X-bit labs

DDR2 or DDR3: MSI P35 Platinum Combo Mainboard Review (page 6)

Category: Mainboards

by Doors4ever

[ 02/29/2008 | 04:37 PM ]

BIOS Setup

The BIOS of MSI P35 Platinum Combo mainboard is based on AMI code.

It not only looks the same as the BIOS of the previously reviewed MSI P35 Platinum, but also offers practically the same functionality. Except for the support of two memory types and a new section, which we haven’t seen before, called User Settings.

It turned out that this section offers the so long-awaited option to save BIOS settings profiles. There is not much you can do here, you can only save and later load two settings profiles. If the “Load Settings” is bright, it means that the profile has been saved and can be loaded. Unfortunately, you can only guess what kind of profile that is, because there is no way of adding a description or at least a short title to it. However, it is a good start already, hopefully it will become even better in newer mainboard revisions.

H/W Monitor section remained exactly the same with the minimum acceptable set of available options.

We can adjust rotation speed only for two fans out of six that can be connected to MSI P35 Platinum Combo. For the processor fan you can set the desired CPU temperature in the interval between 40ºC and 70ºC with 5ºC increment and the minimal fan rotation speed from 0% to 87.5% with 12.5% increment. In our case the fan connector was a three-pin one, so the rotation speed management function didn’t work. You can set the rotation speed for one of the system fans at a fixed rate of 50, 75 or 100%. Moreover, the mainboard can also control two temperatures, main voltages from the power supply unit and processor Vcore.

Cell Menu section is dramatically different from H/W Monitor in terms of available functionality. Almost all overclocking friendly parameters dealing with the CPU, memory and voltage management are gathered here.

The interface is very convenient, and the parameters are grouped depending on their application. Each group related to the CPU, memory, bus frequencies or voltages is separated from the other ones with a horizontal line. There are also a number of informational parameters that report the current processor and memory frequencies as well as the frequencies that we will get after the changes apply. If the voltages are set dangerously high, they will be highlighted with warning red color. Although there are a lot of parameters here, they all fit into a single screen, only timings settings are placed into a separate window.

Although we have been very pleased with all these features and functionality so far, it doesn’t mean that there is not a single drawback we could point out (as always :) ). For example, there is no Auto setting for each memory timing individually. You can either set them all to Auto, or set them all manually. We would also like to say a few words about the available dividers used to set the memory frequency. Although the list for DDR2 memory is formally quite long and includes 1:1.25, 1:1.5, 1:1.67, 1:2, 1:1, 1:1.2 or 1:1.6, ASUS and DFI mainboards still boast more flexibility here. As for DDR3, it is even shorter: 1:1.5, 1:1.2, 1:1.6 and 1:2. The voltages cannot be set below the nominal values.

Speaking of the available voltage adjustment options, the intervals are usually quite wide, even extremely wide, I would say, and the increments are very small:

• CPU Voltage: +0.7875V above the nominal with 0.0125V increment;
• Memory Voltage:
  • DDR2: from 1.8V to 3.3V with 0.05V increment;
  • DDR3: from 1.5V to 2.75V with 0.05V increment;
• VTT FSB Voltage: from 1.175V to 1.575V with 0.025V increment;
• NB Voltage: from 1.25V to 1.625V with 0.025V increment.
• SB I/O Power: from 1.5V to 1.8V with 0.1V increment.
• SB Core Power: 1.05V or 1.15V.

As a result, we can conclude that despite a few drawbacks we have pointed out, MSI P35 Platinum Combo allows managing all the CPU and memory parameters, bus frequencies and voltages that are theoretically required for successful overclocking. Now it is time for us to check them out in real tests.