Intel has increasingly come up with even smaller chips as of late. Previously, their CPUs were manufactured based on the 65nm process, which then transitioned on to the 45nm process. It’s interesting however, that Intel doesn’t develop chipsets on the same architecture process concurrently. While the 65nm processors were around, Intel’s chipsets were made on the 90nm process. Today, the cycle repeats itself with Intel’s chipsets being produced on the 65nm process. Intel’s latest offering of 65nm chipsets come in the form of the P45. MSI was the first to send one our way.
The P45 chipset, codenamed Eaglelake, is the successor to the P35 chipset, also known as Bearlake. The P45 chipset was developed to support the latest Penryn processors where high FSBs are required. As such, the P45 chipset is able to run at a front side bus speed of 1.6GHz to 2.0GHz. Support for DDR3 is still present, however, MSI chose to go with DDR2 for the P45 Platinum. Apart from the increased FSB, the P45 doesn’t boast much for a new chipset.
MSI sent us the board without any accessories inside, so we can’t talk much about the bundle. But considering that the P45 Platinum is rated as a mid-range board, we can expect a decent number of SATA and IDE cables, Molex-SATA power cables, and perhaps an external module or two.
There are some fresh changes to the design of MSI’s motherboards. For instance, the Circu-Pipe design has been revamped. Instead of the arched heatsink we’ve seen previously, the heatsnk above the northbridge sports an array of heat fins jutting out in all directions, much like a bouquet of flowers. The additional heat fins should help in dissipating heat more efficiently, which brings us to the implication that overclocking is much encouraged. Also, we see a “DrMOS” label on the cooling circuit, which is a technology that MSI has recently integrated. It’s a complete re-design of MOSFET, implementing Hi and Lo-side MOSFETS and a driver into a single package. MSI claims that DrMOS technology offers higher switching frequencies and cooler operations, which results in better overclocking headroom. Upon closer inspection, the socket area may seem tight, so take caution when purchasing CPU coolers. Other than that, the board seems pretty clean and well laid out save for the board’s 24-pin power connector. It would have been a better idea to avoid placing it adjacent to the floppy port.
In PCMark, the scores produced look promising. The board’s CPU score of 9,648 was higher than any of the boards tested this month, two of which were nForce 790i boards. Next, it had a memory score of 6,371 while graphics was 13,256. Lastly, the HDD test generated a figure of 6,417. Overall, the P45 Platinum achieved a PCMark score of 10,063.
With increased FSB and technology that improves overclocking potential, the heroic duo gives overclockers an alternative to over-priced enthusiast platforms. Still, its performance is almost at par with the likes of the nForce 790i, and if you’re not itching so much for triple-SLI and prefer lower cost, the P45 Platinum is your best bet.
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Sounds like a pretty sick motherboard.
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