Great Overlocking and Cool Lighting
Written: Dec 14 '03 (Updated Dec 27 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Price, overclocking, lots of extra features, cool lighted northbridge fan
Cons: After you buy it something will come out that's better, or the price will drop!
The Bottom Line: Great overclocking features, even with a bit poor documentation, awesome lighting for case modders and tons of extras, gotta recommend it!
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| Newskier's Full Review: MSI 865PE Neo2-FIS2R (MS-6728-030) Motherboard |
NEW REVIEW:
It appears I owe MSI a HUGE apology. The problems I encountered below were related to a faulty power supply, and not the MSI board (although I didn't suspect the PSU because my system was getting power, but for some reason not enough for the AGP port)
The MSI board features an option in the BIOS to overclock your system RAM and CPU. You can set it from disabled to private all the way up the military ranks. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of documentation as to exactly how much your system will be overclocked by the settings.
In addition, when you overclock your system through the BIOS in this manner, I believe it only speeds up your system if the motherboard detects that you need it, so it isn't a permanent overclock (which I guess would be a bit less taxing on your system, and easier for newbies)
You can also just overclock the FSB in the BIOS so that your speed increase is permanent. Depending on your cooling setup and the thermal compound you use with your processor, you should be able to see some pretty strong increases in your memory and cpu speed (it's recommended you know what you're getting into before you do this, since MSI will not warranty your equipment against damages when overclocked)
I used a P4 2.4C Ghz w/800mhz FSB processor and Corsair XMS PC3200 DDR and had no problem bumping up my system to 2.5Ghz. Unfortunately I sent it back because I thought it was a bad mobo, so I never got around to overclocking to 2.7 and 2.9Ghz.
The MSI board also includes a software feature in windows called CoreCenter, which allows you to overclock while in the windows environment. I still prefer overclocking it through the BIOS though, since doing it through windows did not seem to retain the overclock after you've shut the system down and rebooted.
There is also a software feature that allows you to update your boards BIOS to the latest revision, through an internet connected windows. This feature is great, and certainly beats out the old days of having to flash the BIOS with a floppy disk.
I only used this mobo with an IDE hard drive, so I didn't have the opportunity to check out it's SATA or SATA RAID capabilities, but they're there if you want them.
The included on-board 5.1 sound is passable for some gaming and everyday use. But if you can afford a better dedicated sound card, you'll save some cpu cycles (i.e. on-board sound tends to tax your cpu's processing power more than a dedicated pci sound card) and you'll likely get better sound quality.
The Integrated LAN should work just fine also. The MSI box is packed to the brim with extra add-ons, including SATA cables, IDE ROUNDED cables (no more dealing with those pesky flat IDE cables that don't bend well and restrict airflow), various software utilities, and a number of devices that connect to the motherboard and then hook up the back of your pc case (to allow additional USB ports, diagnostic analysis of your mobo, etc.)
And for the case modders out there, the northbridge fan features an alternating LED that will show green, red, yellow and blue, and randomly flashes on a constant basis at different speeds and patterns. If you've got a windowed case, this will look hella cool!
OLD REVIEW BELOW
Based on positive reviews at various websites (such as www.tomshardware.com and user ratings at newegg.com) I decided to purchase this motherboard (despite being a fan of Intel mobos for their stability and reliability)
The MSI board worked great out of the box, featured tons of add-ons and extras, and the northbridge fan features a really cool fan that has different colored LED lights that flash in random patterns (great for those with a case window who enjoy modding their systems a bit)
Anyway, the system was running fine for a couple of days, and then just the other day I'm browsing around online and my monitor goes blank. I wind up having to reboot the system and when I do that, a few seconds later I get a constant beeping noise, almost like a siren or klaxon (very unlike the motherboard/bios beepcodes I'm familiar with)
I try checking all my connections, swapping out parts from this system to another system, etc. And I find that all of my components are good, but I still can't get the darn thing to boot. I check out the forums on MSI's website and find other people have had a similar problem. I learn that they used the D-bracket device to troubleshoot their systems, so I install it (came with the board) and find that when my system starts it displays all 4 LED lights as red.
This (according to the MSI manual) means that there is a problem with my cpu. I reseat my cpu and try again, no dice. I try my cpu in another system and it works fine. I try the cpu from the other system on my MSI board, still get four red LEDs. There's absolutely nothing wrong with my components, I've tested them in another system. So I can only assume that the problem lies with the MSI board. Not sure what caused it to go south in only a few days, but given that other people have had the same problem and tested their power supplies, cpu's, etc. and found the only thing that could be wrong was this MSI mobo, I must conclude the same. :(
It's unfortunate, because I really wanted to like this board. So for me, it's a return to newegg.com and I've ordered fed-ex overnight an Intel 865 PERL board instead. Guess next time I'll stick with the brand I trust.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 136.00
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Epinions.com ID:
Newskier
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Location: MA
Reviews written: 57
Trusted by: 6 members
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