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This motherboard from MSI offers 5 PCI slots and 4 USB2 ports.
MSI 865PE Neo2-P MSI motherboards are a regular fixture in many PCs submitted for review. Based on the Intel 865PE chipset, the Neo2 is certainly not intended to be the company's fastest motherboard. Despite being based on an older chipset, it managed to turn in a good performance in the face of Springdale-based competition. It clocked up an overall PCmark 2004 score of 4,931, which was enough to ward off the Via-powered ASRock and the IGP 9100 at the helm of Sapphire's Axion RS-300. Likewise, 3D performance was in line with our expectations. It clocked up a 3Dmark03 score of 6,531, which was only marginally off the pace of the highest scoring boards.
Where negative points began to emerge was in the number of connectivity options. Unlike other boards based on the 865PE chipset, this one has just two IDE slots, neither of which offers Raid compatibility. Scope for Sata connectivity is also fairly limited. Two colour-coded ports are provided but, again, Raid compatibility is sorely missing from this motherboard.
Five PCI slots are provided, along with four USB2 ports. Disappointingly, though, MSI has not included any additional blanking plates to provide extra USB connectivity and there is no support for Firewire.
Amends are made to some extent by the inclusion of a Gigabit Lan controller and a substantial 4GB memory ceiling. It is also compatible with 400MHz PC4700 Dimms, but if you are planning to use DDR333 memory with an 800MHz FSB Prescott CPU, the memory will default to running at just 320MHz.
On the whole, the Neo2-P is an attractive option, particularly for fans of MSIhardware on a budget. It has a good number of features, kept pace with the faster motherboards here and offers good value for money.
Contact: MSI 020 8813 6688
www.msi.com.tw
Pros:
Gigabit Lan.
Cons:
No Raid or Firewire.
Verdict:
The MSI motherboard performs well, but is lacking in terms of its connectivity when compared to others in this test.
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help
dont understand your review for this motherboard why does it have 4 gigabyte ra support? 478 is 32bit chip which operating system supports 4gb why no review of ram successfully overclocked according to msi 266mhz ddr can run with 800 mhz fsb processor no - think that is what they are trying to imply on their website though they have produced no test resultsfor ram manufacturers ram modules used in this way so not too sure why they are encouraging people to think it is possioble eh? also have an msi mx440 vtd 8xnvidia geforce 4 msi claims the tv encoder is capable of encoding to mpegii using 600mhz processor this is simply not true? even the software that comes with the card doesnt work and thelive bios update software flashes the vga bios onto the motherboard and then when maplin electronics asks for £150 to repair the motherboard bios neither msi nor maplin are capable of using the email to apportion responsibility do i honestly need to type verification code for this ?
Posted by roger jowett, 10 Aug 2007
please help
whare would i pick up the driver disk for this board
Posted by murf, 28 Oct 2009