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MSI's P45 Platinum is a mainstream motherboard that offers more than you could imagine.

INTRODUCTION

While the guns are out between Gigabyte and Asus over the recent fiasco, MSI have been busy with their subdued launch of their P45 motherboards. In fact with so much going on, one can be forgiven, for not taking MSI as a serious alternative solution. This is about to change, because In the past few months, MSI have made good progress in reaching their key target audience, which include Mainstream and performance users. What they really need to do is, to take advantage of what's happening between Gigabyte and Asus, and push ahead. This is exactly what they've been doing, and it looks like it might work out for them afterall.

With a seemingly large majority of  manufacturer now offering energy saving and green solutions, its only natural for MSI to follow the same route. For MSI, they call it Green Power. Again, the same general sales pitch... energy saving with over 80% efficiency. But energy saving isn't the only feature that MSI have got in store. They've also include other innovative features ... things like DrMOS, Circu-Pipe2 chipset cooling, XpressCool and RapidBoost. All these make MSI's motherboards very attractive to both mainstream users and enthusiasts.

The Intel P45 chipset is already out in the open. It's touted as one of the best mainstream chipsets available for Intel processors, and it's been getting rave reviews among hardware websites. One of its best advantages include the ability to overclock the FSB to 500Mhz and beyond. We were able to easily reach 500Mhz+ on both the Asus P5Q-E and the Gigabyte EP45-DS4, with no problems at all. What;s even more appealing is the fact that a lot of manufacturers are producing these P45 motherboards with support for DDR2 ram. This makes it an excellent upgrade path for anyone who's already got DDR2 ram, and there's no need to buy the more expensive DDR3 ram.

 

The MSI P45 Platinum is aimed at the higher-end mainstream market. It utilises the Intel P45 chipset with ICH10R, and supports 1600FSB OC, DDR2-1200 and all Intel socket-775 dual and quad core 45nm processors. It also features MSI's innovative features which include ... DRMOS, XpressCool, RapidBoost and Green Power (energy saving). Other features which a lot of users which might find interesting, especially overclockers, include the diagnostic LEDs, external clear CMOS button located at the rear ATX I/O panel ... there's also the internal power-on and reset switches. Solid capacitors help its longevity, while the DrMOS and Circu-pipe 2 features will help effectively cool the mosfets and chipset.

           

The MSI P45 Platinum contains a lot of features, which will definitely attract a lot of mainstream users. But the real issue is ... can it compete against others in its class? And what about overclocking ... can it reach that 500Mhz FSB? I have every confidence that MSI can deliver the goods. We'll be testing the MSI P45 Platinum with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ default 2.4Ghz, OCZ SLI DDR2-1066 ram, a Radeon HD3870 512Mb, PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 860W PSU and a 19" Dell Ultrascan P990 monitor.

OK, let's take a closer look at the specifications of the MSI P45 Platinum motherboard