Intel P35: Intel's Mainstream Chipset Grows Up
by Gary Key & Wesley Fink on May 21, 2007 3:45 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
MSI P35 Platinum Basic Features
| MSI P35 Platinum | |
| Market Segment: | Enthusiast - $199.99 |
| CPU Interface: | Socket T (Socket 775) |
| CPU Support: | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Celeron D, Pentium D, Pentium EE, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme |
| Chipset: | Intel P35 MCH and Intel ICH9R |
| Bus Speeds: | Auto, 200 ~ 600 in 1MHz increments |
| Memory Speed: DDR2 | Auto,1:1, 1:1.2, 1:2, 1:1.25, 1:1.66, 1:1.5 |
| PCIe Speeds: | Auto, 100MHz~200MHz in 1MHz Increments |
| Core Voltage: | Auto, 1.100V ~ 2.300V |
| SB Voltage: | 1.05V, 1.15V |
| SB I/O Voltage: | 1.50V ~1.80V in .05V increments |
| CPU Clock Multiplier: | Auto, 6x-50x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked, downwards unlocked, Core 2 Duo |
| DRAM Voltage: DDR2 | Auto, 1.80V ~ 3.30V |
| DRAM Timing Control: | Auto, 9 DRAM Timing Options |
| NB Voltage: | Auto, 1.250V ~ 1.650V in .025V increments |
| FSB Voltage: | Auto, 1.175V ~ 1.500V in .025V increments |
| Memory Slots: | Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots: | 2 - PCIe X16 (1x16, 1x4 electrical for CrossFire or Multi-GPU) 2 - PCIe x1 2 - PCI Slot 2.2 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID: | 4 SATA 3Gbps Ports - ICH9R (RAID 0,1, 10, 5) 2 eSATA 3Gbps Port - ICH9R 1 SATA 3Gbps Port - Marvell 88SE6111 |
| Onboard IDE: | 1 ATA133/100/66 Port (2 drives) - Marvell 88SE6111 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394: | 12 USB 2.0 Ports - 6 I/O Panel - 6 via Headers 2 Firewire 400 Ports by VIA VT6308 - 1 I/O Panel, 1 via Header |
| Onboard LAN: | Realtek RTL8111B PCIe Gigabit Ethernet controller |
| Onboard Audio: | Realtek ALC888 - 8-channel HD audio codec |
| Power Connectors: | ATX 24-pin, 8-pin EATX 12V, 4-pin Molex connector |
| I/O Panel: | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 2 x eSATA 1 x S/PDIF Optical - Out 1 x IEEE 1394a 1 x Audio Panel 1 x RJ45 6x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| BIOS Revision: | v.P01 |
| Board Revision: | v1.10 |
The MSI BIOS offers a decent set of options available for tweaking the board with specific emphasis placed on the available memory settings. Voltage options are rather limited but the range of voltage options available is impressive. Only our high end modules from OCZ, Corsair, and Patriot were able to operate at tight timings with absolute stability. However, until we received the latest BIOS release this weekend the board would not boot with 4GB of memory. MSI has made great strides over the past two weeks in getting this board to perform well with BIOS updates, and we fully expect the performance levels to match or come close to the other currently available P35 boards in the near future.
MSI P35 Platinum Board Layout and Features
 |
| Click to enlarge |
MSI did a really nice job in the layout of this board as all features on the board except for the floppy drive connector are easily reached. This board features a four-phase power regulation solution and conductive polymer aluminum capacitors that provided very good stability during testing. In a fight to outdo the other manufacturers in the heatpipe wars, MSI provided a roller coaster design that looks as interesting as it works. During our overclocking tests we found the heatpipe system results were on par with the other offerings provided additional airflow was available around the CPU area when using a cooler such as the Tuniq 120.
The board installed easily into our Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 case and cable management was very good for power, optical, and hard drives. Due to the tight clearances around the heatpipe, MSI includes an extender for the 8-pin ATX connector. We did not have any issues installing larger heat sinks on this board. The first DIMM slot is right against the rear heatpipe and the memory cannot be installed without removing the graphics card. MSI also includes a manual jumper system on the board that lets the user set a FSB speed of 200, 266, or 333 manually. The BIOS will automatically adjust settings to compensate for the change.
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Wesley Fink - Monday, May 21, 2007 - link
Early boards will be expensive, just like always. The prices will likely drop to the same levels as current P965 boards they replace, with a broad range for P35 boards from basic to "Asus Commando" level gaming boards. It is too early to be discouraged.Comdrpopnfresh - Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - link
I'm willing to bet we'll see them replacing the older boards quickly too. If intel and other manufacturers really want DDR3 to go through, you'll see DDR2 boards disappearing quickly. Its like what happened to s939. Basically the same chips were used for AM2, but the boards and chips quickly dried up and disappeared. The same can be said or PCI-e. In the beginning there wasn't much of a real world benefit, just the theoretical bandwidth increase. Because developments in AGP ceased, we might never know if the switch was necessary.Comdrpopnfresh - Monday, May 21, 2007 - link
If something other than NAND flash could be used, it would be very interesting to see a pci-e 1x board that can house DDR2 memory for use in turbo memory. That way, when people upgrade their ~35 boards to DDR3 when performance and price changes, the DDR2 can be used further. This would make a lot of sense too, because unlike Gigabyte's i-RAM device and logical ramdrives, the high speed, low latency properties of RAM could be used for turbo memory as a way around the 8gb limit of RAM on these cards. And since they are not used for storage, merely access, no redundancy on power supply is needed as with the i-RAM. Someone should start development on this...Comdrpopnfresh - Monday, May 21, 2007 - link
Why would the TDP on the P35 higher if it has no integrated video? Will third-party manufactures implement their own SLI into the P35 given that the reference model only had on x16 pci-e slot? Also, when can we expect to see pci-e2 and more than 4 dimm slots on intel mobos?yacoub - Monday, May 21, 2007 - link
Including a jumper to change the strap setting for the fsb is a nice feature on the MSi board. A little disappointed in the memory comparison test that that board had the lowest bandwidth and most latency. Is that something BIOS updates can improve or is that generally hardware (i.e. board design related)?Gary Key - Monday, May 21, 2007 - link
It is all BIOS tuning in regards to the MSI board. Our first results with the board had the memory performance being equal to the 945P boards. Two BIOS releases later and the improvements have been remarkable. I think MSI is about two BIOS spins behind ASUS and Gigabyte now. Gigabyte finally caught up but ASUS still has the better feature set and options in my opinion.michal1980 - Monday, May 21, 2007 - link
hardocp, seems to take a 180 different outlook on these boards. so werid.skaterdude - Monday, May 21, 2007 - link
What's so weird? Kyle is an extension of AMD's marketing department. He has not cared for Intel in a very long time, at least since he was caught cheating on some Intel benchmarks and was hung out to dry for it. Personally, it is alright to have a favorite company to root for but to do so in such an open and bias way is wrong if you are not running a company specific website. I would not have an issue at all if it was called HardAMD, at least you know what you are viewing is not tainted by free trips, booze, products, and general hostility against a company.
Back on subject....The P35 is a nice upgrade and it may not set the world on fire but it appears Intel listened and improved on a chipset they could have let ride for a lot longer. DDR3 will be interesting and at least the kinks will be worked out by the time X38 and the new processors get here. If I had not already bought a 965 board then P35 would have been the one. I am still miffed about not having a native IDE port as JMicron just plain sucks most of the time.
strikeback03 - Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - link
the P35 does not have native IDE either, and why use an IDE drive anyway?Spoelie - Monday, May 21, 2007 - link
ahum, AMD biased? After reading some of their recent gpu reviews, I thought it was the other way around... Check yourselfanyway, not a worthy upgrade, but a worthy new board. Which is what you could reasonably expect.