# Msi P31 Neo2-fr



## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

Has anyone tried this board? I'm thinking to pair it up with an E7200, but I don't know what to except OC wise? Any info would be useful


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## oli_ramsay (Aug 19, 2008)

Why not just go for the MSI P35 Neo2 FR?  It's dirt cheap and overclocks like a dream, I'm running it at 500FSB 24/7 and it's only about £60.  I'm not really sure how P31 boards overclock, but I would just fork out the extra for P35 to avoid disappointment.


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## francis511 (Aug 19, 2008)

Oc is great on that board. Make sure you have an 8-pin atx connector on psu !

Edit OOPS !! I thought you said p 35 ! P31 = don`t know.


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## ShadowFold (Aug 19, 2008)

Why not a P45??? They destroy the P35's in OCing man! Unless you get a good DFI like I did the P35's arent that good compared to P45's.


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## Darknova (Aug 19, 2008)

I wouldn't hold out too much hope on a ground-breaking OC with that board. I've had a number of MSI motherboards which are great solid boards, at stock, but once you start OCing they can get flaky, and their BIOS support is worse than shit, you have to rely on BETA BIOSes which are built by the community, and not the devs.

The P31 is a good chipset though, and has been known to clock very well, but going from my experience with MSI, and their P35 board. I wouldn't bother if you want to overclock. Otherwise knock yourself out, it'll be a brilliant board


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

The budget is 60€ so I have to fit in to that. Ok these are the boards I can find here:

MSI P31 NEO2-FR ~ 47€






Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L  ~ 49€






Gigabyte GA-P35-S3G  ~ 58€






*Biostar TP35D2-A7 ~ 60€ 






*(out of stock)


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## Darknova (Aug 19, 2008)

Gigabyte DS3L, my dad's got that and we had it booting at 520Mhz. It's a bloody brilliant board and it cost him less than £20


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## ShadowFold (Aug 19, 2008)

60E is about 120$ right? A cheap P45 should be 100$/50E.


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## r9 (Aug 19, 2008)

I have MSI P31 neo-f. I work in a computer shop and we sell MSI brand the components are low price high quality let me tell you that. They are making very solid low price boards. But I think you will be very disappointed with that board I use similar board FSB is killing that board I tried E7200 with my MB and like there is wall at 3.3 GHz. Go with the P35 or P45 if you are on budget look for MSI P6N SLI it is round the same price as P31 I tried it with E7200 in one hour of testing I got 3.6 GHz with E7200.


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

Darknova said:


> Gigabyte DS3L, my dad's got that and we had it booting at 520Mhz. It's a bloody brilliant board and it cost him less than £20








This one? it's 5€ above the budget but if it is really better we will streach it. But I must admit that i'm not a fan of GA.


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## francis511 (Aug 19, 2008)

Biostar or gigabyte p35 should be OK out of the ones you mentioned.


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> 60E is about 120$ right? A cheap P45 should be 100$/50E.



60e is more like 90$, The cheapest P43 boards are like 75€, and don't clock good.


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

francis511 said:


> Biostar or gigabyte p35 should be OK out of the ones you mentioned.



If I could find Biostar I will shurely buy it, but it was out of stock


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

r9 said:


> I have MSI P31 neo-f. I work in a computer shop and we sell MSI brand the components are low price high quality let me tell you that. They are making very solid low price boards. But I think you will be very disappointed with that board I use similar board FSB is killing that board I tried E7200 with my MB and like there is wall at 3.3 GHz. Go with the P35 or P45 if you are on budget look for MSI P6N SLI it is round the same price as P31 I tried it with E7200 in one hour of testing I got 3.6 GHz with E7200.



You have this board right? 






this one should be a little better because of the black PCB that MSI puts on the TOP models.


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## Ketxxx (Aug 19, 2008)

MSI P31 NEO2, GA-P31-DS3L, Biostar TP35D2-A7. Any of those should be a good choice. Despite the clearly far superior build quality of the P31 NEO2, it means shit without a good BIOS. I'm unsure what the BIOS is like for the P31 NEO2, so for that reason I'd take my chances with the Biostar board instead. Even cheap Biostar boards are packed with OC options.


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## r9 (Aug 19, 2008)

activated1 said:


> You have this board right?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yes it will be little better but will be enough.
neo2-fr  you will get plus raid and firewire I think I don`t know about OC. That E7200 deserve P35 neo2-fr(it is tomshardware recomended platinum performance for neo price).
And whats up with Gigabyte they are gaining popularity by the expirience from the past they sucked. And Biostar what is that they are so ugly like they where made in woodchop class in third grade in china for passing grade. Go for ASUS or DFI they are OK in my book.


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> MSI P31 NEO2, GA-P31-DS3L, Biostar TP35D2-A7. Any of those should be a good choice. Despite the clearly far superior build quality of the P31 NEO2, it means shit without a good BIOS. I'm unsure what the BIOS is like for the P31 NEO2, so for that reason I'd take my chances with the Biostar board instead. Even cheap Biostar boards are packed with OC options.



Yes, I have very good experiences with Biostar but their P31 board has only two memory slots, and vary slim cpu voltage control.

GA-P31-DS3L is also a good board, but you can't lock the PCI-e freqency if you set the FSB over 333mhz if I'm not mistaken.


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## Ketxxx (Aug 19, 2008)

Gigabyte make VERY good boards. If their colour scheme wasn't so damn ugly they would be my mobo of choice 90% of the time. Biostar board looks fine. Bet you would be singing its praises if the yellow and green slots were blue and \ or black


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

r9 said:


> Yes it will be little better but will be enough.
> neo2-fr  you will get plus raid and firewire I think I don`t know about OC. That E7200 deserve P35 neo2-fr(it is tomshardware recomended platinum performance for neo price).
> And whats up with Gigabyte they are gaining popularity by the expirience from the past they sucked. And Biostar what is that they are so ugly like they where made in woodchop class in third grade in china for passing grade. Go for ASUS or DFI they are OK in my book.



P35 neo2-fr exceeds the budget. If I was going for a board priced like that then I would go for DFI Blood Iron.


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## Ketxxx (Aug 19, 2008)

activated1 said:


> Yes, I have very good experiences with Biostar but their P31 board has only two memory slots, and vary slim cpu voltage control.
> 
> GA-P31-DS3L is also a good board, but you can't lock the PCI-e freqency if you set the FSB over 333mhz if I'm not mistaken.



Your taking a crapshoot with any of the suggested boards, their the kind of thing you would expect to find in an office machine, not a gaming one. Out of the available options the GA-P31-DS3L, or Biostar TP35D2-A7 are the boards most likely to bring the best results.


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> Gigabyte make VERY good boards. If their colour scheme wasn't so damn ugly they would be my mobo of choice 90% of the time. Biostar board looks fine. Bet you would be singing its praises if the yellow and green slots were blue and \ or black



one of the main reasons why I don't like GA boards.


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## Ketxxx (Aug 19, 2008)

Colour is no reason to dislike a board. I think Gigabyte colour schemes are ugly, but it wouldn't stop me from buying one if I was building a completely new system and going for a totally new look. The last GA board I used was a GA-7VAXP, old old old skt A board, but despite its crappy chipset it still clocked like a champ.


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## r9 (Aug 19, 2008)

activated1 said:


> Yes, I have very good experiences with Biostar but their P31 board has only two memory slots, and vary slim cpu voltage control.
> 
> GA-P31-DS3L is also a good board, but you can't lock the PCI-e freqency if you set the FSB over 333mhz if I'm not mistaken.



Pa ne citam od kade si 
Moze i vaka ke me razberes jas barem razbiram srpski


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> Your taking a crapshoot with any of the suggested boards, their the kind of thing you would expect to find in an office machine, not a gaming one. Out of the available options the GA-P31-DS3L, or Biostar TP35D2-A7 are the boards most likely to bring the best results.



Yes I know, but I had an ASUS P5Q, and to say I was very disappointed with it. It was hot as hell, would not post if the FSB was higher than 450mhz. So now I won't to buy something cheap but OC-able.

A firend of mine has the TP35D2-A7 paird with E8200, he's running it at 4ghz on air, rock stable.


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

r9 said:


> Pa ne citam od kade si
> Moze i vaka ke me razberes jas barem razbiram srpski



Heh, malo si izgresio, ali kontam sta si napisao 
Odakle si ti?


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## r9 (Aug 19, 2008)

Overclocking

Overclocker experiments aimed at revealing Biostar TP35D3-A7 Deluxe’s features in this field started with the new BIOS version. However, the board booted, but couldn’t load the Windows operating system even at 450MHz FSB frequency. We studied the monitoring data in the PC Health Status section and discovered that the processor Vcore doesn’t rise and remains nominal. I didn’t want to deal with this new BIOS version any more because it was “loosing” Serial ATA and couldn’t increase processor Vcore, so I returned to the old one, just like in the previous case. However, the situation with the older BIOS version turned out even worse, although all the voltages corresponded to the settings. The board couldn’t start at 450MHz FSB, 430MHz FSB and 410MHz FSB. At 390MHz FSB is finally booted, but failed to load Windows OS again.
from http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/biostar-tp35d2-a7_13.html#sect0


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## r9 (Aug 19, 2008)

activated1 said:


> Heh, malo si izgresio, ali kontam sta si napisao
> Odakle si ti?



FYRO Macedonia.
I hate Greeks .


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> Colour is no reason to dislike a board. I think Gigabyte colour schemes are ugly, but it wouldn't stop me from buying one if I was building a completely new system and going for a totally new look. The last GA board I used was a GA-7VAXP, old old old skt A board, but despite its crappy chipset it still clocked like a champ.



I agree on that two. If the board is good I don't care how it looks, , but if I had two similar board's I would pick the prettier one


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## Ketxxx (Aug 19, 2008)

activated1 said:


> Yes I know, but I had an ASUS P5Q, and to say I was very disappointed with it. It was hot as hell, would not post if the FSB was higher than 450mhz. So now I won't to buy something cheap but OC-able.
> 
> A firend of mine has the TP35D2-A7 paird with E8200, he's running it at 4ghz on air, rock stable.



Uhh.. 450FSB out of a basic entry level enthusiast board isnt anything to sniff at in the slightest.. Could of also been the FSB wall of your chip and nothing to do with the board so its an unfair statement on the boards behalf you saying it was lousy at clocking cos your scoffing at 450FSB. Also, seems like you didn't see the thread I made with a modded BIOS for a lot of P5Q boards did you?


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> Uhh.. 450FSB out of a basic entry level enthusiast board isnt anything to sniff at in the slightest.. Also, seems like you didn't see the thread I made with a modded BIOS for a lot of P5Q boards did you?



Nop, I didn't see IT . I had P5K before the P5Q and it posted at 500mhz I expected at least the same from P5Q.

EDIT: I'm not the only one with the problem of hitting 500mhz and above on P5Q series in general.


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

r9 said:


> Overclocking
> 
> Overclocker experiments aimed at revealing Biostar TP35D3-A7 Deluxe’s features in this field started with the new BIOS version. However, the board booted, but couldn’t load the Windows operating system even at 450MHz FSB frequency. We studied the monitoring data in the PC Health Status section and discovered that the processor Vcore doesn’t rise and remains nominal. I didn’t want to deal with this new BIOS version any more because it was “loosing” Serial ATA and couldn’t increase processor Vcore, so I returned to the old one, just like in the previous case. However, the situation with the older BIOS version turned out even worse, although all the voltages corresponded to the settings. The board couldn’t start at 450MHz FSB, 430MHz FSB and 410MHz FSB. At 390MHz FSB is finally booted, but failed to load Windows OS again.
> from http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/biostar-tp35d2-a7_13.html#sect0



How about this?


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## activated1 (Aug 19, 2008)

Thanks to everyone for helping me to choose a new MoBo. I have to order a new one tomorrow because the one I am currently using (XFX 680i LT) is going to get a new owner tomorow.


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## Ketxxx (Aug 19, 2008)

activated1 said:


> Nop, I didn't see IT . I had P5K before the P5Q and it posted at 500mhz I expected at least the same from P5Q.
> 
> EDIT: I'm not the only one with the problem of hitting 500mhz and above on P5Q series in general.



Sorry but those reports are simply user error or the hardware can't handle the FSB. I've seen plenty of FSB frequencies around 470MHz and thats with a quad. For C2Ds I've seen FSB frequencies over 525MHz. Even my E4400 can handle 425MHz, which is great for such a low end chip. IMO your best sticking with the P5Q and using my mBIOS, does wonders for many people.


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## activated1 (Aug 20, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> Sorry but those reports are simply user error or the hardware can't handle the FSB. I've seen plenty of FSB frequencies around 470MHz and thats with a quad. For C2Ds I've seen FSB frequencies over 525MHz. Even my E4400 can handle 425MHz, which is great for such a low end chip. *IMO your best sticking with the P5Q and using my mBIOS, does wonders for many people.*



Well that's not possible because I sold it for two reasons, I wasn't satisfied with it, and I needed the money. 

At worst (for the budget) I will go on a DFI Blood Iron P35. But I still hope to find the Biostar board.


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## Ketxxx (Aug 20, 2008)

1. You wernt patient enough nothing that new is perfect off the bat 
2. That sucks  P5Q series really do rock.


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## activated1 (Aug 20, 2008)

Thanks to everyone for helping me to decide. I didn't find TP35 but I found TP43 for 60e. It should be here on frieday. When I get it i will post some results.


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## activated1 (Aug 23, 2008)

I got the board today, and to say I'm dissapinted, the CPU voltage can only be increased by 15% witch gives me ~1.25v and my OC is limited to ~3.3ghz. And I think my HyperX modules died today because they are not stable any more on 1066mhz (CPU at default)


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