At first glance, the P35 Platinum looks a lot like the P35 Diamond. That's natural, since the layout of both boards are generally the same. However, look closer and you'll see some small differences. In addition to DDR2 support, slightly different fifth SATA port placement, the MSI P35 Platinum uses fewer electrical components. Another difference which may be a little hard to spot is the audio codec used - the MSI P35 Platinum sample we received uses the 'lighter' ALC 888 codec instead of 888T. Why is that important? Well, unlike the P35 Diamond, you won't get the X-Fi Xtreme Audio. Cost savings? We think so, after all, every little bit helps. Also notice, the MSI P35 Platinum doesn't offer the ATX 12 volt connector extension. Everything else is pretty much the same, so we won't go into them here.
The P35 Platinum seems to be more conservative than the Gigabyte P35-DS3P by using slightly looser timings than the SPD values. In fact, except for the CAS latency, the other timings are the same to what we saw on the ASUS P5K Deluxe. As we said before, we generally prefer more accurate timings, so though safer, we still generally prefer Gigabyte's P35-DS3P in this regard. Of course, you can always set the timngs manually from the BIOS plus the latency differences are so small, they certainly won't be noticeable at all in real life conditions..
Just like the MSI P35 Diamond, the P35 Platinum applied slightly higher voltage than we'd like - about 1.3 volts - when we set the core voltage to 'Auto'. Processor and FSB clocks are all right on the dot. Let's see whether or not the P35 Platinum behaves just like its higher sibling under load.
Umm, it would seem there's a lot more ripple - much like the other boards in this round up.
Expansions and Add-Ons
Using,
the same layout, the MSI P35 Platinum offers virtually the same
complement of expansion options. You'll get two PCI slots, two x1 and
x16x PCI-E slots, which you can use for Crossfire. The ATX
back
panel also offer the same set of ports in the same arrangement as with
the MSI P35 Diamond - PS/2 ports, six USB ports, a Firewire port, a
coax SPDIF port, six audio port, two eSATA port and a Gigabit Ethernet
port. As we noted earlier, the only difference in regards to expansion
is the fifth SATA port courtesy of the Marvell 88SE6111 chip.
Unfortunately, this mean the P35 Platinum also suffer the same RAID
problem we saw on the P35 Diamond.On the accesories side, you'll get slightly less - you won't get the X-Fi Xtreme audio PCI Express card and the SkyTel VoIP PCI card. Although MSI's website lists four SATA cables and one 4 pin ATX to two SATA power connector, we only found one 4 pin ATX to one SATA power connector with our sample. So, your mileage may vary depending on where you live and the policy of your local MSI distributor / representative. IDE and floppy cables, plus the same, one port Fireiwer bracket is still bundled with the P35 Platinum, so no loss there.
Tweaking and Overclocking Options
The MSI P35 Platinum BIOS is identical to the P35 Diamond, so the same
options and features can be found in this motherboard. Of course, that
also mean there's no built in BIOS flasher and BIOS profile
support. The MSI P35 Platinum BIOS offer lots of tweaking and
overclocking
options, enough for most people and average users. Important settings
like
FSB, memory timings and voltage settings can be set automatically
or manually adjusted. What we slightly dislike is the method for strap
configuration - the MSI P35 Diamond relies on two jumpers. Think that's
bad? Well, it gets worse - they are placed in front of the first x1
PCI-E slot so you have to remove your dual slot cooling graphics card
to access them. Thankfully, in their default state (333MHz on our
sample), achieving 400 MHz is a no brainer.There are some small things MSI could have done differently Here's what we think they should've done:
- DIMM placement - there's definitely enough room on the board but MSI chose a layout that makes it difficult to remove the RAM modules without removing the graphics card first.
- The Circupipe radiator heatsink is too close to the RAM. Not only does it heats up the PCB there, but there's is a chance it will also heat up your RAM (on the first slot) as well. Circupipe also makes processor fan / heatsink slightly troublesome, though on a much less tolerable level compared to Gigabyte P35T-DQ6's Silent Pipe.
- Overall, we think MSI should've done a better job with the fifth SATA port placement and a more flexible eSATA arrangement. The use of the Marvell88SE6111 chip is also a bit odd (and troublesome - see the next point). Unlike the J-Micron controller, it only supports one SATA and two IDE devices (with no RAID support).
- Unfortubately, the latest BIOS we used for this board (BIOS version 2.1) introduced a nasty bug that prohibits RAID hard drives to be recognized if the Marvell SATA controller chip is enabled. So, users who want to use RAID (or AHCI) features of the ICH9R have to disable the Marvell controller. In most cases, that means you won't be able to use an optical device with plain IDE interface or any IDE device at all. This problem also affects the MSI P35 Platinum.
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