MSI P35 Neo3 и Gigabyte EP35-DS4
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Date: 16.03.2008 |
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BIOS
The BIOS of the Gigabyte's board is based on the Award BIOS Phoenix version, that of the MSI - on AMI BIOS version.
The section in charge of memory operation settings looks like this:
The next important parameter that affects the performance is setting the memory operating frequency.
As regards compatibility to various RAM modules, we found no issues about that in the Gigabyte's board. But the MSI board proved partly incompatible to Corsair DDR2 TWIN2X2048-8500C5 modules. In particular, these modules failed to run with this board at DDR2-1066. Upon the first start, the board tried to set just this memory frequency (at DDR2-800, no issues were found). With other 1GB modules, like GoodMem DDR2 GP1066D264L5/2GDC, the MSI ran trouble-free (by the way, we managed to overclock the GoodMem memory to DDR2-1200).
Now look at the system monitoring sections. All is simple and traditional with MSI P35 Neo3:
The board displays the current temperature values for the CPU, system, and offers a feature for adjusting the rotational speed of the CPU cooler depending on the CPU temperature (SmartFAN), as well as the cooler plugged in to SYS_FAN.
The system monitoring of Gigabyte EP35-DS4 is implemented on par. The board displays the current temperatures of the CPU and the system, determines the rotational speeds for greater number of fans, and offers a number of alarms signaling to overheating and stoppage of fans.
Both the motherboards are able saving and loading BIOS settings as profiles (the Gigabyte board supports 8 profiles, the MSI - 4 profiles).
To handle the BIOS, the Gigabyte motherboard offers the integrated Q-Flash utility:
At the same time, the Gigabyte board supports the Windows utility @BIOS which is really handy to use. But we did not like the LiveUpdate utility in the MSI board.
The other settings are gathered in the two multifunctional utilities: in the Gigabyte board that is EasyTune Control Center, and in the MSI board - Dual CoreCenter. We did not like both the utilities: Gigabyte ETC - for that it failed to run in Vista, and Dual CoreCenter - for the weak functionality and the inconvenient interface. It looks like programmers at MSI spent more time for gadgets in the matching panel in Vista:
Anyway, Gigabyte presented the absolutely new Power Saving utility which is aimed at tuning the Dynamic Energy Saver.
The technology is aimed at more economical power consumption and increase of the overall PC efficiency. However, the main part of this technology is implemented on the motherboard itself (in the BIOS), and the utility is needed solely for setting parameters and switching between modes from the most power-saving to the most productive. In the power-saving mode, the CPU multiplier drops to the minimum value (which is not new - that has been done by similar features of Intel for quite a while), with the supply voltage going down to 1V and even lower (the test CPU is based on the Conroe core). Therefore, the Vcore is set lower than that provided in Intel's official specifications.
This technical solution is quite reasonable: with low usage, the decreased voltage is sufficient for stable operation. If a "hard" application is running, then the Dynamic Energy Saver will automatically raise the CPU voltage to the required level.
I remember when in the times of the SocketA we experimented with passive cooling of these mini ovens. To that end, we lowered the multiplier to 5, raised the FSB to 200, and extremely lowered the Vcore. In the end, all the office programs and media players were running absolutely stably with absolutely no noise coming from the CPU cooler. For games, we had to raise voltage a bit and switch the fan to the minimum speed.
For the passed time, the power-saving principle has not undergone changes, and modern technologies have completely automated this process.
By the way, the interesting trait of the Power Saving utility is in that it calculates the watts saved. Therefore, in a year we may be surprised to see that the motherboard has paid itself back completely.
Overclocking and stability
Before we move on to Overclocking, let's look at the power converters. The PWM of Gigabyte EP35-DS4 uses a 6-phase power scheme, in which there are ten 820 mkF, five 470 mkF, and two 560 mkF capacitors. The PWM of the MSI board uses a 4-phase power scheme, in which there are ten 820 mkF and four 470 mkF capacitors.
Now on to the overclocking features. On the Gigabyte board, all the features are gathered in the "MB Intelligent Tweaker" section, and on the MSI board - in the "Cell Menu" section:
| Board |
Gigabyte EP35-DS4 |
MSI P35 Neo3 |
| Multiplier adjustment |
+ |
+ |
| FSB adjustment |
within 100 to 700 MHz (1 MHz) |
within 200/266/333 to 600 MHz (1 MHz) |
| Vcore adjustment |
within 0.7V to 2.35V (0.00625-0.05V) |
+0.7875 V (0.0125 V) |
| Vmem adjustment |
+1.55V (0.05V) |
within 1.8V to 3.3 V (0.05-0.2V) |
| Vdd adjustment |
+0.375V (0.025V) |
within 1.25V to 1.65V (0.025-0.05V) |
| Vsb adjustment |
- |
1.05 V; 1.15V |
| Vsb-io adjustment |
+0,35 V (0.05 V) |
within 1.5V to 1.8V (0.1V) |
| Vtt adjustment |
+0,35 V (0.05 V) |
within 1.175 to 1.55V (0.025V) |
| PCI-E adjustment |
within 90 MHz to 150 MHz (1 MHz) |
within 100 MHz to 200 MHz (1 MHz) |
We found no serious issues with the overclocking tools: all is convenient and handy. Among the special traits, we note the features for dynamic overclocking. On the Gigabyte board, that is the proprietary technology C.I.A. 2, on the MSI - the D.O.T.:
Note that the Gigabyte board offers the EasyTune 5 utility which can be used to set overclocking settings directly from within Windows. This program also runs in Vista, albeit with some minor flaws.
Now let's look at the practical results of overclocking. The maximum stable FSB speed in the Gigabyte's board is 550 MHz; that for the MSI board - 533 MHz.
While determining the overclocking capability, we use the proven 512 MB Corsair DDR2 TWIN2X1024-8000UL1 modules. However, we thought that if MSI P35 Neo3 is not quite friendly to 1 GB Corsair modules, this issue might also occur (albeit in the less extent) in 512 MB modules. So, we repeated overclocking tests with 1 GB GoodMem GP1066D264L5/2GDC modules. Result: stable operation at FSB = 550 MHz.
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