MSI P45 Neo2 (Intel P45)
Author:
Date: 15.12.2008 |
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BIOS
The BIOS of MSI P45 Neo2 is based on AMI BIOS version.
The memory settings section offers an extended selection of latency timings:
The following parameter is in charge of setting the memory operating frequency:
Now move on to the section to do with the system monitoring.
The board displays the current temperatures for the processor and the system, voltage, as well as rotational speeds of all the three fans. Besides, all the coolers are able adjusting the rotational speed depending on the CPU and system temperatures.
It also makes sense mentioning the support for two BIOS profiles:
Overclocking and stability
Prior to moving to overclocking, let's look into the power converter. It uses a 5-phase power scheme, in which there are four 470 mkF and twelve 820 mkF capacitors.
Below listed are the overclocking features.
| Motherboard |
MSI P45 Neo2 |
| Multiplier adjustment |
+ |
| FSB adjustment |
from the nominal to 800 MHz (1) |
| Vcore adjustment |
within -0.4 to +0.7875V (0.0102V) |
| Vmem adjustment |
within 1.416 to 3.324V (0.012V) |
| Vdd adjustment |
within 0.74 to 2.624V (0.012V) |
| Vsb adjustment |
within 1.5V to 1.8V (0.05V) |
| Vtt adjustment |
within 0.9 to 2.47V (0.01V) |
| PCI-E adjustment |
- |
We note the following traits of the motherboards at overclocking. First, programmers at MSI have added the feature for highlighting the parameters exceeding the range of safe overclocking (in their opinion) with different colors. Besides, they have implemented the feature for dynamic overclocking not only for the CPU but also for the PCI Express bus. This feature is named the "D.O.T.":
Now let's try the overclocking features in practice. As we can see, MSI P45 Neo2 has demonstrated quite good results: a stable operation at FSB =500 MHz with a E6550 CPU.
Besides, we liked the process of overclocking using the OC_SW1 block. In particular, we reset all the CMOS settings and switched the FSB to 400 MHz. Not only did MSI P45 Neo2 start successfully, it also set the memory frequency at a high precision.
We can recommend this way of overclocking to the beginner users of computers with value CPUs. Normally, a value CPU with a relatively low clock speed offers quite an impressive overclocking capability. If the BIOS interface is scaring to the user, it suffices to click a couple of switches and add some more performance.
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