MSI P6N SLI Platinum: NVIDIA's 650i Part Two
by Gary Key on March 13, 2007 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
MSI P6N SLI Platinum Basic Features
MSI offers a moderate level of BIOS options available for tweaking the board, with significant emphasis placed on the available memory settings. We found in memory testing that switching to manual settings and changing the CAS, tRCD, tRP, and tRAS was required to ensure optimum performance as our performance results will show shortly. The FSB VTT voltage setting was a welcome addition during quad core overclocking but we did experience one quirk when initially setting up the board for overclocking. The user will have to press the F4 key in order to gain access to the C1E option in order to disable it. Why MSI hid this option and did not mention it in an otherwise top notch user's guide is beyond us, but it was easily changed after a visit to the MSI technical forums.
We tested the board with the release 1.1, beta VP.02, and the soon to be released 1.22 BIOS releases. Our test scores are based upon the 1.22 release. This release fully enables downward multipliers on the Core 2 Duo processor series, fantastic stock performance, and offers decent overclocking performance. We have not found any real show stoppers in this BIOS from a component compatibility, stability, or features viewpoint, although the BIOS still requires some performance tuning in the areas of overclocking and enabling memory speeds above 1067 in our experience. Our other complaint about the BIOS is the fact we typically have to run our voltages slightly higher than on other boards to match the same timings or overclock levels.
The board also features MSI's D.O.T. (Dynamic Overclocking Technology) overclocking system that will "intelligently" overclock the system based upon CPU load from predetermined settings that range from 1% to 10%. This system generally overclocked our setup without issue when using the five or seven percent settings. D.O.T. is designed for users who want a little extra performance without worrying about tuning multiple BIOS settings. Considering most people won't notice anything less than a 10% performance boost, the D.O.T. is of limited use for most users - though admittedly 5% saved on something like video encoding tasks might prove useful.
| MSI P6N SLI Platinum Specifications | |
| Market Segment: | Mid-Range Performance - $165 |
| 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: | NVIDIA 650i SPP (C55) + 430i MCP (MCP51) |
| Bus Speeds: | Auto, 400 to 2000 (100~500) in 1MHz increments |
| Memory Ratios: | Auto, Sync |
| Memory Speed: | 400MHz~1400MHz in various increments |
| PCIe Speeds: | 100MHz~200MHz in 1MHz Increments |
| Core Voltage: | Auto, +0.125V to +0.3875V in 0.0125V increments |
| FSB Options: | Auto, Linked, Manual |
| CPU Clock Multiplier: | Auto, 6x-11x in 1X increments - Core 2 Duo, downwards unlocked, Core 2 Extreme 6x-16X |
| DRAM Voltage: | Auto, 1.80V to 2.80 in .05V increments |
| DRAM Timing Control: | Auto, Manual - 10 DRAM Timing Options |
| NB Voltage: | 1.25V to 1.50V in .05V increments |
| SB Voltage: | 1.50V, 1.60V, 1.65V, 1.70V |
| FSB VTT Voltage: | 0% to 20% Increase, various increments |
| Memory Slots: | Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots: | 2 - PCIe X16 (2-x8 electrical for SLI or Multi-GPU) 1 - PCIe x1 3 - PCI Slot 2.2 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID: | 4 SATA 3Gbps Ports - 430i MCP (RAID 0,1, 0+1, 5, JBOD) 1 e-SATA 3Gbps Ports - Silicon Image SiL3531 |
| Onboard IDE: | 2 ATA133/100/66 Port (4 drives) - 430i MCP |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394: | 8 USB 2.0 Ports - 4 I/O Panel - 4 via Headers 2 Firewire 400 Ports by VIA 6308P - 1 I/O Panel, 1 via Header |
| Onboard LAN: | NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet - PCI Express - RTL8211BL PHY - 1 port via 430i MCP |
| Onboard Audio: | Realtek ALC888 - 8-channel HD audio codec |
| Power Connectors: | ATX 24-pin, 8-pin EATX 12V |
| I/O Panel: | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Parallel Port 1 x S/PDIF Optical - Out 1 x S/PDIF Coaxial - Out 1 x IEEE 1394a 1 x Audio Panel 2 x RJ45 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| BIOS Revision: | AMI 1.1, VP.02, 1.22 |
| Auto Overclocking: | D.O.T. , Manual, 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 10% overclocking rates |
| Board Revision: | v1.0 |
MSI offers a moderate level of BIOS options available for tweaking the board, with significant emphasis placed on the available memory settings. We found in memory testing that switching to manual settings and changing the CAS, tRCD, tRP, and tRAS was required to ensure optimum performance as our performance results will show shortly. The FSB VTT voltage setting was a welcome addition during quad core overclocking but we did experience one quirk when initially setting up the board for overclocking. The user will have to press the F4 key in order to gain access to the C1E option in order to disable it. Why MSI hid this option and did not mention it in an otherwise top notch user's guide is beyond us, but it was easily changed after a visit to the MSI technical forums.
We tested the board with the release 1.1, beta VP.02, and the soon to be released 1.22 BIOS releases. Our test scores are based upon the 1.22 release. This release fully enables downward multipliers on the Core 2 Duo processor series, fantastic stock performance, and offers decent overclocking performance. We have not found any real show stoppers in this BIOS from a component compatibility, stability, or features viewpoint, although the BIOS still requires some performance tuning in the areas of overclocking and enabling memory speeds above 1067 in our experience. Our other complaint about the BIOS is the fact we typically have to run our voltages slightly higher than on other boards to match the same timings or overclock levels.
The board also features MSI's D.O.T. (Dynamic Overclocking Technology) overclocking system that will "intelligently" overclock the system based upon CPU load from predetermined settings that range from 1% to 10%. This system generally overclocked our setup without issue when using the five or seven percent settings. D.O.T. is designed for users who want a little extra performance without worrying about tuning multiple BIOS settings. Considering most people won't notice anything less than a 10% performance boost, the D.O.T. is of limited use for most users - though admittedly 5% saved on something like video encoding tasks might prove useful.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
20 Comments
View All Comments
ranutso - Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - link
Great article. Thank you Gary.cosmotic - Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - link
How can you say that MSI software is decent? It's totally hideous. I think Anandtech owes it to the community to encourage motherboard manufactures to start writing native-feeling Windows applications instead of these crap piles all the manufactueres are shipping now. This includes AMD/ATI, nVidia, Realtek, and many others for their drivers as well.Gorgonzola - Thursday, June 21, 2007 - link
I could not agree more!anandtech02148 - Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - link
Here I go againcomplaining about the psu and power consumption, but 300watts load,200watts idle,
not to mention fancy subwoofer, a few electronics here there,
good gaming is in the summer time, and i'll be cranking up the AC too which is another 250wtts.
i wish newegg.com would sell me a n.korean light water nuclear reactor so i can run all my greatest hardwares.
Spanki - Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - link
Hey Gary,Since it looks like this mb outperforms pretty much every other board in the review in most tests (at stock speeds, where head-to-head comparisons usually take place) - including the much touted 'Extreme' board(s), do you plan to include it for comparisons in future reviews?
Olaf van der Spek - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
The 650i uses 21% more power on idle compared to the ICFX3200. What is nV doing with all that power? This seems absurd.Gary Key - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
It is being channeled into the on-board Flux Capacitor. ;-) I can tell you that we have hounded NVIDIA to no end about this issue with their chipsets. It should be addressed when they finally go to a single chip solution later this year (we are still hoping this occurs).
Frumious1 - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
If I were to venture a guess, NVIDIA probably isn't doing any proper power savings work for the chipset. Just like with CPUs and GPUs, there's a lot of stuff on the chipset that is often not in use and can be put into a sleep/deep sleep mode. The 650i and 680i use 100-107W more power at full load than at idle. The 975X uses 141W more at load, P965 139W more, and RD600 105W more.IIRC, AMD is using a newer process technology for RD600, so that would help explain their lower overall power. Intel seems to benefit from power savings in idle mode, but at full load they are pretty close to NVIDIA. The extra "stuff" in 680i relative to 650i could easily account for the added ~10W that it requires. Seems to me like all companies involved could do more with chipset power savings. AMD is just ahead on the process tech (again, I think); Intel uses an older process but decent power saving circuitry; NVIDIA doesn't do anything to conserve chipset power.
When you consider that at idle the PC is doing nothing important, AMD and Intel should drop CPU clocks further (600 MHz ought to be enough), and they could drop FSB/bus speeds and chipset voltages as well. Why run 1066FSB when you're doing essentially nothing? Why run 1000MHz HyperTransport to transfer... nothing? I believe AMD does drop HT speeds at idle on their mobles chips, so why not on desktop offerings?
Just my two cents.
WT - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
Patiently awaiting the Gigabyte version of this board, as I was most interested in upgrading to the 965DS3 board rev 3.3, but the 650 look like it is worth the wait. Also, since the C2D price drop isn't until late April, I have time to wait and make a decision once that board is available. Good read as usual guys !ghitz - Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - link
Exactly what I was thinking !!