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.
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nicolasb - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
Maybe this was mentioned in part 1 and I missed it, but how does the 650i perform in terms of heat output? And how effective/noisy is the north bridge cooling on the MSI board? And how does the overall power consumption of the system compare to P965? The 680i certainly runs very hot indeed compared to its Intel rivals;I think need to know if the 650i does the same.Gary Key - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
Power consumption numbers are on page 9. Thermals are a different story as they will vary widely depending upon the case design and internal cooling. The best I can do is to setup a 650i and a P965 on a test platform and take readings without any airflow across the boards. I will do that tonight but from the touch of your finger testing, I figure the 650i is about 15% warmer on average. The fan that MSI includes has a db rating of 34 and did not sound whiny in testing.nicolasb - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
I think we need to know, even.Geraldo8022 - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
Yes, this is very important to me and I also would like the answers to these questions.phusg - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
Guys I agree it's very important but please RTFA first ;-)From page 9 power consumption you can conclude that the 650i uses some 10-15 Watts less than the 690i.
phusg - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
Additionally if idle is more important to you then the P965 seems to nose in front, if load is more important then the RD600 chipset seems to be king. Unfortunately only DFI has a board at the moment although I think ASUS is rumoured to be preparing one too.And as far as noise goes I think all these motherboards are passively cooled, so they should be pretty close to 0db.
yyrkoon - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
First, let me get this out of the way:Last page second to the last paragraph, I'm assuming you meant 'knock-out blow' ?
Now that, that is out of the way, is it just me, or does it seem that MSI is/has been encroaching on ABIT, and like companies as far as stability goes ? I personaly have not owned any MSI motherboards for quite some time, but everytime I read about their boards, it seems to be getting more, and more favorable for them.
Now a question concerning functionality. Will this SIL eSATA chip handle SATA Port multipliers well ? Would be a very good option if so. Also how many PCIE lanes do these boards actually use vs the i680 boards ? I remember seeing a spec sheet of the 590 vs the 570 (which if I recall correctly, was half the PCIE lanes, 590 vs 570 that is) but I do not recall seeing any data concerning the i680 vs its little breathren.
Gary Key - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
Hi,It should have been knock-out blow and is corrected now. On the front page we linked to our 680i launch article that explained the technical differences between the chipsets - http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">680i Launch - but to answer your question quickly the 680i has 46 PCI Express Lanes and nine links compared to 18 PCI Express Lanes and four links on the 650i SLI. The specs on the SIL3531 can be found here - http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?...">SiL3531. The chipset has support for Port Multipliers with FIS-based switching such as their own SiL3726 chipset.
MSI over the last couple of years had lost their focus to some degree in the motherboard market and it seemed as though they either wanted to product low cost boards to compete against ECS/Foxconn or high-end boards in their Diamond series. You never knew what to expect from them when a new chipset was released. They were also getting a bad rap for being late to market along with getting the board finally tuned correctly about the time production ended on it. I know from several discussions with them over the past couple of months that they are aware of past issues and are vigorously working to correct those issues now. Product quality has always been good overall but has certainly become better as of late while pricing is still aggressive based upon feature sets.
Thanks for the comments.
yyrkoon - Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - link
Thanks for the reply Gary.Am I right in assuming that just because a given chipset has x mount of PCIE lanes/Links, that <insert OEM> motherboard manufactuer is not obligated in using all of these lanes /links ? IF this be the case, how would one go about finding this information out, without reverse engineering the motherboard ?
just4U - Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - link
Odd is it not? They used to be first to market in alot of boards and had to constantly fine tune after launch because they were riddled with issues. I've always liked MSI and usually purchase a few of their boards each year.