MSI P35 Neo versus MSI P35 Neo Combo

Today, we are reviewing two motherboards built on the P35 chipset: MSI P35 Neo and MSI P35 Neo Combo. Both these products are aimed at middle-end systems but the retail price is rather high because of the chipset's novelty. In our view, the time for the P35 chipset has not yet come: it does not bring an essential expansion of functionality, nor provides a performance boost in combination with the DDR3 memory. As regards support for CPUs having the 1333 MHz bus, there is a lot of motherboards based on previous-generation chipsets which also officially support such processors.

MSI P35 Neo Combo		MSI P35 Neo
Chipset	Intel P35	Chipset	Intel P35
CPU	LGA775 Pentium 4 FSB 1066/800/533 MHz Celeron Prescott FSB 533 MHz Dual-Core Pentium4 Core 2 Duo HyperThreading	CPU	LGA775 Pentium 4 FSB 1066/800/533 MHz Celeron Prescott FSB 533 MHz Dual-Core Pentium4 Core 2 Duo HyperThreading
Memory	DDR2 667/800 DDR3 800/1066	Memory	DDR2 667/800
HDD	1x UltraDMA/133 5x SerialATA	HDD	1x UltraDMA/133 5x SerialATA
Additional	2 IEEE-1394a Audio Intel HDA 12 USB 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet	Additional	2 IEEE-1394a Audio Intel HDA 12 USB 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet
Price:	n/a	Price:	$145-155

Specifications

Retail boxes

The package bundles of both motherboards is absolutely identical

• Motherboard;
• User's Manual in English + Quick Setup Manual;
• 1x software & drivers CD;
• One ATA-133 cable;
• 1x SerialATA cable + a power supply adapter (1 connector);
• 1x cap for the rear panel of the housing;

and contains only the items most needed for assembly.

It is easy to see that the boards are of similar PCB design. The differences are only in the areas of memory slots. In particular, MSI P35 Neo Combo offers four multi-colored slots, two of which are aimed at DDR2 modules, and two - for DDR3.

On MSI P35 Neo, there are also four slots but they are all aimed at DDR2 slots.

On each board, there are three connectors to plug in fans: one 4-pin connector (for the CPU cooler) and two 3-pin. The latter are not used - the system of cooling the chipset is fully passive and is made up of two radiators.

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

Both the motherboards use the ICH9 south bridge with a radiator. Therefore, the board supports support four SerialATA II links each.

Besides, the boards use the additional ParallelATA/SerialATA controller Marvell 88SE6111.

In the end, as many as 7 hard disks (5 SATA II + 2 PATA) can be plugged in to each motherboard. Then - the south bridge ICH9 supports 12 USB2.0 ports: four on the rear panel, with four more plugged in with plates (missing in the bundle). Besides, both boards support the Firewire. For that, there is an additional VT6308P controller made by VIA.

Therefore, each motherboard supports two ports one of which installed on the rear panel, with the other plugged in with a bracket (missing in the package bundle).

Also, both the motherboards use the audio codec ALC888.

A few words on the network support: both the motherboards support high-speed network connection; they use the same RTL8111B controller:

The boards' rear panels are of the following configuration:

Now on to the BIOS settings.

The BIOS of MSI P35 Neo and P35 Neo Combo is based on AMI BIOS version and is unified to the maximum.

The section in charge of memory operation settings looks like this:

The next important parameter that affects the performance is setting the memory operating frequency.

Now look at the system monitoring section.

Both the motherboards display the current temperatures of the CPU and system, voltages, tack the rotational speed of all the three fans, and both offer the feature for adjusting the rotational speed of the CPU cooler depending on the CPU temperature.

Overclocking and stability

Before we move on to overclocking, let's look at the power converters. Their scheme is the same: the PWM of MSI P35 Neo Combo and MSI P35 Neo offers a 3-phase scheme in which there is one 3300 mkF, four 1000 mkF, and eight 680 mkF capacitors.

The overclocking tools are also identical.

A few words on the MSI D.O.T mode in which overclocking is done on demand. Simply put, the raise of FSB speed occurs at the time a resource-hungry application (e.g., a game) starts up. On closing the application, the system reverts to the rated frequency.

Now let's look at the practical results of overclocking. The maximum stable FSB speed in MSI P35 Neo equals 466 MHz; in MSI P35 Neo Combo – 350 MHz.

While determining the starting FSB speed, it turned out that the board overstated it by 1 MHz.

In our test setup, we used the following hardware:

Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks.

Tests in games.

Final Words

The two motherboards reviewed (MSI P35 Neo and MSI P35 Neo Combo) are almost identical both externally and at the functional capabilities. The only difference is in that MSI P35 Neo Combo supports both DDR2 and DDR3, whereas MSI P35 Neo - only DDR2. Both the motherboards have demonstrated a different overclocking capability but their capabilities will be equalized with another BIOS update.

The package bundle of both motherboards is very scarce with the retail price too high, comparable with more powerful products based on previous-generation chipsets (e.g., P965). Since P35 offers no special advantages, we would recommend to suspend the upgrade until the autumn.

Conclusion

While determining the starting FSB speed, it turned out that the board overstated it by 1 MHz.

In our test setup, we used the following hardware:

Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks.

Tests in games.

Final Words

The two motherboards reviewed (MSI P35 Neo and MSI P35 Neo Combo) are almost identical both externally and at the functional capabilities. The only difference is in that MSI P35 Neo Combo supports both DDR2 and DDR3, whereas MSI P35 Neo - only DDR2. Both the motherboards have demonstrated a different overclocking capability but their capabilities will be equalized with another BIOS update.

The package bundle of both motherboards is very scarce with the retail price too high, comparable with more powerful products based on previous-generation chipsets (e.g., P965). Since P35 offers no special advantages, we would recommend to suspend the upgrade until the autumn.

Conclusion