X-bit labs

Review of MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R Mainboard on i875P Chipset (page 6)

Category: Mainboards

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 06/12/2003 | 01:21 PM ]

BIOS and Overclocking

Unlike the majority of manufacturers who have made a choice in favor of Phoenix-Award BIOS’s, MSI often prefers BIOS’s from AMI. MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R is another example, using AMIBIOS. There is nothing bad about it. Modern AMIBIOS versions, unlike their predecessors, are flexible and sometimes provide higher performance than their Award counterparts.

The performance issues will be discussed later on, now let’s have a walk around the Setup. First, look at the memory timings that are placed on a separate page in the BIOS Setup of MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R.

Here, you can set DRAM CAS# Latency (to 2, 2.5 or 3), DRAM Precharge Delay (to 5, 6, 7 or 8), DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay and DRAM RAS# Precharge (to 2, 3 or 4). Overall, a standard set of options. Besides, there is an option to turn on ECC, as MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R is a i875P based mainboard.

The Frequency/Voltage Control page is more interesting as it contains most overclocking and frequency adjustment options.

First of all, check the available memory frequencies. Like in many other i875 and i865 based mainboards, the DRAM frequency depends on the FSB frequency. Particularly, the owners of CPUs with 800MHz bus will have a wider choice. The table below lists available memory frequency settings:

As we see, MSI engineers have added some new modes to the standard set: DDR354 for CPUs with 533MHz bus and DDR500 and DDR532 for CPUs with 800MHz bus. We can’t say these modes are too helpful, but overclockers may put them to good use.

Back to the most interesting, to the parameters that immediately affect CPU overclocking. MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R offers the following to a dedicated overclocker:

• FSB frequency adjustment. Formally, the range is from 100 to 500MHz. The maximum for processors with 400MHz bus end at 355MHz, while for processors with 533 and 800MHz bus frequencies the mainboards allow setting 500MHz FSB. However, this is just a marketing trick: no processor available today can work with such a high FSB frequency.
• Theoretical possibility of changing the CPU multiplier. Although this option is present among the settings, you cannot use it. All processors Intel sells today have a dead locked multiplier.
• Manual adjustment of the Vcore from the nominal CPU voltage to 2.3V with 0.0125V increment for the first 0.1-volt segment and 0.1V increment thereafter. Thus, you can flexibly control the Vcore. Only the too large increment for high voltages is upsetting.
• Vmem adjustment. The range is from 2.5V to 3.3V with 0.05V increment.
• Vagp adjustment. The range is from 1.55 to 2.1V with 0.05V increment.

So, overclockers should welcome MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R. This mainboard offers the richest opportunities for adjusting the FSB frequency as well as the voltages. That is, MSI has adapted its product for both: ordinary and extreme overclocking.