MSI P35 Neo Combo Motherboard Review

Overall Performance

We measured the overall performance of this motherboard using SYSmark2004, which is a program that simulates the use of real-world applications. Thus, we consider this the best software to measure, in practical terms, the system performance.

The benchmarks are divided into two groups:

• Internet Content Creation: Simulates the authoring of a website containing text, images, videos and animations. The following programs are used: Adobe After Effects 5.5, Adobe Photoshop 7.01, Adobe Premiere 6.5, Discreet 3ds Max 5.1, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Macromedia Flash MX, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9, McAfee VirusScan 7.0 and Winzip 8.1.
• Office Productivity: Simulates the use of an office suite, i.e., simulates sending e-mails, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. The following programs are used: Adobe Acrobat 5.05, Microsoft Office XP SP2, Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1, NaturallySpeaking 6, McAfee VirusScan 7.0 and Winzip 8.1.

The software delivers specific results for each batch and also an overall performance result, all in a specific SYSmark2004 unit.

We compared the reviewed board to ECS PN2 SLI2+ (nForce 680i), ECS NF650iSLIT-A (nForce 650i), ASUS P5N-E SLI (nForce 650i), MSI P35 Platinum (Intel P35), ASUS P5B (Intel P965), ASUS P5B Premium (Intel P965) and Intel D975XBX2 (Intel 975X). On the graphs present on this and on the following pages you will see the clock rate we configured our memories. Since we had DDR2-1066 memory modules installed, we ran our tests two times, first with our memories configured at 800 MHz and then configured at 1,066 MHz, whenever possible. Some motherboards (like the ones based on nForce 650i and Intel 975X chipsets), however, do not support DDR2-1066 and that is why you won’t find DDR2-1066 results for them.

You can see the results on the charts below.

MSI P35 Neo Combo achieved an overall performance on the same level as ASUS P5B Premium (Intel P965), ASUS P5B (Intel P965) and MSI P35 Platinum (Intel P35) – even comparing the results achieved by these boards with their memories running at 1,066 MHz with our MSI P35 Neo Combo accessing its memories at 800 MHz.

MSI P35 Neo Combo was 4.17% faster than ECS NF650iSLIT-A (nForce 650i), 5.11% faster than Intel D975XBX2 (Intel 975X), 5.74% faster than ECS PN2 SLI2+ (nForce 680i) and 6.06% faster than ASUS P5N-E SLI (nForce 650i). We are comparing here the results with all memories running at 800 MHz.

On Internet Content Creation the same thing happened: the reviewed motherboard achieved the same performance level as ASUS P5B Premium (Intel P965), ASUS P5B (Intel P965) and MSI P35 Platinum (Intel P35) – even comparing the results achieved by these boards with their memories running at 1,066 MHz with our MSI P35 Neo Combo accessing its memories at 800 MHz.

Here it was 3.46% faster than ECS NF650iSLIT-A (nForce 650i), 3.70% faster than Intel D975XBX2 (Intel 975X) and ECS PN2 SLI2+ (nForce 680i) and 4.19% faster than ASUS P5N-E SLI (nForce 650i). We are comparing here the results with all memories running at 800 MHz.

On Office Productivity P35 Neo Combo achieved the same performance level of MSI P35 Platinum (Intel P35) and ASUS P5B Premium (Intel P965), being 4.18% faster than ASUS P5B (Intel P965), 5.38% faster than ECS NF650iSLIT-A (nForce 650i), 7.03% faster than Intel D975XBX2 (Intel 975X) and 7.87% than ECS PN2 SLI2+ (nForce 680i) and ASUS P5N-E SLI (nForce 650i). We are comparing here the results with all memories running at 800 MHz.