Super Pi Mod 1.5 XS	Source: SuperPI

SuperPI calculates the number PI to 1 Million digits in this raw number crunching benchmark. The program allows the user to change the number of digits of PI that can be calculated from 16 thousand to 32 million. Our benchmark is set to 1 Million digits and 19 iterations.

Super Pi Mod 1.5 XS 8 Million Digits: Points Ranking Asus P5NT Deluxe (NF 780i 333/1066 GF 8800GTS 320MB) 237 MSI P6N Diamond (NF 680i 333/1066 GF 8800GTS 320MB) 249 Biostar TF7150V-M7 (GF 7150 333/1066 Onboard GF 7150) 262 MSI X48 Platinum (X48 333/1333) 231 Asus Maximus Extreme (X38 333/1333) 230 Foxconn DigitaLife X38A (X38 333/800 DDR2) 227 Foxconn DigitaLife X38A (X38 333/1333 DDR3) 230 Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 (X38 333/1066) 226 Asus BLITZ Formula (P35 333/1066) 226 Foxconn MARS (P35 333/1066) 236 MSI P35 Platinum Combo (P35 333/800 DDR2) 230 MSI P35 Platinum Combo (P35 333/1333 DDR3) 233 16 Million Digits: Points Ranking MSI X48 Platinum (X48 333/1333) 504 MSI P35 Platinum Combo (P35 333/800 DDR2) 517 MSI P35 Platinum Combo (P35 333/1333 DDR3) 517

Super Pi results are interesting, in the 16 million test there is no difference between the two memory standards in terms of compute time with our dual-core Core 2 Duo E6750 test processor.

MSI Makes a Good Combo Board

In this review PCSTATS tested the Intel P35 Express based MSI P35 Platinum Combo motherboard with both DDR2 and DDR3 memory. With a Core 2 Duo dual-core processor the performance differences between each memory standard were virtually nil. That's good, it means you can get away with ultra affordable DDR2 RAM right now if you have a simple dual-core chip kicking around on an older platform. With a quad core chip you can expect a broader difference between DDR2/3 memory, but that's a story for another day.

In terms of integrated goodies the MSI P35 Platinum Combo has all the usual networking and peripherals you need. We don't need to go over that again, now do we? Expansion comes care of two PCI Express x1 slots, three 32 bit PCI slots and two PCI Express x16 slots which will support dual videocards under ATI/AMD CrossFire (albeit in PCIe x16 / x4 mode).

In the course of testing this platform PCSTATS found MSI's P35 Platinum Combo motherboard a breeze to work with, and there are no real downside to this board we can think of. The need to use memory select cards isn't all that much a hassle... so long as one doesn't misplace them during a re-build.

As we saw in the benchmarks, the MSI P35 Platinum Combo system performed competitively with other Intel P35 Express, X38 Express and nVIDIA nForce 680i based boards. Overclocking results were muted by our flaky test CPU. In the future PCSTATS will be using an new E8400 Core 2 Duo for overclocking, it looks like we've burned the E6750 out. Pity.

In any case, with a retail price of $140 CDN the Intel P35 Express-based MSI P35 Platinum Combo is a good value. We recommend it. It's fast, well loaded on the integrated feature front and uses good quality capacitors and a silent chipset thermal solution.

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