Good design, good overclock, good pipe-The MSI P35 Neo2-FR overview

[NickS]

How so? Have you updated to v1.5? It shares the same BIOS as the P35 Plat... I can give you a link if you want.

[wyemarn]

How so? Have you updated to v1.5? It shares the same BIOS as the P35 Plat... I can give you a link if you want.

Yup I'm using 1.5 now. In fact, the board uses the same PCB as P35 so it shares the same BIOS. Only the two roller coaster pipes and firewire are missing. So basically you are getting a Platinum.

[neoman]

Hmm isnt this name Neo2-FIR instead of FR ( FR does not have heatpipes )

[wyemarn]

Actually there are two versions.

Neo2-FIR (with Firewire)

Neo2-FR (without Firewire)

Not sure what F stands for but I is for IEEE1394 and R is for RAID. Actually I don't see there is a need for Firewire nowdays. Not many ppl are using it. Anyway my Audigy 2 ZS comes with Firewire so I don't mind if the board doesn't come with firewire. Recently Toms hardware tested dual and quad core overclocking and recommended Neo2 in the budget segment.

[Henry]

clon22 : how about the vdroop with Q6600? Thx..

[heikis]

Hmm isnt this name Neo2-FIR instead of FR ( FR does not have heatpipes )

actually, both are with heatpipes.
however there are many misleading sites with wrong pictures.

[NickS]

Yup I'm using 1.5 now. In fact, the board uses the same PCB as P35 so it shares the same BIOS. Only the two roller coaster pipes and firewire are missing. So basically you are getting a Platinum.

So what is so buggy about it and or what are the bugs?

[wyemarn]

So what is so buggy about it and or what are the bugs?

Actually it's a minor bug. When I was using Pentium D, the BIOS menu shows wrong CPU speed when overclocked. However, this doesn't affect the effective overclocked speed so it's not really a problem, just a small bug.
However, after upgrading to E2140, the bug is gone.

Btw, I just updated to BIOS v1.72 beta downloadable from MSI forum. In fact there are lots of BIOS to be played with. Normal and performance BIOS. If you guys check out P35 roundups, you can see P35 Platinum performing quite good. That is because reviewers are using performance bios during review. I haven't tried them and from MSI forum, people find that performance BIOS is not really stable. So far, I'm happy with normal BIOS.

[NickS]

What is this "performance BIOS" and could you possibly link me to the new 1.72 beta?

[wyemarn]

So what is so buggy about it and or what are the bugs?

What is this "performance BIOS" and could you possibly link me to the new 1.72 beta?

Here's link for 1.72. It's German forum but you can find bios attachment in one of the post.

http://msi-forum.de/thread.php?threa...user=0&page=12

Here's performance BIOS P08. It's somewhere middle of the page

http://msi-forum.de/thread.php?threa...tuser=0&page=3

I don't have free time to test out performance BIOS. If you can pls test it out and post the results up. Thank you.

[[XC] 4X4N]

Hey Nick, I have a q6600 running 9x380 on this board. I haven't really tried to tweak it yet, but it looks like a pretty good board so far. It's been running wcg 24/7 for about 2 weeks. The vdroop is not bad, way less than the DS3-R. It seems to run real cool also. I am using the ver1.1 bios and have had no problems with it.

[NickS]

Here's link for 1.72. It's German forum but you can find bios attachment in one of the post.

http://msi-forum.de/thread.php?threa...user=0&page=12

Here's performance BIOS P08. It's somewhere middle of the page

http://msi-forum.de/thread.php?threa...tuser=0&page=3

I don't have free time to test out performance BIOS. If you can pls test it out and post the results up. Thank you.

Sweet thanks. So wait, are the "performance BIOS'" separate from the regular ones?

[wyemarn]

I'm not sure. Performance BIOS are never released for end users. All the reviewers used performance BIOS during testing so I guess the performance is better than normal BIOS. Not sure about the stability and effect on overclocking though. Why dont you try it out and compare it with normal BIOS.

[scooter.jay]

I must ask the bios question as well i would like to see some testing on newer bios. I am running 1.1 no problems so far but would like to know if better one is available?

[wyemarn]

I must ask the bios question as well i would like to see some testing on newer bios. I am running 1.1 no problems so far but would like to know if better one is available?

Well, if you head over MSI forums, their mods will keep telling you not to upgrade BIOS if you don't have any problem. Personally I don't agree with this because I think BIOS upgrade will fix bugs and maybe enhance performance.

The latest BIOS released is 1.5 and beta is 1.72. I'm currently using 1.72 beta and if you are interested pls try it in the link above. Pls beware that a bad flash will ruin your board so I'm not responsible for anything.

[scooter.jay]

thanks for the reply. At the moment running 400x8 e2140 at 3.2ghz on swiftech apogee water block. The reason i asked is for when i get e8500/e8400 i will need to use a more mature bios due to the high clocks they seem to be able to reach but at the moment everything is rock solid and the limit i have reached is almost certainly the cpu limit not the board or ram. The thing is that i have already been told not update my bios by msi forums which i must admit i found strange as with all the other boards i have used bios updates have always shown some improvement.

[jmmtn4aj]

I bought this board when it 1st released.
Its my 1st MSI Intel board.
Been using msi for amd and asus,giga for intel.
So far not bad.
Tested on my previous q6600 too.
In the Bios menu,
press F4, a power user menu will appear.
Dunno for what thou..







Will try out on the LS when I have time.

1.675 vcore in bios and only 1.213 in cpu-z?! Actually, how on earth did you hit 428x9 at 1.213?

[NickS]

1.675 vcore in bios and only 1.213 in cpu-z?! Actually, how on earth did you hit 428x9 at 1.213?

9 times out of 10 CPU-Z doesn't correctly read VCORE on Intel mobo's. It said the same for me on my P5B DLX no matter what voltage was set in the BIOS.

[scooter.jay]

please tell the witchcraft you are using to use 1.675 Vcore surely thats going to get seriously hot.

[[XC] 4X4N]

Just did this a little bit ago. Will try for highest fsb with 7 multi when I get more time. What I like is 516 on the memory with only 1.9v

[wyemarn]

BIOS 1.6 is out. Try live update to download it or get it from MSI's FTP site.

[clon22]

clon22 : how about the vdroop with Q6600? Thx..

I really never measure it b4.
but it seems fine.
(as i have sold away my Q6600 already.)

[clon22]

What is this "performance BIOS" and could you possibly link me to the new 1.72 beta?

I dun really like performance bios...
they seem to be slower.
(*i suck @ tweaking spi too.) :p
I have test up till v1.5 bios..
so far, i'm still back to v1.1...
it seems to be the best for me...

Which bios do you guys like?

[clon22]

1.675 vcore in bios and only 1.213 in cpu-z?! Actually, how on earth did you hit 428x9 at 1.213?

1.675v is for me to boot @ 4gb, but I cldn't
bench 3dmark on it(too darn hot)...
the 3.86ghz was @ 1.55v i remembered.
Am now using my old E4300 on it.
I can't find my pic...
latest was my w/88gt.

[clon22]

Just did this a little bit ago. Will try for highest fsb with 7 multi when I get more time. What I like is 516 on the memory with only 1.9v

Yes, but i think you got good rams too.
THe memory controller is not bad.
I use this board to to flash rams for my frenz
and it run quite well above 1200mhz oso.