Product Listing

MSI P965 Neo (Intel P965)

By Zachary Chan - 21 Jul 2006

Conclusion

Conclusion

The P965 Neo is another example of a solid motherboard that does what its designed to do without being pretentious about it. Based on the new Intel P965 chipset, the board sports a basic configuration with Core 2 support, DDR2-800, 8-channel analog HD Audio, Gigabit LAN and SATA 3.0Gbps. It isn't a spectacular board in any way, but neither is it spectacularly bad. We're just sad that there is no RAID support with the ICH8. Terribly wasteful of five good SATA 3.0Gbps ports if you ask us.

Performance-wise, the MSI P965 Neo managed to keep up with its high-end competitor, the Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 as well as the enthusiast-class ASUS P5W DH Deluxe, which was based on the Intel 975X Express. While the board did exhibit a tad weaker memory subsystem than the other boards, the minor difference seen in our benchmarks shouldn't even be noticeable under real world environments.

The most interesting aspect of the board is actually its overclocking ability. Yes, we know that the P965 Neo has a gimped BIOS with limited functions, but the fact that it can run at 333MHz FSB without additional voltage is something to take note of. In previous generation chipsets, most manufacturers stuck with the golden number of 1200MHz as the overclocking benchmark, which was fine in the Pentium 4 and Pentium D days.

Now that Intel has launched the Core 2 and moved completely to a 1066MHz PSB for desktop processors, it seems that the bar must now be raised. Like before, it is not so much an overclocking achievement, but a milestone to see if a motherboard can operate at the next logical PSB stepping - 1333MHz. If you didn't take note, a 333MHz FSB incidentally equates to 1333MHz PSB. Food for thought, and certainly a major plus point for the P965 Neo.

Good performance and solid stability. The MSI P965 Neo is a surefire Core 2 Ready platform.

As a mainstream motherboard, the P965 Neo's lack of features is actually a welcome compromise for lower costs and MSI has of late been giving mainstream manufacturers like ECS and ASRock some hard competition in this area. Pricing for the MSI P965 Neo is expected to be in the range of US$134, putting the board in a sweet spot for a mid-ranged offering and as good a price to pay if any for its performance, scalability and stability. Once Intel's Core 2 processors get into retail in quantity, the P965 Neo should enjoy brisk sales.

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