P45 head-to-head: MSI P45 Platinum and Asus Maximus II Formula

Motherboards/Intel S775 by massman @ 2008-07-16

In this article we´ll focus on what the MSI P45 Platinum and Asus Maximus II Formula can bring us in terms of performance, overclocking and the performance gained from overclocking. We´ll be giving you basic pointers for obtaining better results and will spend a little time on the energy-saving technology used on these boards.

  • prev
  • next

MSI P45 Platinum in front of the camera

Box Lay-out

Undressing the package, we start with the box itself; continue by looking at the extras added to the mainboard and end with the mainboard itself.

Madshrimps (c)


Madshrimps (c)


Accessories

Madshrimps (c)


  • Quickguide
  • Manual
  • Driver CD for Windows XP
  • Driver CD for Windows Vista
  • Efinity extra

    Madshrimps (c)


  • 1 x Pata HDD cable
  • 1 x Floppy cable
  • 1 x Crossfire link cable
  • 1 x I/o backpanel
  • 1 x Molex to 2 x sata connector
  • 4 x Sata cable
  • 1 x USB + IEEE1394 bracket
  • 1 x M-Connectors

    Motherboard

    Madshrimps (c)


    Madshrimps (c)


    Flashy lights all over the board; these four green ones tell me the system is running.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Officially, DrMos stands for:

  • GreenPower: less wasted energy
  • XpressCool: cooler surface temperatures
  • RapidBoost: better overclockability

    Madshrimps (c)


    The socket area is quite open; insulating the motherboard for extreme overclocking shouldn't be a big problem.

    Madshrimps (c)


  • 1 x Clear CMOS button
  • 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
  • 1 x PS/2 Mouse
  • 1 x eSATA port
  • 1 x IEEE1394 port (optional)
  • 6 x USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack
  • 1 x 6 in 1 audio jack
  • 1 x Optical SPDIF-out

    Madshrimps (c)


  • 2 x PCI Express x16 slots (1 x16 or 2 x8)
  • 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
  • 2 x PCI slots

    Madshrimps (c)


  • 1 x CPU / System x 5 FAN connectors
  • 1 x CD-in connector
  • 1 x Front panel audio connector
  • 1 x Front panel connector
  • 1 x chasis intrusion connector
  • 1 x serial port pinheader
  • 3 x USB 2.0 connectors
  • 1 x Floppy disk drive connector
  • 8 x Serial ATAII connectors
  • 1 x ATA133 connector
  • 1 x SPDIF-Out connector
  • 1 x Clear CMOS Jumper
  • 1 x IEEE1394 connector support additional 1 port (optional)
  • 2 x HW-OC FSB jumpers
  • 1 x GreenPower Genie connector (optional)
  • 1 x Reset Button
  • 1 x Power Button
  • 1 x TPM module connector (optional)

    Madshrimps (c)


    The hardware-OC FSB jumpers.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Madshrimps (c) 2-phase Power on Memory/Northbridge

    Madshrimps (c)


    Bling-bling cooling unit, the CircuPipe2!
    • prev
    • next
    Comment from jmke @ 2008/08/03
    Hey Massman, in your MSI bios shots you have the H/W monitor showing this:



    in the system I set up here I get more values:



    any idea why I get ICore Pout and Efficiency in the BIOS with the MSI P45?
    Comment from Massman @ 2008/08/03
    Newer bios version.
    Comment from jmke @ 2008/08/03
    flashed to latest beta (thanks MM) and now those ICore/Pout/Efficiency values have moved to another submenu "GreenPower"

     

    reply

     

    Copyright © 2001-2011 Madshrimps, All rights reserved.
    Graphic Design by Dennis Kestelle, Programming by Maarten Menten, Overall Site design by John Meys

    All information and graphics contained in Madshrimps are sole property of the Madshrimps crew and may not be reproduced or copied in any manner without written permission from us.

    Madshrimps
      翻译：