembled according to a three-channel scheme, which is quite enough if you use processors of the lower and middle levels. But for overclocking, especially if you want to overclock, for example, a top-end quad-core, this may simply not be enough. However, it is difficult to blame MSI engineers for this: a top-end processor is usually paired with an appropriate motherboard, and for this, MSI has Platinum or Diamond series boards in store. On the tested board, you can find both classic capacitors from various manufacturers (there are traces of savings) and modern polymer electrolytes:

The board under test supports up to 8 GB of DDR2-800 memory; for this, 4 memory slots are soldered, offset in pairs relative to each other:

The board is equipped with three PCI-E 1x slots, which, in our opinion, is somewhat redundant: we can't find the corresponding peripherals so far, so it would be better if MSI engineers unsoldered at least one more PCI slot. Judge for yourself, in the computer of a digital technology lover you can often find a TV tuner or a video capture card of high quality. sound card and that's all if the board provides only two PCI slots. You have to go to additional expenses by purchasing an external sound card or modem, but the list of common peripherals does not end there.

The Clear CMOS (JBAT1) jumper is also conveniently located - near the two lower PCI-E 1x slots, near the battery, so even in system unit it will be enough to simply reset the BIOS settings in case of unsuccessful overclocking.

The southbridge is also covered with a passive radiator, but this is quite enough: according to the digital thermometer, during testing, the temperature of the radiator did not exceed 40? C. The board uses the ICH9 southbridge, so only 4 + 1 SATA connectors are soldered, 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, only the most necessary things are displayed on the rear panel: 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 an optional D-SUB VGA connector can be found on the rear panel. Perhaps in the future, MSI plans to provide a budget board with an integrated video core. However, why not? Naturally, the G33 northbridge will be used in it.

On the reverse side, the board does not contain any soldered elements, so there should not be any problems with fixing some back-plates.

System monitoring is carried out thanks to the Fintek F71882FG chip:

BIOS and overclocking options

MSI is one of the few motherboard manufacturers that use AMI BIOS.

The most interesting, of course, is the Frequency/Voltage Control section, where overclocking functions are concentrated. For inexperienced users, the possibility of automatic overclocking is provided. A similar opportunity is available for boards from other manufacturers, in particular, ASUS. MSI refers to this feature as 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 suggested to be used. Needless to say, overclocking the processor manually will bring much better results. The user can disable this function and choose one of the following options:

Everything is extremely simple: by 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 down the overclocking capabilities of the board, even despite its obvious positioning in the budget segment: the maximum voltage values ​​are very high, they are most likely typical for top overclocking solutions, judge for yourself:

So, you can increase the voltage on the processor to 1.55V, which, in the presence of a highly efficient cooler or more serious cooling, will allow you to successfully overclock most of the processors supported by the board. Only a three-channel power subsystem can become (and most likely will become) a hindrance, 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 only the legendary BH-5 chips, which are known to comply with the DDR standard, could endure such a voltage without signs of long-term destruction, and even modern overclocker 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 a bit too much. The board designers could, for example, hide the increase in voltage in the range of 2.4-3.3 V from most inept experimenters, but this did not happen.

As for the voltage on the northbridge, 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 finer tuning, the user is given the opportunity to use various FSB:DRAM dividers.

An unpleasant surprise awaited us here: the board set the values ​​at its discretion, and sometimes, in order to achieve memory operation at a frequency of 800 MHz, we had to set values ​​at random - at a system bus frequency of 200 MHz, a 1:2 divider gave absolutely wrong results. Naturally, the correctness of the memory had to be checked by 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.

Included software

As for the corporate software, then MSI offered the Dual Core Center utility. As the name implies, the utility provides access to monitoring and settings of both the system board parameters and the video adapter. But with a small caveat: the video card must also be manufactured by MSI. The check showed that the utility often produces complete nonsense, and the usefulness of its use is very doubtful.

In the absence of overclocking, however, such bugs were not observed.

Another, the Live Update utility, which is designed to securely BIOS updates in a Windows environment, stubbornly insisted that the latest BIOS for this board had already been delivered, although an update had already appeared on the site:

Thus, the utilities supplied by the manufacturer turned out to be an absolutely useless toy, and they also do not shine with design delights.

Doom 3 equalizes both boards. The MSI P35 Neo3 wins one frame at low resolution, but at 120 fps it doesn't matter. As the resolution is increased, the results are leveled. This shows that in real applications we will not see the difference between the compared boards due to the fact that they are made on the same system logic. But still, it’s worth saying thanks to MSI engineers, who were able to “squeeze” a little more out of their offspring than competitors. Perhaps this is achieved due to the reduced delays of the memory controller, or perhaps the difference is due to different secondary memory timings that the boards set themselves.

Output

The MSI P35 Neo3 model can be called a worthy representative of the middle price segment on the motherboard market. High-quality performance using long-life capacitors ensures stable operation of this model in a conventional system unit at home or in the office. Also, the board is a good option for those who are aiming for an upgrade and are faced with the choice of 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 PCI-Express x1 interface. Support for basic RAID modes will allow you to create simple arrays from hard drives to increase the performance of the disk subsystem. The absence of external digital audio interfaces and FireWire 1394 in this model is a little disappointing, but it is fully justified by the price. By connectivity peripherals The MSI P35 Neo3 is indeed slightly behind some other Intel P35-based representatives, but as we have seen, it even slightly outperforms the more expensive competitors in terms of performance. For the average user, given its initial performance, this board will be a good buy.

But for the category of enthusiasts and overclockers MSI P35 Neo3 cannot offer anything outstanding. There is no cooling on the power elements of the processor power system and the 8-pin auxiliary power connector. There are few overclocking options in the BIOS, but all the main functions are present. A small heatsink on the chipset is only enough to cool the P35 at stock frequencies. Therefore, it is not recommended to get carried away with excessive overclocking on this board without additional cooling of the components, although the model has potential.