by Ilya Gavrichenkov
04/20/2007 | 02:06 PM
Nvidia’s chipsets for Intel Core 2 Duo processors go on winning widest recognition, mostly due to the arrival of affordable mainboards based on the Nvidia nForce 650i SLI chipset that looks superior to Intel’s alternatives in the overclocker’s eyes. Such mainboards are less expensive than products based on the more advanced nForce 680i SLI and their single drawback is that they support SLI as PCI Express x8 + x8. Considering that SLI is not a very popular technology, even in computers of enthusiasts, it is natural for the nForce 650i SLI to be that popular, especially as mainboards on the nForce 650i Ultra (without SLI support) have not yet been released.
We are keeping watch over overclocker- and enthusiast-targeted mainboards from different brands and are going to discuss the P6N SLI Platinum model from MSI in this review. Based on the nForce 650i SLI, this mainboard is similar to the ASUS P5N-E SLI we have reviewed recently (for details see our article called Nvidia nForce 650i SLI Chipset and only $130: ASUS P5N-E SLI Mainboard Review).
By the way, we haven’t often dealt with MSI mainboards because this manufacturer just did not offer really interesting products that could rival the leading brands in quality of manufacture and performance. However, MSI is now among those companies Nvidia trusted to develop their own mainboard designs for nForce 6xx series chipsets. It means MSI’s engineering team was allowed by the chipset manufacturer into the narrow circle of trusted developers that are qualified enough to create high-quality products on their own. We can expect good consumer qualities from the new MSI mainboards based on Nvidia’s chipsets then.
Considering the rather mediocre performance of the ASUS P5N-E SLI in our earlier tests, the MSI P6N SLI Platinum may prove to be the best nForce 650i SLI-based solution released so far. This is the reason of our high interest towards the object of this review.
The MSI P6N SLI Platinum is not cheap, to start with. Its price is over $170, which is considerably more than the price of the ASUS P5N-E SLI mainboard that uses the same chipset. Why? Because the MSI mainboard is a top-quality product with increased reliability due to solid-state capacitors with a polymer electrolyte and to an original chipset cooling solution. Less demanding users are offered the P6N SLI, a similar but less expensive product, which doesn’t differ much from the Platinum version in terms of functionality. We’ll be discussing the MSI P6N SLI Platinum in this review as the more interesting product of two, but most of what we are going to say applies to the ordinary MSI P6N SLI as well.
One glance over the mainboard is enough to tell you that it is a feature-rich product.
This is confirmed by the mainboard’s official specification.
MSI P6N SLI Platinum | |
CPU | LGA775 processors: Celeron D, Pentium 4, Pentium D, |
Chipset | NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI (C55 SPP + nForce 430 MCP) |
FSB frequencies | 133-750MHz (with 1MHz increment) |
Overclocking-friendly | Adjustable Vcore, Vmem, North Bridge voltage. |
Memory | 4 DDR2 DIMM slots for dual-channel |
PCI Express x16 slots | 2 (with NVIDIA SLI support in 8x + 8x mode) |
PCI Express x1 slots | 1 |
PCI expansion slots | 3 |
USB 2.0 ports | 8 (4 – on the rear panel) |
IEEE1394 ports | 2 IEEE1394a ports |
ATA-100/133 | 2 ATA-133 channels (in the chipset) |
Serial ATA | 4 Serial ATA-300 channels (by the chipset, with RAID support) |
ATA RAID support | RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 in the chipset |
Integrated sound | 8-channel HD codec: Realtek ALC888 |
Integrated LAN | Gigabit Ethernet (in the chipset) |
Additional features | None |
BIOS | AMIBIOS8 |
Form-factor | ATX, 305mm x 245mm |
The specification suggests that we are dealing with a typical mainstream mainboard comparable to the ASUS P5N-E SLI and to most iP965-based solutions in functionality. There is nothing very exceptional about the MSI P6N SLI Platinum from this point of view.
The packaging is ordinary, too. The mainboard comes in a cardboard box without transparent windows or handles. The product name and advertising slogans are printed against a futuristic background on the face side of the box. A photo of the mainboard and a list of its key features can be found on the reverse side.
The box contains quite a lot of accessories. Besides the mainboard, user manual, and a CD with software and drivers, you’ll find here red aerodynamic IDE and FDD cables, six Serial ATA cables, a SATA power adapter, a eSATA cable (half a meter long), an I/O shield for the back panel of your system case, a stiff SLI bridge with a pressure bar that is to be mounted into the system case, a bracket with a FireWire port, a bracket with two USB ports and D-Led diagnostic indicators, and an additional 40mm fan for the chipset’s North Bridge.
The number of accessories is rather typical of mainboards from the top price range, which surely adds more points in favor of the MSI P6N SLI Platinum.
The MSI P6N SLI Platinum being based on a rather advanced chipset, most of the mainboard’s functionality is implemented through the Nvidia nForce 650i SLI. We discussed the chipset in our article called Nvidia nForce 650i SLI Chipset and only $130: ASUS P5N-E SLI Mainboard Review and won’t dwell upon its capabilities here. The following flowchart of the MSI P6N SLI Platinum makes it clear what and how everything works on this mainboard.
The flowchart shows that MSI added to the functionality offered by the nForce 650i SLI by installing two additional controllers. These are a VIA VT6308P chip that supports the mainboard’s two IEEE1394 ports and a Silicon Image SiI3531 chip that supports the mainboard’s single external eSATA port. The VT6308P is connected via an ordinary PCI bus whereas the SiI3531 works via PCI Express x1, making it possible to use SATA II hard disk drives almost at the full theoretical bandwidth of the interface.
The mainboard’s audio section makes use of another additional chip. It is an eight-channel High-Definition codec Realtek ALC888 that adds to the chipset’s audio capabilities. This codec supports a number of modern technologies and features a good DAC with a signal-to-noise ratio of 97dB. Yet this solution is still inferior to Analog Devices codecs and to standalone audio cards in terms of stability and has problems with EAX 2.0 that show up in some games, according to user reports.
You can see two more interesting chips on board. One is MSI’s exclusive Dual CoreCell chip which is responsible for dynamic overclocking, system monitoring, and intelligent control over fan speeds. The other is a rather rare Fintek F71882FG chip that complements the functionality of the Dual CoreCell and supports legacy ports (PS/2, FDD, parallel and serial ports).
You can control the Dual CoreCell feature from Windows by means of the Dual CoreCenter program.
This program allows to monitor and adjust main system parameters like FSB frequency, CPU and memory voltages, fan speeds, etc. Besides that, Dual CoreCenter can be used for dynamic overclocking and supports predefined profiles corresponding to different system usage models. Unfortunately, Dual CoreCenter is not very stable. It can hang your system up and be the cause of all manner of failures. This is why advanced users often shun such software, however useful it may seem.
In addition to the above-mentioned features, the MSI P6N SLI Platinum supports USB 2.0 and Serial ATA-300 interfaces which are implemented entirely through the chipset’s South Bridge, the nForce 430 MCP. Thanks to this chip, the mainboard offers eight USB 2.0 ports and four SATA ports, which support NCQ, RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1 and 5, and a data-transfer rate of 3Gbps. The nForce 430 MCP is also responsible for the mainboard’s two Parallel ATA-133 ports and a single LAN port with a bandwidth of 1Gbps.
There are some peculiar things about the mainboard’s basic functionality. Contrary to Nvidia’s official nForce 650i SLI specification, MSI declares that its P6N SLI Platinum mainboard supports all LGA775 CPUs, including upcoming models with a 1333MHz FSB. This declaration must be valid because the manufacturer’s website lists the upcoming Core 2 Duo E6750 and E6850 models among CPUs tested for compatibility with the mainboard.
The MSI P6N SLI Platinum offers two pairs of DIMM slots for dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM. The slots are color-coded in an uncommon way: you should insert your memory modules into different-color slots to make them work in dual-channel mode.
A small red sticker on the mainboard box raises some apprehensions about its compatibility with DDR2 SDRAM modules. It recommends choosing memory modules basing on the MSI approved memory module vendor list. Such recommendations often imply potential problems with certain DDR2 SDRAM modules. Running a little ahead, we should acknowledge we did not have any problems using popular memory kits from Corsair and OCZ.
The SLI suffix in the name of the mainboard means that it can work with one as well as two graphics cards joined by means of SLI technology. There are two physical PCI Express x16 slots on the PCB for that. The second slot is enabled manually by changing the position of a switch card located between the slots. In the single-card mode the second PCI Express x16 does not work. When the SLI mode is activated, the slots work as PCI Express x8.
Summing it up, the MSI P6N SLI Platinum offers almost the same functionality as the ASUS P5N-E SLI, another nForce 560i SLI-based mainboard we have tested earlier. The only difference is the implementation of the audio section: the ASUS mainboard uses a six-channel Realtek ALC883.
Although the P6N SLI Platinum has a black PCB, its overall appearance is somewhat gaudy because the connectors and onboard headers are all painted different colors. It’s hard to tell if this makes it easier to assemble the system, but the mainboard has a very characteristic look indeed.
The cooling of the chipset and CPU voltage regulator is implemented in an interesting way. Heat pipes have long become a widespread solution and it’s no wonder we’ve got them on mainboards now. Following ASUS’ example, MSI has decided to cool all the hot elements of the mainboard by means of heatsinks connected with heat pipes.
A small Sough Bridge heatsink is connected on the P6N SLI Premium with a rather large North Bridge heatsink by means of one heat pipe. Then, two pipes go to the heatsink installed on the CPU voltage regulator MOSFETs. Thus, the heat generated by all these hot elements is evenly distributed among the system of three heatsinks to minimize the number of cooling fans. Note that the heatsinks are all made from aluminum notwithstanding their copper-like color.
As a result, the P6N SLI Platinum can normally work even without any fans. Installing the included 40mm fan onto the North Bridge heatsink is only recommended for the purpose of overclocking. This fan isn’t quiet, though, as its default rotation speed is as high as 8500rpm.
The CPU voltage regulator is a four-phase circuit with analog feedback. It utilizes highly reliable solid-state capacitors with a polymer electrolyte.
By the way, the reviewed mainboard does not use traditional capacitors at all. It employs more reliable polymer capacitors that have a twice longer service life and a wider range of operating temperatures. The manufacturer puts a stress on this feature as the one that makes the mainboard more reliable and stable at overclocking.
We have no complaints about the PCB design of the mainboard except for the position of the 8-pin 12V ATX connector which is not only in the middle of the PCB but also very close to the CPU socket. Well, most of large CPU coolers are going to mount onto this mainboard without any problems.
The Clear CMOS jumper is designed in an unusual way here. MSI engineers replaced it with a small button which makes it easier to reset BIOS settings. It must have been done on purpose – the engineers foresaw that their mainboard would have to be reset often. Strangely enough, the Clear CMOS button is alone on the mainboard. The developers didn’t add Power On and Reset buttons which are so handy for overclockers.
The mainboard’s back panel is quite a traditional view: PS/2 ports for mouse and keyboard, four USB ports, one FireWire port, a LAN port (RJ-45) with diagnostic LEDs, one eSATA port, five analog audio connectors, coaxial and optical SPDIF outputs, and one parallel port.
There are also onboard headers to connect four more USB ports, one FireWire, a COM port, and the D-Led diagnostic system. This system consists of four LEDs that report how the system is passing the POST.
It has already become a tradition for MSI to use AMI BIOS for their solutions, and it distinguishes MSI P6N SLI Platinum significantly from the solutions on the same chipset. The BIOS Setup of this mainboard doesn’t look very common and features a number of peculiarities. I had to deal with the first of these peculiarities right when I installed the mainboard into the testbed. BIOS version 1.01 that was reflashed in the sample we received turned out unable to support all USB keyboards that we had in our lab. This meant that we couldn’t access Setup and adjust the CPU and other parameters for testing.
Luckily, the BIOS version 1.1 that is currently available on the MSI website helped us resolve this issue. With this BIOS version reflashed all USB keyboards work flawlessly almost all the time. However, this BIOS version also didn’t last long on the board. The difficulties we faced during our overclocking experiments forced us to continue the search for more up-to-date BIOS versions. As a result, we tested this mainboard with an even newer BIOS version 1.21 recommended by MSI engineers on their own forums. So, everything we are going to say about BIOS later in this article refers to this particular BIOS version.
All most interesting BIOS Setup options are gathered together in a separate Menu page called Cell Menu, which serves as a certain control center for the processor and memory settings. of course, this section is going to be of primary interest to overclockers.
Having reported the actual working frequencies of the processor and system memory, this BIOS Setup page immediately offers you to use D.O.T. dynamic overclocking technology. It allows to automatically overclock the CPU if the workload increases. The processor frequency in this case may rise from 1% to 10% above the nominal. Of course, this range is hardly attractive enough for overclocking fans, so in the long run D.O.T. will not be used that frequently.
Luckily MSI P6N SLI Platinum also offers pretty full list of traditional overclocking-friendly functions. For example the front side bus frequency may be changed from 100 to 750MHz. just like on other mainboards based on Nvidia chipsets, the FSB frequency can be set in a not very convenient quad pumped format.
The memory frequency is set up either synchronously with the FSB or pseudo-asynchronously in the range between 400 and 1400MHz. As you already know from our previous articles, Nvidia nForce 650i SLI doesn’t have a truly asynchronous clock generator to clock the memory bus. When you select the desired value in BIOS Setup, the mainboard will pick the most appropriate divider (the chipset offers more than enough of them). Therefore the actual memory frequency will be slightly different from what you set in the BIOS Setup. In most cases this frequency will be slightly lower than the desired value, but no less than 10-20MHz lower.
The PCI Express bus frequency may be set between 100 and 200MHz.
MSI P6N SLI Platinum offers pretty rich voltage adjustment options:
As we see, BIOS Setup of this mainboard offers pretty good voltage management tools necessary for successful overclocking. These parameters may allow MSI P6N SLI Platinum to compete with the best overclockers’ products out there, even the ones based on nForce 680i SLI chipset.
On the same BIOS Setup page you can also adjust the processor clock frequency multiplier and enabled Enhanced Intel SpeedStep power-saving technology. By the way, there is a number of processor options, such as C1E and XD-bit in another BIOS section called Advance BIOS Features.
The memory timings controls are located in Advance DRAM Configuration section that can be accessed from Cell Menu.
Here the mainboard provides access to all major memory timings, and allows to change the Command Rate setting. All memory timings can be set to Auto, which makes mainboard parameters adjustment procedure much simpler.
H/W Monitor section is also pretty interesting on MSI P6N SLI Platinum. It is dedicated to fan rotation speeds monitoring and control.
The board allows controlling rotation speeds of three fans (there are four corresponding fan connectors on the PCB), CPU and system temperature. In fact, the processor cooler fan rotation speed can get adjusted depending on the CPU temperature. However this is only possible when you use coolers with four-pin power connector. Traditional cooling systems always work at full speed, independently of the CPU Smart Fan Target settings.
In conclusion I would only like to say that besides the above listed features, BIOS Setup of the MSI P6N SLI Platinum cannot boast anything else. We were especially upset that there is no option for saving BIOS Setup settings, which could be very useful during overclocking.
We have been talking about what the MSI P6n SLI Platinum can do theoretically. Its resources look good. Its quality of manufacture and setup opportunities match those of best overclocker-targeted products. Still, we shouldn’t hurry up with our conclusions until a practical test.
To check out the MSI P6N SLI Platinum at overclocking we took 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM (Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D), a PowerColor X1900 XTX 512MB graphics card, and a Western Digital Raptor WD1500AHFD hard disk drive. The nForce 650i SLI chipset can clock memory in quasi-asynchronous mode, so our memory modules always worked at a frequency of 800MHz or a little lower with timings of 4-4-4-12-1T. The CPUs were cooled by a Cooler Master GeminII (for details on this cooler see our article called Big Typhoon Squared: Cooler Master GeminII Review), and an additional 40mm fan, the one included with the mainboard, was installed on the North Bridge. Stability of the overclocked system was verified by means of the SP2004/ORTHOS program based on Prime95 code.
First we took a Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor. Using it, we wanted to find the top FSB frequency the MSI P6N SLI Platinum would be stable at. So, we lowered the CPU frequency multiplier to 7x and began to increase the FSB clock rate steadily to find its limit. We had to increase the chipset voltage to 1.4V and the CPU VTT voltage to 4% and then to 8% to make the system more stable at FSB frequencies of about 400MHz. With these settings and with the CPU core voltage increased by 0.2V we managed to reach a FSB frequency of 475MHz. That was the highest we could get.
This was not a success, though. The mainboard worked quite normally in Windows at a 475MHz FSB and passed every stability test, but could not start up at such settings. It rebooted normally, but could not perform a cold start. As soon as you shut the system down, your overclocking attempts were ruined. We checked out everything but the problem persisted. So, you can overclock the mainboard to a 475MHz FSB, but only until you shut it down. And when you try to start the system up after that, it doesn’t start at first, but then resets BIOS settings to their defaults. All settings, not only overclocking-related ones. It was then that we regretted the lack of an option to store different profiles with BIOS Setup settings because we had to perform another series of experiments to find out the top FSB frequency the mainboard would be able to cold-start at.
The results were rather disappointing: the MSI P6N SLI Platinum could only cold-start at FSB frequencies not higher than 375MHz. So, this rather low value is the highest you can use in practice. You don’t want to set up all the BIOS settings again each time you cold-start your PC, do you?
We were about to write a very critical conclusion to this review when we thought about trying a Core 2 Duo E4300. You don’t have to select high FSB frequencies for this CPU because it has a default frequency multiplier of 9x. The top FSB frequency was 380MHz in that case – we achieved it by increasing the CPU core voltage by 0.2V above the default.
Thus, our sample of the Core 2 Duo E4300 was overclocked on the MSI P6N SLI Platinum to its own maximum we had found earlier in practical tests on other mainboards (for details see our article called Cheaper Core Micro-Architecture: Core 2 Duo E4300 CPU Review). So, this result is not to be wondered at. What is surprising is that the mainboard performed a “cold” start without problems at those frequencies. In other words, the mainboard cannot start up at FSB frequencies above 375MHz only with a particular CPU model, namely Core 2 Extreme X6800. There is no such trouble with the Core 2 Duo E4300.
Trying to find the top FSB frequency for the Core 2 Duo E4300 on the MSI P6N SLI Platinum we wanted to lower its frequency multiplier to 7x, for example. But we couldn’t! Although there is an option for changing the multiplier in BIOS Setup, and the value does change, nothing really happens. The CPU starts up with its default multiplier irrespective of that setting. So, it turns out the MSI P6N SLI Platinum cannot lower the frequency multiplier of CPUs other than the Core 2 Extreme X6800 which has an unlocked multiplier.
When we set to checking the overclockability of our MSI P6N SLI Premium we hadn’t suspected the results would be so intriguing. Having checked out two CPUs, we wanted to see more and put a Core 2 Duo E6300 on the mainboard. Popular among overclockers, this model has a default frequency multiplier of 7x, allowing to find the top FSB frequency for a CPU with a locked multiplier.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach a 475MHz FSB as we had done with the Core 2 Extreme X6800. Even after we increased the CPU voltage by 0.25V and the CPU VTT voltage by 12% and set the chipset voltage at 1.45V, we had to stop at 440MHz. The mainboard would normally shut down and start up at such settings and pass every stability test, which was good, considering the earlier results.
Unfortunately, the MSI P6N SLI Platinum could not lower the CPU multiplier for that processor, either, and we are not sure what was the obstacle to a further frequency growth, the mainboard or the CPU or a FSB wall.
Our overclocking tests with the MSI P6N SLI Platinum mainboard produced very ambiguous results. It’s hard to tell what is the top FSB frequency you can achieve on it. This mainboard is very capricious when it comes to overclocking. It behaves differently with different CPUs and there is no logic and order in its behavior. It can overclock your CPU to some extent, but does not give you any promises.
This mainboard obviously has good overclockability as is confirmed by our experiments, but it cannot show its full potential because it lacks a stable and flawless BIOS. You are going to have a number of various troubles even with the latest versions of its BIOS.
In the previous reviews we have already seen that Nvidia nForce 650i SLI chipset performs close to nForce 680i. Therefore, it doesn’t make much sense to compare the performance of MSI P6N SLI Platinum against any other mainboards on different chipsets. This time I decided to compare its performance with that of the ASUS mainboard on the same chipset - ASUS P5N-E SLI. Besides, I have also added the results for ASUS Striker Extreme based on Nvidia nForce 680i SLI.
We will use the following hardware for the test:
We did our best to ensure that the test systems would run in very close testing conditions therefore the system memory was working at 400MHz with 4-4-4-12-1T.
The performance results indicate clearly that MSI P6N SLI Platinum yields in performance to both: the mainboard on nForce 680i SLI as well as ASUS P5N-E SLI based on nForce 650i SLI chipset. Although the performance difference between them is pretty small, this is where we discovered another issue with the BIOS: it is not sufficiently optimized from the performance standpoint. This issue will most likely be eliminated in the future, but in the meanwhile the users will have to put up with the fact that MSI P6N SLI Platinum is about 1-2% slower than the ASUS analogue.
I have to admit that MSI P6N SLI Platinum left very ambiguous impression. Although it is very well designed and uses high-quality reliable components that guarantee stable operation over the time, there are two things that may spoil this rosy future.
First of all, it is the price. Although MSI P6N SLI Platinum is based on relatively expensive Nvidia nForce 650i SLI core logic set, its price exceeds $170. Therefore, this mainboard appeared more expensive than analogous solutions of the same class. It is priced close to products on Nvidia nForce 680i SLI, which will make it hard for MSI P6N SLI Platinum to become very popular. Although this high product cost is absolutely justified by the massive use of solid-state capacitors, advanced copper cooling system with heatpipes and excellent accessories bundle.
Secondly, the board suffers from BIOS issues that can make overclocking experience much harder on the user. However, I have to be fair here and say that all the above mentioned issues are not fatal and may not affect the overclocking results at all. Besides, we hope that these issues will be eliminated in the future BIOS versions, because our tests showed that MSI P6N SLI Platinum has no hardware defects or issues that would make it impossible.
As a result, MSI P6N SLI Platinum has every chance to succeed in the market if the above mentioned drawbacks will be taken care of in timely manner.
Highs:
Lows: