MSI 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. Gigabyte's marketing machine pushed the whole solid capacitor design into high gear while ASUS flooded the market with specialized target focus motherboard models such as the TeleSky and Republic of Gamers. Both manufacturers also drew a lot of attention with an announced alliance (which didn't last), but most importantly, they made exciting motherboards that kept the market fresh. MSI on the other hand, was focusing more on their graphics card business.The P35 Platinum is based on the P35 and ICH9R chipset combination, which gives the board AHCI SATA and RAID capabilities in addition to its regular features. MSI makes use of the eSATA feature of the Southbridge though and uses two ports as dedicated eSATA connectors in the rear panel, leaving only four ports to be used as internal HDD connectors. As the ICH9R also does not have any IDE support, MSI uses a Marvell 88SE6111 controller to make up for one Ultra ATA port and one extra SATA 3.0Gbps port.
There is one Gigabit LAN port onboard powered by a Marvell 88E8111B PHY and two FireWire-400 ports via a VIA VT6308P controller. The most interesting component here is the use of the Realtek ALC888T HD Audio CODEC, instead of the standard ALC888 we saw in the preview. You see, the ALC888T has a special VoIP switching functionality that can automatically switch between VoIP and PSTN connectivity in event of a power failure. This of course requires some kind of VoIP add-on card, a handset and a phone line to take advantage of since the board doesn't have one built-in. MSI will actually be introducing such an add-on card very soon that works with Skype, called the SkyTel, but we have an impression that the SkyTel card will have its own audio chip, so how it interfaces with the ALC888T has to be seen.
For enthusiasts, the P35 Platinum comes with a total of six onboard fan connectors, an quick CMOS clear button and a small row of Debug LEDs. MSI has in the past made use of their D-Bracket debug system, which is still a component of the board, but this new row of LEDs are so much more useful. You can check out the row of mini debug LEDs just next to the blue SATA connector on the PCB.
Most of the components you find on the P35 Platinum isn't all to different from any other high-end P965 board you can get today, as the P35 chipset doesn't really add any new component count to its repertoire, but MSI did make use of the eSATA port multiplier for the board, and while it does reduce the internal SATA capabilities, the board will provide an extensive range of plug-and-play external high-speed connections. The improved audio chipset used in the retail motherboard also opens up possibilities of additional functionality of the board when the SkyTel add-on card comes out. We also like how MSI provides six USB 2.0 ports by default, but the chunky rear panel is really quite hideous (but then again, that's basically our only rant with the board).
Performance-wise, the P35 Platinum's results from our benchmarking run turned out pretty well. While we weren't expecting any phenomenal scores from the new P35 chipset, it did surprise us quite a bit with a very strong SYSmark 2004 performance. Overall, the P35 Platinum proved to be quite consistently better than a reference P965 and able to keep up with the NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI. With lower chipset TDPs, we had expected better overclocking potential from the P35 Platinum, but 470MHz isn't exactly shabby, considering that 1333MHz (333MHz) FSB is being hyped as the next big thing. You can go way beyond that point with simple air cooling.
Although this is the first Intel P35 motherboard we've reviewed, the MSI P35 Platinum proves to be a very well built and well rounded motherboard. MSI plays to the strengths of the chipset and delivers a solid entry into the market. If you aren't planning of a total overhaul of your PC, DDR2 is still here to stay for a while yet. With dropping prices, setting up a 4GB or higher capacity rig isn't so hard anymore and boards like the P35 Platinum will probably let you extend the life of your memory for another year or so. Of course, if you really must have only the latest and greatest, the one factor that remains to be seen is how the DDR3 variant (MSI P35 Platinum D3) would fare in comparison, but that is another board for another day.
