MSI P6N SLI Platinum Review

[MikeC]

Steve Angelly has completed a review of the MSI P6N SLI Platinum motherboard. Based on the NVIDIA nForce 650i chipset, the P6N SLI Platinum is an attractive alternative to motherboards based othe more expensive nForce 680i chipset.

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/msi_p6n_sli_platinum/images/board_1.jpg

With all of that said, the P6N SLI Platinum is a gamer's delight. Exceedingly fast at default clocks and even more so overclocked and running super stable. With my concerns over the voltage reporting and approaching warm weather I will be lowering the clocks for gaming, at least until I can get a better handle on actual voltage being supplied. Of course, the 1333MHz FSB, 3.0GHz, settings that I initially found to be stable is a good cushion to fall back on.

Check out the review here:
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/msi_p6n_sli_platinum/index.shtml

[methimpikehoses]

Nice review.

[Mr_LoL]

These 650i boards have incredible overclocking potential. Wow.

[OWA]

Nice review. BTW, did you try to see how much of an overclock you could get without the extra fan? I hope to avoid using the chipset fan when I upgrade but almost everyone seems to use it.

[Rytr]

I have been busy with another 650i review and have not had the chance to try anything different although I plan to remove the fan.
From my notes I did hit 1450MHz QDR and opened windows without the fan but I did not do any stability tests. I did not give a reason why I stopped?

[OWA]

Thanks for the info.

[PaiN]

Nice....I've been using this board for awhile and the review pretty much mirrors what I've found.
All of the the 680\650i NB make extreme amounts of heat. The fans used for cooling are way to noisy for my liking incl. the one with this MSI and the passively cooled boards like the Asus ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus I have in my 2nd PC aren't effective....My solution was to switch to CoolMaster Dominater HSF (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835129048) its 140mm fan puts air flow all over the NB and MOSFET heatsinks and keeps heat under control without the noise

[Spanki]

Nice review Steve. You might want to try bumping the SB voltage to 1.6v (one bump). That seems to help keep necessary vCore bumps down to more reasonable levels. You might also have more success bumping FSB VTT by a few percent (though I'm still not clear exactly what this does - but the folks getting the highest ocs (500+) are also bumping that).

See my sig below for a link to a 40+ page thread of P6N owners and some useful reference material in the first post.

[Spanki]

Nice....I've been using this board for awhile and the review pretty much mirrors what I've found.
All of the the 680\650i NB make extreme amounts of heat. The fans used for cooling are way to noisy for my liking incl. the one with this MSI and the passively cooled boards like the Asus ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus I have in my 2nd PC aren't effective....My solution was to switch to CoolMaster Dominater HSF (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835129048) its 140mm fan puts air flow all over the NB and MOSFET heatsinks and keeps heat under control without the noise

PaiN, any problems installing that AeroCool Dominator? Did the back-plate interfere with the circuitry that's on the underside of the cpu?

[Spanki]

I have been busy with another 650i review and have not had the chance to try anything different although I plan to remove the fan.
From my notes I did hit 1450MHz QDR and opened windows without the fan but I did not do any stability tests. I did not give a reason why I stopped?

Rytr, is this the specific model (996535) Mushkin (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146677) memory you are using? I'm trying to extend the compatibility list at the link in my sig. Thanks.

[Rytr]

Rytr, is this the specific model (996535) Mushkin (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146677) memory you are using? I'm trying to extend the compatibility list at the link in my sig. Thanks.

Yes, that is the specific ram and thanks for the comments.

[Spanki]

Thanks, I've added that memory to the list.

[PaiN]

PaiN, any problems installing that AeroCool Dominator? Did the back-plate interfere with the circuitry that's on the underside of the cpu?
IT mounts via an "H" plate with foam backing it does cover some of the small resistors but its not a prob do to the foam....as long as the mount screws are finger tightened it shouldn't ever be an issue

[Spanki]

BTW, Linkboost was removed (http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce_600i_tech_specs.html) from all 600-series chipsets by nVidia quite some time ago, not just the 650i ;) .

[Spanki]

IT mounts via an "H" plate with foam backing it does cover some of the small resistors but its not a prob do to the foam....as long as the mount screws are finger tightened it shouldn't ever be an issue

Hmm.. that's a metal H plate? I guess that would concern me some. Is the topside clearance ok on everything? (does it sit above the NB and MOSFET heatsink/pipe ok?)

[PaiN]

Hmm.. that's a metal H plate? I guess that would concern me some. Is the topside clearance ok on everything? (does it sit above the NB and MOSFET heatsink/pipe ok?)
a pic, for a thousand words :) I don't know why this HSF hasen't gotten more attention

http://home.comcast.net/~moso/images/newgtx.JPG

[nekrosoft13]

nice review, just wished those boards had more SATA ports and for the love of god stop making boards with LPT/Serial and PS/2 !!

[rewt]

LPT I could live without. ps/2 seems to come in handy on some motherboards though. There's been situations where some mobos would not even let me into the bios with a USB keyboard..

On the P6N, I think they may have traded a couple SATA ports for that extra PATA (IDE) port (many other 650i/680i boards now have only one PATA port). If you want more SATA, then 680i may be what you're looking for.

[Rytr]

Believe the NF-430 will limit you to 4 SATA but it has the capability of providing an additional 2 IDE.

[Spanki]

Correct. The 680i chipset is made up of the C55 SPP (NB) and the MCP55XE SB chips. The 650i chipset uses the same C55 SPP (NB), but the older MCP430 (C51) SB.

Basically, the 600-series "chipsets" all use the same NB, so they are defined by the SB chip used. The C55 NB contains the memory conrtroller, and has 16+1+1 PCI-E lanes and of course handles FSB features.

The MCP55XE SB of the 680i chipset adds the additional 16+8+1+1+1+1 PCI-E lanes, support for ONE PATA controller (up to two devices), 6 SATA drives, 10 USB ports and 2 Ethernet (among other things).

The MCP430 SB of the 650i chipset does not have any additional PCI-E lanes, so that chipset relies soley on the 16+1+1 PCI-E lanes of the NB, but the MCP430 also supplies support for TWO PATA controllers (for up to 4 devices), 4 SATA drives, a total of 8 USB ports and 1 Ethernet (among other things).

So, any true 650i-based motherboards are limited to just 4 SATA ports (vs 6 for 680i-based boards) and 8 USB ports (vs 10 for 680i), but they pick up an additional PATA controller over the 680i.

The P6N Platinum (as well as the ASUS P5N-E) use one of the PCI-E x1 lanes of the NB to drive an additional eSATA port controller.

[superklye]

I never told you what an awesome job I thought you did on both reviews.

Awesome job, Steve. :D :thumbsup:

[Rytr]

Thanks Kyle, I appreciate the comment. Working with the 650i's is turning out to be a lot of fun.

[EnderTheThird]

Has anyone else had trouble with this motherboard and Linux (specifically, Ubuntu 7.04 with 64-bit kernel 2.6.20-15)?

I've been having sporadic luck with the ethernet connection. Sometimes it works without a hitch, and other times it just will not connect to my router (set up with DHCP) to receive an IP address no matter what. It doesn't seem to detect the connection at all, as I can't even connect to the router, let alone obtain an IP address from it.

Has anyone else had this problem, and/or have any idea as to how to fix it? I've been googling for days (when the connection actually works, heh), and can't seem to find a fix.

[rev.]

This is my first Intel experience and it is on this board. I am feeling very n00by seeing this is my first Intel/DDR2 experience.

So far, I am loving this board :afro:

[Rytr]

We usually don't permit multiple posts across forums but an exception can be made in this case. I suggest you ask in our Linux support forums.