Today we will look at two boards based on the P35 chipset: MSI P35 Neo and MSI P35 Neo Combo. Both products are intended for middle-end systems, however, due to the novelty of the chipset, the retail price is quite high. In our opinion, the time has not yet come for the P35 chipset: it does not provide a noticeable increase in functionality, and also does not provide a performance increase in conjunction with DDR3 memory. As for supporting processors with a 1333 MHz bus, there are a lot of motherboards based on previous generation chipsets that officially support such processors.

Specifications

CPU	- Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott (2M)/Gallatin/CedarMill) with bus frequency 1066/800/533 MHz; - Dual-core Intel Pentium D/EE (Smithfield/Presler) with bus frequency 800/1066 MHz; - Intel Celeron-D (Prescott) with a bus frequency of 533 MHz; - Support for Intel Core 2 Duo (Kentsfield (4 cores), Conroe/Allendale (2 cores)) with bus frequency 800/1066/1333 MHz; - Support for Intel Yorkfield, Wolfdale with bus frequency 1333/1066/800 MHz; - Socket LGA775 connector; - Support for processors with HyperThreading technology;
Chipset	- Northbridge Intel P35 Memory Controller Hub (MCH); - South Bridge Intel ICH9 (Enhanced I/O Controller Hub); - Communication between bridges: DMI;
System memory	- Two 240-pin slots for DDR2 SDRAM DIMM; - Two 240-pin slots for DDR3 SDRAM DIMM; - Maximum memory capacity 4 GB; - Memory type DDR3 800/1066 is supported;	- Four 240-pin slots for DDR2 SDRAM DIMM; - Maximum memory capacity 8 GB; - Memory type DDR2 667/800 is supported; - Dual-channel memory access is possible;
Graphic arts	- One PCI Express x16 slot;
Expansion options	- Two 32-bit PCI Bus Master slots; - Three PCI Express x1 slots; - Twelve USB 2.0 ports (4 built-in + 8 additional); - Two IEEE1394 ports (Firewire; one built-in + one additional); - Built-in High Defenition Audio 7.1 sound; - Gigabit Ethernet network controller;
Overclocking options	- Changing the FSB frequency from 200 to 500 MHz in 1 MHz steps; multiplier change; - Change the voltage on the processor, memory, PCI-E and chipset (nb & sb);
Disk subsystem	- 1 channel UltraDMA133/100/66/33 Bus Master IDE (Marvell 88SE6111; supporting up to 2 ATAPI devices); - Support for SerialATA II protocol (4 channels - ICH9); - Support for SerialATA II protocol (1 channel - Marvell 88SE6111); - Support LS-120 / ZIP / ATAPI CD-ROM;
BIOS	- 4Mbit Flash ROM; - AMI BIOS with support for Enhanced ACPI, DMI, Green, PnP Features;
Miscellaneous	- One port for FDD, one serial port, ports for PS/2 mouse and keyboard; - STR (Suspend to RAM); - SPDIF Out;
Power management	- Wake up from modem, mouse, keyboard, network, timer and USB; - Main 24-pin ATX power connector; - Additional 4-pin power connector;
Monitoring	- Monitoring processor temperature, system temperature, voltage, rotation speed of three fans; - Smart Fan technology;
Size	- ATX form factor, 220mm x 305mm (8.65" x 12");

Boxes

The contents of both boards are exactly the same.

• Motherboard;
• English User Manual + Quick Start Guide;
• Disk with software and drivers;
• One ATA-133 cable;
• One SerialATA cable + power adapter (one connector);
• Plug for the rear panel of the case;

And it contains only the most necessary components for assembly.

Boards

It's easy to see that both boards have a very similar PCB design. The only differences are in the area of ​​the memory slots. In particular, the MSI P35 Neo Combo board has four multi-colored slots, two of which are for DDR2 modules, and two for DDR3.

The MSI P35 Neo board also has four slots, but all of them are for DDR2 modules.

Each board has three fan connectors: one 4-pin (for the processor cooler) and two three-pin. The latter are not used - the chipset cooling system is completely passive and consists of two radiators.

The boards have one PCI Express x16 slot, two PCI slots and three PCI Express x1 slots.

Both boards have an ICH9 southbridge with a heatsink. As a result, the boards support four SerialATA II channels.

In addition, the boards have an additional ParallelATA/SerialATA controller Marvell 88SE6111.

As a result, seven hard drives (5 SATA + 2 PATA) can be connected to each of the boards. Next, the ICH9 southbridge supports 12 USB2.0 ports: four on the rear panel, and eight more are connected using brackets (not included). In addition, the boards support the Firewire serial bus. To do this, they are equipped with an additional controller VT6308P manufactured by VIA.

Accordingly, the boards support two ports, one of which is installed on the rear panel, the other is connected using a bracket (not included).

Also, both boards have the ALC888 audio codec installed.

A few words about the network: both boards support high-speed network connections; they have the same RTL8111B controller installed:

The rear panel of the boards is the same and has the following configuration:

Let's talk about BIOS settings.

BIOS

The BIOS of the MSI P35 Neo and P35 Neo Combo boards is based on the AMI BIOS version and is as unified as possible.

In the memory settings section there is the following set of timings:

An important parameter that affects performance is the memory frequency setting.

Let's look at the system monitoring section.

Both boards display the current values ​​of processor and system temperatures, voltages, monitor the rotation speed of three fans, and have the function of adjusting the rotation of the processor cooler depending on the CPU temperature.

Overclocking and stability

Before moving on to overclocking, let's look at power converters. Their circuit is the same: the PWM of the MSI P35 Neo Combo board and the MSI P35 Neo board has a 3-phase circuit, in which one capacitor with a capacity of 3300 μF, four capacitors of 1000 μF and eight of 680 μF are installed.

The overclocking features are also the same.

Pay	MSI P35 Neo/Neo Combo
Changing the multiplier	+
Change FSB	200 to 500 MHz (1)
Vcore change	up to +0.7875 V (0.0125 V)
Vmem change	1.8 V to 3.3 V (0.05-0.1 V)
Change Vdd	1.2 V to 1.6 V (0.025 V)
Change Vpcix	1.5 V to 1.8 V (0.1 V)
Change Vsb	from 1.05 V; 1.15 V
Vtt change	1.2V to 1.6V (0.025V)
PCI-E Change	100 MHz to 200 MHz (1)

A few words about the MSI D.O.T mode, in which overclocking occurs exactly when needed. In other words, the FSB frequency increases when a resource-intensive application is launched (for example, a game). And after exiting the application, the system returns to the normal frequency.

Let's look at the practical results of overclocking. The maximum stable FSB frequency of the MSI P35 Neo board is 466 MHz; the MSI P35 Neo Combo board has 350 MHz.

Performance

When determining the starting FSB frequency, it turned out that both boards overestimate it by 1 MHz.

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

Conclusion

The MSI P35 Neo3 model can be called a worthy representative of the mid-price segment in the motherboard market. High-quality performance using durable capacitors guarantees stable operation of this model in a regular system unit at home or in the office. The board is also a good option for those who are aiming for 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. Support for basic RAID modes will allow you to create simple arrays of 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 little disappointing, but it is fully justified by the price. In terms of connectivity options for peripheral devices, the MSI P35 Neo3 is indeed slightly inferior to some other representatives based on the Intel P35, but, as we have seen, in performance it is even slightly ahead of the more expensive models of its competitors. For the average user, this board, given its initial performance, will be a good buy.

But for the enthusiast and overclocker category, the MSI P35 Neo3 does not have anything outstanding to offer. There is no cooling on the power elements of the processor power system and the 8-pin additional power connector. There are few overclocking options in the BIOS, but all the basic functions are present. A small radiator on the chipset is only enough to cool the P35 at standard 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.

Published back on PS, we began to explore motherboards in the lower price range, which are not perceived by most users as “overclocking” products. Compared to a similar 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 popularity as the MSI P45 Neo-F, but is neither a direct nor indirect competitor in price terms to the Biostar TP45 HP. After a short search, such a board was found - MSI P35 Neo.

INTRODUCING THE MOTHERBOARD

Launched on the market over a year ago, the MSI P35 Neo motherboard comes in a small blue box.

advertising

The front side provides information about compatibility with processors and the supported system bus frequency. 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 and includes:

MSI P35 Neo and MSI P35 Neo Combo - motherboards based on the Intel P35 chipset

• Chipset Intel P35(P35 north bridge and ICH9 south bridge are used (ICH9R can be used))

MSI P35 Neo Combo

When releasing motherboards on new chipsets, the greatest interest of the reading public is caused not so much by the features of specific models, but by the general trends that appear in the new generation. This is understandable: it’s hard to study reviews of all motherboards in a row, but you need to get an impression of how interesting the new products are and worthy of timely (or even immediate) purchase. Well, in anticipation of these first reviews, we can note a few differences. The main thing we would say is the significantly reduced heat dissipation of the P35/G33, which leads to a very comfortable thermal regime while maintaining the same chipset radiators (this issue is discussed in more detail in review new line of chipsets). Of course, some new products will have slots for DDR3 memory, but this change is quite obvious and expected. Otherwise, these are all 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 did not find any unpleasant or unexpected issues.

Speaking now about specific boards, it is clear that the first one we chose for consideration was the combo model from those provided to us by MSI. Generally speaking, boards that support two types of memory at once seem to us to be an unnecessary thing in everyday life, and if you do not have a purely research interest, we cannot recommend such a purchase. (We’ll leave the idea of ​​a “step-by-step upgrade” to the conscience of forum dreamers, since DDR2 and DDR3 modules will not work simultaneously.) However, MSI offers two almost identical mid-level models, differing only in DDR3 support in one of them, so we, in fact, In fact, today we’ll look at 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 for installing DDR3 modules and have a different key location in the connector. Secondly, their unusual relative arrangement is noteworthy: pairs of slots are offset relative to each other, and in the second pair the slots themselves are offset (literally by half a contact, which suggests that the reason for this decision is the desire to more conveniently distribute a wide loop of tracks across the board ). As for the general convenience of wiring, there are no serious complaints about the board, except that the only IDE connector should be placed in another place, since in this design option, access to it will be blocked by a trail of wires 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, more unusual models based on the P35 will soon be available - for example, without IDE support.)

There are 2 SATA connectors located on the PCB of our board, but not soldered (they are used in the version of the board with the ICH9R south bridge). In addition to the two models reviewed today, MSI produces another exactly the same one based on the G33 (G33 Neo with support for DDR2 only), as well as a number of boards based 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 design with heat pipes to cool the chipset and field-effect transistors. It’s interesting that another board, the P35 Neo2, is based on the PCB design of the Platinum models, which simply lacks a heatpipe cooler - the functionality of all Neo models is extremely similar. Access to the only available jumper (clearing CMOS) is a little difficult due to its proximity to the expansion slots; a description of its functionality is provided on the PCB. The size of the board is 305x225 mm (slightly narrowed 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 uses 4 field-effect transistors per channel, which is quite sufficient to not worry about overheating of these transistors even despite the absence of additional cooling using radiators. In addition, in the new line of motherboards, MSI uses chokes not with iron, but with ferrite 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 throughout the board): for the processor, 8 polymer capacitors of 680 μF each are used (from an unknown manufacturer), 4 1000 µF and 1 3300 µF from United Chemi-Con, and the memory voltage regulator (reinforced by the use of inductive elements) includes 10 1000 µF capacitors from United Chemi-Con.

System monitoring (Fintek F71882FG, according to BIOS Setup)

• CPU voltage, +3.3, +5 and +12 V, +5 V Standby;
• Rotation speed of 3 fans;
• Temperature of the processor (built-in processor sensor) and board (built-in board sensor);
• Technology for automatically adjusting the rotation of the processor fan depending on the temperature (the temperature limit and cooler rotation speed are set if this limit is not exceeded).

Ports, connectors and connectors on the surface of the board

• Processor socket (Socket 775, declared support for all modern Core 2, Pentium Dual Core and Celeron processors (with Core microarchitecture) for this socket, including the latest processors with a FSB frequency of 1333 MHz; of models with Netburst microarchitecture, only buses with a bus frequency of 800 MHz and higher);
• 2 slots for DDR2 SDRAM DIMM (up to 4 GB DDR2-533/667/800; dual-channel operating mode supported when both channel slots are full) and 2 slots for DDR3 SDRAM DIMM (up to 4 GB DDR3-800/1066; dual-channel operating mode supported when filling the slots of both channels); simultaneous operation of DDR2 and DDR3 is impossible; later a list of certified modules should appear on the website;
• 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 operates through an additional Marvell controller and 4 “chipset” drives, connected to the latter drives can be combined into a RAID array of levels 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and Matrix RAID if the south bridge board uses the ICH9R chipset;
• 4 connectors for connecting brackets for 8 additional USB ports;
• Connector for connecting a bracket for 1 additional FireWire port;
• Connector for connecting audio signal output from a 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 bracket;
• Undocumented SPI connector;
• Connector for connecting the chassis intrusion sensor (Chassis Intrusion);
• 3 connectors for connecting fans (all with the ability to control the number of revolutions), the 4-pin processor has an automatic speed control function.

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

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

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

Contents of delivery

For the release of motherboards based on the new chipsets, MSI updated the design of the box, making it quite impressive. (In this case, we show a photo of the P35 Neo model box.) We describe the package contents with reference to MSI data, since the set of our pre-production samples was incomplete. It seems that this is the first time that the box (as standard) 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;
• A bracket for the back panel of a computer with 2 additional USB connectors;
• A bracket for the rear panel of a computer with an additional FireWire connector;
• A plug on the rear panel of the board for the corresponding connectors;
• CDs with the necessary drivers and proprietary utilities, including Dual Core Center and DOT Express (for monitoring, controlling fan speed, overclocking, etc.) and Live Update (for searching and updating drivers, utilities and BIOS firmware via the Internet).

Integrated Controllers

• Audio, based on the 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 optical output S/PDIF-Out;
• Network, supporting speeds of 10/100/1000 Mbit/s (Gigabit Ethernet), based on the Realtek RTL8111B chip (PCIEx1 interface);
• IDE/SATA-II, based on the Marvell 88SE6111 chip, supporting 2 devices on the ATA133 channel and 1 SATA300 device (PCIEx1 interface);
• FireWire, based on the VIA 6308P chip, supporting 2 ports.

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

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

It is curious that since the release of the Intel 965 chipsets, almost all motherboard manufacturers began to use JMicron controllers to implement (now absent 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 indeed have some drawbacks), and is constantly looking for alternatives. In the case of boards based on the P35 and G33, MSI uses a solution from Marvell, and we must say that the first acquaintance made a favorable impression on us: the board easily booted from a CD drive with an IDE interface, allowed you to install the OS from a CD/DVD, and did not require updating specific managers for working with disk images and drivers in Windows XP. However, only after some time, having collected statistics from different users, will it be possible to draw a conclusion about the presence or absence of problems with the implementation from Marvell. Well, for those who don’t want to wait or take risks, we strongly recommend purchasing a drive with a SATA interface.

Settings

Using jumpers and switches	Jumper to clear CMOS contents
From BIOS based on version 2.61 from AMI	Ability to disable specific processor functions	+	Hyper-Threading, Execute Disable Bit, Enhanced SpeedStep, Virtualization Technology
	Memory timing settings	+	By SPD, CAS# Latency, RAS# to CAS# Delay, RAS# Precharge, RAS# Activate to Precharge, tRFC, tWR, tWTR, tRRD, tRTP
	Selecting memory frequency	+	Auto or set the multiplier relative to the FSB frequency: 1:1, 1:1.2, 1:1.25, 1:1.5, 1:1.67, 1:2
	Ability to set frequency for peripheral buses	+	PCI-E: 100-200 MHz in 1 MHz steps
	Manual assignment of interrupts to slots	+
	Changing the FSB frequency	+	from nominal to 500 MHz in 1 MHz steps; There is a function for dynamic processor overclocking
	Changing the processor multiplier	+
	Changing CPU Core Voltage	+	up to +0.7875 V in steps of 0.0125 V
	Changing Memory Voltage	+	1.80-3.30 V in 0.05 V steps up to 2.1 V and 0.1 V steps above
	Changing chipset voltage	+	1.25-1.65 V in 0.05 V steps for the north bridge; 1.05 and 1.15 V for the south bridge; 1.5-1.8 V in 0.1 V steps for southbridge I/O
	FSB voltage change	+	1.2-1.6 V in 0.1 V steps

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 functionality of non-standard settings has not been tested. The board allows you to call up a menu for selecting 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 corresponding changes in the BIOS Setup.

It should be noted that during testing we used one of the early beta BIOS versions, which did not even provide for the implementation of DDR3 memory features (which we will talk about below). In this regard, it is worth considering all data on the ranges of permissible voltages and frequencies, etc. as preliminary, and before purchasing, it is advisable to clarify 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 variant with only DDR2 support is functionally and externally fully consistent with the combo model (with the understandable exception of DDR3 support). It is curious that this board also has memory slots arranged in more than one column, but, however, here their arrangement is less exotic - “only” pairs of slots are shifted relative to each other. Another interesting detail is the size of the board: it is 305x220 mm, that is, 5 mm at the same as that of 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 an ICH9 south bridge (ICH9R is possible) and with a FireWire controller (it may be absent). As for the BIOS firmware, these boards also had the same ones (at the time of our testing), so we have nothing to add on this point either. Thus, we will consider the issue of the performance of MSI P35 Neo boards in one section, and then we will summarize the results for both models at once.

Performance

Test bench configuration:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4 GHz)
• Memory:
  • 2 modules of 1 GB Corsair CM2X1024-9136C5D (DDR2-1142)
  • 2 modules of 1 GB Corsair XMS3-1066C7 (DDR3-1066)
• 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 board 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 circuit, so it was impossible to set values ​​greater than 6). As a result, our options for using DDR3 memory were severely limited. For details of test bench setups and performance comparison results, we refer you to submission Intel 3x chipsets, here we present the performance of the new boards in the standard configuration (DDR2-800@4-4-4) and with DDR3-1066 at timings 7-7-7.

Test	MSI P35 Neo Combo, DDR3-1066@7-7-7	MSI P35 Neo Combo, DDR2-800@4-4-4	MSI P35 Neo, DDR2-800@4-4-4	Gigabyte 965P-DQ6(Intel P965), DDR2-800@4-4-4
Archiving in 7-Zip, min:sec	4:17	4:17	4:17	4:10
MPEG4 encoding (XviD), min:sec	3:37	3:37	3:37	3:37
FarCry (Low@640×480), fps	354	352	353	359
FarCry (Highest@1600×1200), fps	151	152	152	151
Doom 3 (Low@640×480), fps	218	215	215	218
Doom 3 (Highest@1600×1200), fps	121	121	121	123

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

Bottom line

So, P35 boards are not a revelation; they are quite suitable for purchase by almost anyone (although we have not yet seen full implementation of DDR3 support). As for the two specific MSI boards reviewed, these are high-quality mid-level models, without “frills” both in terms of configuration and proprietary features. But only computer enthusiasts can make complaints about their functionality; the convenience of wiring and the design of the power unit also deserve praise. At home, we really liked these models, especially the chipset cooling, and we see no reason why MSI P35 Neo boards should be avoided.

The boards were provided for testing by the manufacturer