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MSI P35 Platinum Review
[Abstract]
IntroductionMSI is one of the top tier motherboard manufacturers in the consumer PC industry, but there is no mistaking 2006 as the year that ASUS and Gigabyte took most of the limelight. Gigab...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
Intel P35 MCH
One of the strangest things about the whole Bearlake series is that Intel doesn't seem to care at all. We're past the NDA dates for the P35 chipset and with boards already on retail shelves, you still won't find any information in Intel's own product lists on their website (at press time). While we have our own theories on this, there is no big conspiracy to take over the world, so we'll leave you to think of it what you will. Instead, we'll just go right into what makes the P35 tick.
Intel P35 and ICH9 chipset cross diagram. |
The P35 chipset is supposed to be the mainstream successor to the current P965, but will still be based on the LGA775 socket. The P35 will not only support the whole range of LGA775 socket processors, dual and quad-core, but also natively optimized for the upcoming Wolfdale (dual-core) and Yorkfield (quad-core) 45nm CPUs with up to 12MB L2 cache access.
The P35 will also now support a 1333MHz FSB, up from 1066MHz over the past generation. While this is Intel's next official FSB speed bump, almost all P965 motherboards released over the past year have been able to support the same unofficially and it is something that enthusiasts already enjoy through the generous overclockability of the P965 chipset and Core 2 Duo processors. Thus, we'd have to say that the shine is somewhat lost on the minor improvement. However, since the chipset natively supports the 1333MHz FSB setting now, your average Joe can readily reap its benefits by simply setting it in the BIOS. If you're already running on a Core 2 Duo processor, chances are you'd have no problems running at 1333MHz FSB.
Intel P35 chipset block diagram. |
There are actually two major improvements to the P35, one of them largely hyped and the other easily overlooked. The first is the move towards DDR3 memory support, which the current chipset specifications allow up to DDR3-1333 speeds. In order to facilitate a smooth transition, Intel designed the P35 to have dual memory controllers supporting both DDR2 and DDR3, allowing manufacturers to dictate the take up rate. As DDR3 has yet to become mainstream, expect many of the early batches of P35 boards to be DDR2 only. The MSI P35 Platinum in this review is one such board.
The second feature is something that you'd probably not even see on the box. Intel's entire Bearlake (which includes the P35) family has been updated to the new PCI Express 2.0 specification. While the chipset doesn't have any increase in available PCI Express lanes (the P35 is still a single PCIe x16 chipset), PCI Express 2.0 doubles the maximum bandwidth 2.5Gbps to 5Gbps. A single x16 connector will now be able to achieve up to 16Gbps (8Gbps each way) total transfer rate. The PCI Express 2.0 specification also allows for dynamic link speed control as well as power limit redefinition. This theoretically allows PCIe 2.0 slots to support higher power devices, but looking at the way graphics cards are going, we don't think there is going to be any change on the need for external power input.
At the time of launch, only the P35 is available now, but Intel plans to finally replace the veteran 975X Express with the high-end X38 by next quarter. The X38 will be Intel's first dual full-speed PCIe x16 chipset, but whether full support for CrossFire or SLI is available is still anyone's guess. At the moment though, CrossFire making a comeback is likely since existing P35 boards support it. Other variants of the Bearlake family include the G33 (DX9 IGP) and G35 (DX10 IGP).
ICH9 Southbridge
With a new chipset, there is also a new Southbridge so should be no surprise that Intel is introducing the ICH9 family. However, the new ICH9 isn't so much of an improvement over the ICH8. Looking at their specifications, both chipset have almost identical features. There are no changes to the amount of PCI Express lanes, SATA connectors, LAN or HD Audio component. The only visible difference when one looks at the table below is the increased USB 2.0 ports from ten in the ICH8 to twelve in the ICH9. However, don't forget that the new chipset has been updated to the PCI Express 2.0 specification, which means increased PCIe lane bandwidth, if nothing else.
ICH Southbridge Comparison Table.
| ICH9 | ICH8 |
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| PCI Express | - 6 x PCIExpress Lanes
- PCI Express 2.0
| - 6 x PCIExpress Lanes
- PCI Express 1.0a
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| PCI Masters | | |
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| Storage Technology | - 6 x SATA3.0Gbps
- Intel Matrix Storage Technology (ICH9R)
- AHCI, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10(ICH9R)
| - 6x SATA 3.0Gbps
- Intel Matrix Storage Technology (ICH8R)
- AHCI, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10(ICH8R)
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| USB Ports | | |
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| Audio | | |
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| LAN | | |
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There are also some new terms Intel has been throwing around such as ?Intel Turbo Memory with RAID? We suspect that there might be a desktop variant for the Turbo Memory introduced with the notebook Santa Rosa platform and a connection with the new storage controller, but there's not much information regarding this capability. The ICH9 will also directly support eSATA routing with port-multiplier. As usual, one can expect the typical vanilla ICH9, ICH9R (RAID), ICH9DH (Digital Home w/ Viiv technologies) and ICH9DO (Digital Office w/ vPro technologies) variants of the Southbridge.
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