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

[sharpeyedman]

looking at my board it certainly looks well put together, I was looking for any obvious faults and couldn't see any, I even like the heatpipe on this
more than the roller coaster affair on the Platinum, it makes good contact too around the pwm area, northbridge, & southbridge.
... nice product for a decent price.

Yeah I do like This heat pipe over the platinum' s. It allows me to install my zalman CNP9700 led cooler any way i want.

As for the looks, I found Crucial BallistixTracer RAM look the best on this board. those LED lights on the mobo matches the on the RAM so nicely.
My friend bought this board along with Tracer and they look so tight. Makes me wanna get one of those tracers.

[ownage]

I don't like the fact that the PWM heatsink is to close to the cpu. I had to push hard to fit my Apogee GT in place, because the PWM heatsink sits in the way.

[[LCN]Knowledge]

What can i say?, Installation was smooth!, i didn't have a problem.

-My TT Golden Orb fits well, OCZ Reapers too.
-Came with BIOS v1.1 and supported C2D E6550 out of the box.
-Good options in BIOS.
-Windows XP installation in 15 mins.
-Looks really good, and more with the OCZ reapers
-Manual was crystal clear.

For those of you who attempt to update the BIOS with the Windows Utility provided by MSI, you have to disable something in the BIOS first (i dont remember right now). It is in the manual.

Cons:
-Double booting...
-chassis Intrusion. For god's sake, dont enable this or you will have to push the Clear CMOS button.

[wyemarn]

What can i say?, Installation was smooth!, i didn't have a problem.

-My TT Golden Orb fits well, OCZ Reapers too.
-Came with BIOS v1.1 and supported C2D E6550 out of the box.
-Good options in BIOS.
-Windows XP installation in 15 mins.
-Looks really good, and more with the OCZ reapers
-Manual was crystal clear.

For those of you who attempt to update the BIOS with the Windows Utility provided by MSI, you have to disable something in the BIOS first (i dont remember right now). It is in the manual.

Cons:
-Double booting...
-chassis Intrusion. For god's sake, dont enable this or you will have to push the Clear CMOS button.

Good to hear that. I suggest you try out Performance BIOS P09 or the latest beta 1.77. Windows installation in 15mins? That's fast..

I hate double booting too. What FSB are you doing now?

[Eniqmah]

Please, Any one cooling this board with a Thermalright True 120 Extreme? I need to know if it fits before I order. Thanks.

[wyemarn]

Please, Any one cooling this board with a Thermalright True 120 Extreme? I need to know if it fits before I order. Thanks.

120 Extreme should fit this since I have tested Ninja with this board. Some tested Infinity with this board.

[Eniqmah]

Great. Thank you for the reply.

[wyemarn]

Great. Thank you for the reply.

http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_pa...ra-120-mcl.htm

Just checked MB compatibility list. Enjoy your true 120!

[[LCN]Knowledge]

wyemarn,

I was benching and testing at default CPU speeds (2.33). Cuzz i was finding max GPU/Mem clock on my card first, I have to re-do my pencil volt mod.

Now i will start cranking up the cpu and memory.

My old pentium 4/board/ddr mem seem like a joke compared to this new RIG.

Edit: the MSI utilities Core Center and Dual Core Center are junks!!!, "Your board is not supported" <== lol

[turtleonviagra]

I just ordered the P35 Neo2-FR, and I am planning to get the E8400 when it releases. I've heard the board comes with BIOS 1.1v, and the Wolfdales are supported since BIOS 1.6v. Here's the problem, will BIOS 1.1v work with the E8400 and atleast boot to allow me to update the BIOS or do I need to have an older cpu in to allow me to update the BIOS before hand....?

[WSX]

For those of you who attempt to update the BIOS with the Windows Utility provided by MSI, you have to disable something in the BIOS first (i dont remember right now). It is in the manual.

you have to disable "Boot sector protection" in the bios and also enable "USB legacy support" if your using the MSIHQ tool to flash from a USB stick.

http://pulse50.tripod.com/

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[sharpeyedman]

I just ordered the P35 Neo2-FR, and I am planning to get the E8400 when it releases. I've heard the board comes with BIOS 1.1v, and the Wolfdales are supported since BIOS 1.6v. Here's the problem, will BIOS 1.1v work with the E8400 and atleast boot to allow me to update the BIOS or do I need to have an older cpu in to allow me to update the BIOS before hand....?

Why don't you try getting yourself a retail 65nm Celeron 420 ( C2D architecture based ) for like 38-43 bucks and use that with this board until next black friday sales or wait for the price to drop. Remeber Frys had retail Q6600 for just 189 dollars with free mobo for last black friday. Who knows? Frys might have E8500 or Q9550 at a bargain price then.

You should also be able to do bios upgrades with Celeron 420. If you do get one of those cpu+mobo combo deal @ frys on black friday then you can pair up ur celery with ecs mobo then sell it on ebay :p

Celery 420 @ stock speed of 1.6ghz and should be able to run @ 3ghz overclocked at least on this MSI board

[WSX]

The boards are shipping with different revisions and different BIOS versions, on the german forums a lot of people were getting rev1.2 boards with the v1.4 BIOS this past week.
The one I got 2 days ago was a rev1.2 with a v1.5 BIOS, others are getting rev1.1 BIOS. Officially none of these BIOS support Wolfdales you need BIOS 1.6, but I'm not looking for full Wolfdale support, I just wanna know if my BIOS can boot me into DOS with a wolfie so I can flash it, and according to the Anandtech link below there does seem to be some kind of Wolfdale support from v1.4 and upwards. The only way you'll know for sure is when you, or someone else, buys a Wolfdale and trys to boot it with a BIOS that is lower than v1.6

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3138&p=4


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[turtleonviagra]

The boards are shipping with different revisions and different BIOS versions, on the german forums a lot of people were getting rev1.2 boards with the v1.4 BIOS this past week.
The one I got 2 days ago was a rev1.2 with a v1.5 BIOS, others are getting rev1.1 BIOS. Officially none of these BIOS support Wolfdales you need BIOS 1.6, but I'm not looking for full Wolfdale support, I just wanna know if my BIOS can boot me into DOS so I can flash it, and according to the Anandtech link below there does seem to be some kind of support from v1.4 and upwards. The only way you'll know for sure is when you, or someone else, buys a Wolfdale and trys to boot it with a BIOS that is lower than v1.6

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3138&p=4


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I hope what ever revision and BIOS I get will atleast allow me to boot, so I can update the BIOS to v1.6.
Can anybody test this?

[turtleonviagra]

I just checked again on the MSI website, and it states support for 45nm chips has been since BIOS v1.4.
So, now I just hope I get a Rev 1.2 board.
What is the main difference between rev 1.2 and other revisions? Does it overclock as good?
WSX, how is your Neo2 FR rev 1.2?

[WSX]

if anyone wants to know the BIOS version of their board before hooking it up, there's a small sticker on the actual BIOS chip telling you the BIOS version, you need a magnifier to read it.

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2276/msizz3.jpg
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[wyemarn]

wyemarn,

I was benching and testing at default CPU speeds (2.33). Cuzz i was finding max GPU/Mem clock on my card first, I have to re-do my pencil volt mod.

Now i will start cranking up the cpu and memory.

My old pentium 4/board/ddr mem seem like a joke compared to this new RIG.

Edit: the MSI utilities Core Center and Dual Core Center are junks!!!, "Your board is not supported" <== lol

Good luck in your overclock. This board should have no problems doing FSB500 and above. I'm doing FSB440 everything on lowest voltage. Try downloading the latest Dual Core Center from MSI's website. The latest version worked for me. Remeber to install .NET Framework 2.0.

I just checked again on the MSI website, and it states support for 45nm chips has been since BIOS v1.4.
So, now I just hope I get a Rev 1.2 board.
What is the main difference between rev 1.2 and other revisions? Does it overclock as good?
WSX, how is your Neo2 FR rev 1.2?

Actually Wolfdale samples have been tested since BIOS 1.4. I suggest you try emailing MSI support to confirm about this. In terms on board layout there is no noticable difference compared to 1.1. Maybe some internal circuit change or etc. 1.1 is a big improvement compared to 1.0. More capacitors, new FSB jumper overclock. I can hit FSB500 and above with 1.1 so I think 1.1 will overclock just as well as 1.2

[WSX]

I won't be building on this board until the wolfdales are released, so can't say how it performs. My board came from komplett.co.uk
and they are definitely shipping rev 1.2 boards with bios version 1.5, and they're the FIR versions.

[[LCN]Knowledge]

I'm having bad temps, 37C Idle at stock clocks/volts, with an after market hs/fan + artic silver 5 + ambient temp = 22C.

I will try BIOS 1.6 to see if i get better temps.

CoreTemp and Dual Core Center show the same temps. Though, Intel Thermal Analysis Tool shows idle temps at 22C lol

[[LCN]Knowledge]

I guess 37 Idle is fine, i have CPU Vcore at 1.35V and NB at 1.45V.
Running prime for 25 mins at 3.2GHZ i get 62C load and a peak of 66C (while priming)

Are these temps good for that speed and voltage?. I would like to go 500FSB to get my memory to run at 1000mhz. Also, notice i'm having zero Vdroop

[Bl4ck^!]

Also, notice i'm having zero Vdroop

not possible since it is 4phase power regulator , it has some 0.09v droop in extreme cases , the board has 4 revisions so far :
1.0, 1.1, 1.2 , 1.3 the first one isn't available anymore (becuause it sucked ;]_) rev 1.1 has FSB jumpers on PCB to select the STRAP from 200/266/333 (running 333 strap on mine , better performance after 500Mhz Fsb mark).

[[LCN]Knowledge]

not possible since it is 4phase power regulator , it has some 0.09v droop in extreme cases , the board has 4 revisions so far :
1.0, 1.1, 1.2 , 1.3 the first one isn't available anymore (becuause it sucked ;]_) rev 1.1 has FSB jumpers on PCB to select the STRAP from 200/266/333 (running 333 strap on mine , better performance after 500Mhz Fsb mark).

Mine is revision 1.1.

I was looking at at CPU-Z and CoreTemp for 25 mins while priming. The Vcore never changed a bit.

Edit: Nah, no matter what Vcore i set in BIOS, CPU-Z and CoreTemp always read 1.350, right now i have it a 1.45 in BIOS.

Maybe a Bug in this BIOS... i will need to update to 1.6 after all.

[heikis]

Mine is revision 1.1.

I was looking at at CPU-Z and CoreTemp for 25 mins while priming. The Vcore never changed a bit.

Edit: Nah, no matter what Vcore i set in BIOS, CPU-Z and CoreTemp always read 1.350, right now i have it a 1.45 in BIOS.

Maybe a Bug in this BIOS... i will need to update to 1.6 after all.

coretemp is not supposed to monitor the current Vcore.
and the new CPU-Z 1.43 is not correct about the vcore. i just tried and it shows constant Vcore 1,30V while the CPU-Z 1.42 shows the correct Vcore (jumping up and down)

[[LCN]Knowledge]

Oh i see, that explains it all thanks!.

With Everest CPUID it shows Vcore at 1.39 with some Vdroop. Despite i set it at 1.35 in BIOS.

I cant go higher thatn FSB 460, i will drop the multiplier to find max FSB and max memory OC.

If i have no luck i will try BIOS V1.6

[WSX]

not great results on early retail wolfdales, at least not for this user, so maybe now I won't buy one in the first week until I can see what they really clock like ... reality sux!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=172882

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