The hype over the P35 chipset has somewhat died down. And it’s probably due to the recent release of the X38 chipset from Intel. However, the X38 chipset was meant for higher-end platforms, so budget consumers won’t even consider getting an X38 board, which is why MSI still focuses on providing cheaper boards most of the time. While the P35 is slowly losing steam, it still offers good performance and features. This month, MSI sends the MSI P35 Neo3 our way.
Along with the board, MSI packs some necessary accessories for your convenience. You get one IDE cable, a floppy cable, a generous batch containing four SATA cables and two Molex-SATA power cables. It’s not much, but it’s enough to start you off with a new system when transitioning from an old one.
On the board, there is ample space for a large heatsink should there be any overclocking done, or if it’s just for better cooling. MSI uses uniquely designed passive heatsinks for both the northbridge and the southbridge, which depends on good airflow to absorb the heat. The four DIMM slots allow for RAM with a maximum of 1,066MHz clock speed and supports up to 8GB of memory in total. All the power and IDE ports are well situated and are not obstructing anything. We placed our gigantic 8800GTS video card and we were pleased that the heatsink on the southbridge and the SATA ports were not a hindrance. In terms of expansion slots, there was only one PCIe x16 slot and one PCIe x1 slot available, so you can forget about going CrossFire or dual SLI. One issue though, putting bigger graphics cards will definitely block the PCIe x1 slot. And seeing as that’s the only PCIe x1 slot on the board, a sacrifice would have to be made. For the lack of PCI express slots, you get four PCI 2.2 slots (personally, we would prefer another PCI express slot instead). Also, MSI puts a parallel and serial port to cater for older technology.
As for performance, the MSI P35 Neo3 fared pretty well. First up, the board scored 7,535 on CPU, which is at par with some of ASUS’s ROG (Republic of Gamers) boards. The memory test produced 6,002 while graphics scored 11,452. Lastly, the board scored 5,500 on HDD, producing an average of 8,113 on PCMark.
The MSI P35 Neo3 is a powerful board, which should satisfy all kinds of needs…well most of them. However, the lack of PCI express slots should be noted, but other than that, the MSI P35 Neo3 gives great performance for a reasonable price.
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