MSI P35 Neo2-FR: Platinum performance for under $100

Final Thoughts

MSI surprised us with the overall performance of the P35 Neo2-FR motherboard. We figured they would neuter the performance of the board so as not to cannibalize sales of the P35 Platinum series. Turns out, we were incorrect. Sure, the Platinum board has FireWire, S/PDIF Optical out, and a conversation generating roller coaster cooling system, but it also costs about $40 more. The performance between the two boards is almost identical making this purchasing decision easy in our opinion unless you need FireWire capabilities. If so, MSI offers the Neo2-FIR for about $10 more.

Our expectations of products in the sub $100 market for Intel have changed considerably over the past couple of months. We are testing the abit IP35-V, DFI Blood IronP35-T2RL, and Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L currently and have been especially impressed with the level of performance you can get at the $100 level. In fact, we would venture to say at this point, that the price to performance ratios of these boards could very well make their more expensive relatives obsolete, provided the feature lists match your needs.

We think MSI's decision to utilize the P35 Platinum board design as the basis for the Neo2 series is an excellent idea from both a manufacturing and marketing viewpoint. In our opinion, MSI actually improved the product family by changing the heatpipe system from the Platinum version. Gone is the roller coaster adventure series and in its place MSI installed a standard if visually conservative heatpipe system that not only has better aesthetics, but also cools just as well in our test conditions.

We do miss the FireWire support, but it is available on the FIR series; the problem with that is that we only found the FIR at a couple of resellers. Overall, this board performs very well but it does have a few quirks (Ed: what board doesn't?) when overclocking and utilizing the 4:5 memory ratios with 4GB installed. We were not always pleased with the board's two-step recovery from failed BIOS settings and the included utilities are just not up to par with abit's µGuru technology. However, MSI did a wonderful job with this board considering the cost targets required to compete in this market sector.

We are pleased to award the MSI Neo2-FR board our Silver Editors' Choice award. The product quality, component choices, support, features, and overall performance of this board are an absolute steal at its current price of $89. Generally, manufacturers must cut corners to offer the latest Intel chipset technology at prices under $100. It is rare that we see a manufacturer offer what is essentially their premium product in the entry-level category, but MSI managed to do this and actually improve the product at the same time.

Overall, this board certainly has more positives than negatives. Its negatives are generally minor and BIOS tuning will likely solve the few performance problems we encountered during overclocking. To be honest, it's the product quality, MSI's support, and price to performance advantages this board offers that really win us over. If MSI offered better utilities, the ability to control each fan header properly, and a BIOS fully tuned for 4GB overclocking then we would give the board our Gold award. As it stands, MSI has reset our expectations in this market space. Will any of the products from abit, DFI, and Gigabyte in this price bracket surpass MSI's offering? We will answer that question shortly.