MSI P35 Neo2-FR Motherboard

If you are in the market for a lower cost board that performs extremely well, even when overclocking, look no further than the MSI P35 Neo2-FR. Boards using the P35 chipset are really starting to drop in price as competition heats up between Asus, Gigabyte and MSI. Recently, the market has been dominated by Asus and Gigabyte, with MSI keeping up very quietly. However, the P35 Neo2-FR all of a sudden crept up on the other 2 big board makers.

This board is actually a re-branded MSI Platinum with a few features removed, which is a good thing, as the MSI Platinum line is an excellent line of boards. They simply removed the S/PDIF Optical out, and the Firewire port and most importantly, dropped the price to around $100.00.

With plenty of room around the CPU, and power connections along the edges, The MSI P35 Neo2-FR is nicely laid out and offers the following onboard connections:

• 6 fan headers, one 4 pin, and five 3 pin
• 4 DDR2 DIMM slots supporting up to 8GB of memory
• 1 IDE connection
• 5 SATA connections
• 2 PCI-e x16, 2 PCI-e x1, and 2 PCI slots
• LGA775 Socket supporting the Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium D, Pentium 4, and Celeron D line
• Supports FSB speeds up to 600MHz
• 6 USB headers

On the back panel has a nice set of connections for a budget board including:

• 6 USB connections
• PS/2 mouse and keyboard connections
• RJ-45 LAN port
• 2 eSATA ports for external SATA drives
• 8 Channel audio connections using the Realtek ALC888T HD codec

Included with the board are the bare minimum cables needed for setup, but this is to be expected in a budget board. You will get a single IDE cable, and 2 SATA cables. Extra cables can be picked up for minimal costs.

If you are looking to overclock on a budget, this board will be a great start. As you start to approach the limits of the board, it will begin to trail off, which helps to prevent you from over overclocking. The BIOS also has an excellent recovery system should you exceed the limits of the board.

Conclusion

The fact that the MSI P35 Neo2-FR is basically a stripped down version of the MSI Platinum helps to really boost the features and stability of this board. I think this was a very good decision by MSI, both from a manufacturing and sales standpoint. As far as entry boards go, the P35 Neo2 is packed with great features and offers great stability.

Pros:

• Quality construction based on an excellent board (MSI Platinum)
• Overclocks very well and offers great price to performance ratio
• Low cost
• Nice heat pipe design for north and south bridge

Cons:

• Some BIOS voltage options missing

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