![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , May 20, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
MSI 875P Neo
The 875P Neo is MSI’s flagship board, heading up their motherboard line up coupled with the might of the Intel 875P chipset. Others are heralding it as the board to buy. We have found it to be the only i875 board we suggest that you do not purchase.
BIOS
The 875P Neo uses an AMI based BIOS. MSI chose to add a number of overclocking related options that would make any enthusiast happy.
The Advanced Chipset menu contains options related to enhancing the performance of chipset related functions, including memory timing settings. The memory timing settings themselves are available from within the DRAM Timing Setting… menu. Modification of the system memory timing can lead to vastly improved system performance.
The individual memory timing options becomes user configurable when the Configure DRAM Timing by SPD option is set to disabled. The memory timing options available to the end user include CAS latency, RAS precharge, RAS to CAS delay, RAS active to precharge delay, and burst length. In all cases, the lower number is the more aggressive setting.
The Frequency/Voltage Control menu contains options for controlling the behavior of the various motherboard buses. From this menu, you are able to manually manipulate various system bus speeds as well as various system voltages.
The DRAM Frequency option allows for manual setting of the system memory speed. Note that 400 MHz memory speed is only available when using an 800 MHz CPU. The Adjust CPU Bus Clock(Mhz) option allows for tweaking of the CPU FSB, up to a maximum of 500 MHz when a 533 or 800 MHz CPU is used. The Adjust AGP/PCI Clock(Mhz) option allows for independent setting of the AGP and PCI bus speeds, regardless of the DRAM and CPU bus frequency settings. With the CPU Vcore Adjust option set to Yes, the CPU Vcore option becomes user configurable. You have the option of setting the Vcore voltage to a maximum of 2.30v, adequate for even the most hardcore water cooled system. The DDR Power Voltage option allows for a maximum voltage setting of 3.3v, well beyond what any RAM module should need to reach it peak frequency range. The AGP voltage is settable to a maximum of 2.1v through the AGP Power Voltage option. MSI put some real though in to these settings, as is obvious from the superb voltage and frequency maximums available.
The Integrated Peripherals menu contains settings for configuring all system level integrated devices, including the on-board Promise and ICH5R controllers. The Promise controller mode of operation can be set through the onboard Promise IDE option. Its operation modes include Disable, RAID mode, and standalone SATA mode. The On-Chip IDE Configuration submenu contains various options for controlling the way the ICH5R chipset interacts with the system. The in-built RAID functionality is enabled through the Configure S-ATA as RAID option.
The PC Health menu contains information concerning various system voltages, temperatures and fan speeds. Note that the only fan speeds that are monitored through the BIOS are the units connected to the CPU and Northbridge fan headers.