Good design, good overclock, good pipe-The MSI P35 Neo2-FR overview

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Since Intel launched their P35 series over 5 months, all the motherboard
makers also started to sell their products since May. In the first minute,
P35 series defined on Mid-high range segment products,
that push P965 series become mainstream or entry level.

MSI first launch their P35 Platinum, defined on mid-high range segment.
This board have better overclock ability and valuable spec.,
that’s great improvement compare with MSI old Intel platform products,
also can beat other competitors.

The higher level X38 chipset products will come out soon,
We don’t know if this will match same situation as 975X/P965 segment define,
But on P35 products side which come our over 4 months, it’s about time to
have more competition on Cost/Performance.

This time we have mainstream fighter P35 from MSI – P35 Neo2-FR
As I know, the K8 platform Socket939 generation, the model “MSI K8N Neo2”
did have great moment on the market. Hope the P35 Neo2 could have that
kind of glory to hot sell on the market.

The box design, similar as P35 Platinum, just don’t have the shinning surface cover design.


Inside stuff
Maybe not much, but all needed things here, comes with EZ-Jumper (Below IDE cable.


MSI P35 Neo2-FR
Compare with P35 Platinum, only have some pipe reduce on looks,
but that makes this board more clear and clean.




MB Down left side.
2x PCI-E x16 (Support ATI CrossFire technology, run on 16x+4x speed.)


4x SATAII (ICH9R)
1x SATA2+1x IDE (marvell 88SE6111)
The red button is for Clear CMOS function, with debug signal LED near by.


Up right side,
4x DIMM DDR2 memory, support 667/800/1066 frequency.


Up left side,
LGA775 architecture, support Intel Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Duo processors.
The PWM designed with 4 Phase circuit.


IO
6x USB 2.0
2x eSATA(ICH9R)
1x RJ45 jack
7.1 channel audio connector


Smaller but easier design heatpipe.
Northbridge P35 heat spread zone.

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Southbridge ICH9R heatsink zone,
new version sink height is thin, that won’t block big size VGA install.


PWM circuit heatsink zone.



BIOS part

Bootup Screen


BIOS option menu


Cell menu main adjust menu.




DRAM adjust options.


DDRII multiplier options


Support 2 set BIOS setup file save.


H/W Monitor

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CPU:INTEL Core 2 Duo E6700/Core 2 Extreme QX6700/QX6850
MB: MSI P35 Neo2-FR
DRAM:CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF
VGA:ELSA 860GT PH2 EX 256B3 2DT
HD:WD1600AAJS
POWER:Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
Cooler:Thermaltake V1


QX6700 463X7=>3240Mhz run with 3DMARK
ELSA 8600GT EXTREME default frequency 650/2000

3DMARK2003


3DMARK2005



QX6850 450x8 => 3600MHz at 1.336V
DDRII 1080 CL4 4-4-9 2.3V
4 PI 32M test done.
Since that’s 4phase PWM design,
it still very stable with Quad Core overclock heavy loading test.


Dual Core E6700 extreme overclock test
555*6 => 3328MHz stable with dual SP2004 test


This board can also into OS on 560MHz setting,
But it’s almost the CPU frequency top limited.


According to my experience with many P35 motherboards, compare with P965,
The FSB overclock frequency is 1~2 step higher then 965, support 45nm CPU is also an advantage.
MSI launched this great cost/performance value P35 Neo2-FR, have good
performance and spec with good price, that can make this board replace the 965 series motherboards.
We also hope that more motherboard makers will pull the higher P35 series
price down to 120~160USD, then end-users can have more options to choose.

Pros:
1.Retail price about 139USD, depends on different regional.
2.Full solid capacitors, all made in Japan.
3.Only reduce few heatpipe design, total functions very close to Platinum/Diamond segment.
4.CPU FSB overclock ability can catch up other competitors, the DRAM overclock ability is also good.
5.This heatpipe design did have better efficiency, the work temperature is lower then others.

Cons:
1.Other DRAM multiplier overclock ability could be improved.
2.BIOS options could design under voltage for CPU
3.Same boot-up screen already use 2 years, needs to be refreshed.

The upcoming review – about memory modules:
CORSAIR TWIN3X2048-1800C7DF
The fastest DDR3 and high-end spec product, frequency up to 1800MHz CL7.