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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.

Msi P45 Platinum: bios pictures

The BIOS

The groundwork of a good overclocking motherboard, in fact just of a good motherboard, lies in the bios and the number of options and settings you can manage from the bios. Let's have a look at what MSI's bios engineers have come up with, having in mind that the P45 chipset is launched as an enthusiast’s and environment-friendly product.

Main screen

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H/W monitor

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GreenPower

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Cell menu

The overclocking center of a MSI motherboard is in the Cell Menu.

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Memory-Z is a new feature in the Cell menu's: it gives specific and detailed information about the SPD settings of the memory sticks plugged in.

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Opening the advanced configuration options, we find a new level of tweaking possibilities. Only for the real enthusiasts, to be honest, but it's worth the effort if you want to max out your setup completely.

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The ClockGen tuner is used for better overclockability. Explaining what each setting does, would take us too far, just know that tweaking these settings will give you more headroom when overclocking.

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A reasonable extended voltage section: play with the REF voltages in order to stabilize your overclock.

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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"

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