X-bit labs

Review of MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R Mainboard on i875P Chipset (page 7)

Category: Mainboards

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

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

And yet, MSI forgot about one thing: MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R has no means to reset CPU parameters in case of “over-overclocking”. So, if the system doesn’t start up after some tuning in BIOS Setup, there is only one way to get it back to life: use the Clear CMOS jumper.

Although BIOS Setup of MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R looks fantastic, we encountered certain problems in it. During our test session we tried to use three different versions of the BIOS for this mainboard: 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4. Every version had some individual drawbacks:

• BIOS 1.0 didn’t allow setting CAS Latency = 2 for DDR400 with processors supporting 800MHz bus. If we set this parameter in BIOS Setup, the memory frequency dropped to 333MHz.
• BIOS 1.2 was illiterate with timings. Manual adjustment of DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay and DRAM RAS# Precharge in BIOS Setup led to unpredictable results.
• BIOS 1.4 is nasty during overclocking. The maximum FSB frequency we reached using this version was 217MHz. Meanwhile, with earlier versions we overclocked our test processor to 275MHz FSB.
• Besides, all tested BIOS versions don’t work correctly with XMS3200 memory from Corsair. By default, the mainboards sets such timings that the system cannot start up. So, if you want to use DDR400 memory from Corsair, you will have to turn the mainboard on with some other memory modules, manually configure the memory and then switch to Corsair modules.

MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R has an interesting overclocking-related feature called CoreCell technology.

A special chip in an original metal packaging is responsible for this feature. As the mainboard box tells, CoreCell monitors system health and offers four advantages:

• Controls the rotation speeds of the fans (CPU, North Bridge and others) to reduce the noise;
• Increases the reliability of mainboard components;
• Reduces power consumption;
• Controls overclocking features of the mainboard, making overclocking more fruitful.

But as we see, the BIOS Setup has no trace of this technology. The system monitoring page doesn’t mention CoreCell, either.

Nevertheless, the PC Health page has a lot to say about the system. For example, you can watch the CPU and system temperature, rotation speeds of the CPU and chipset fans, the voltages of the CPU, battery and PSU (on all lines).

As for CoreCell, it turned out that all the pleasantries of this technology are only available when you use a special CoreCenter utility from the software bundle coming with the mainboard.

Besides monitoring system parameters from Windows, this utility can overclock the computer by changing the FSB frequency and voltages directly from the OS. Moreover, this utility controls rotation speeds of the fans installed in the system depending on the temperature of certain system components. This gives an opportunity to reduce the overall noise coming from the PC case.