MSI H81M-E35 V2 Motherboard Review

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Benchmarks

We've seen this before; there is little difference between the boards. Overclocking does provide around 10 percent better scores.

The differences are not significant, although overclocking moves today's board from last into a tie for first place with a boost of less than three percent.

Only an unrealistically pinched scale would make the one percent difference look significant. It is perhaps worth noting that the test board's SATA 6Gb/s performance was lower when overclocked, although its USB 3.0 performance was a little higher.

Today's board is tied for last place in its stock trim on the DX9 basic settings, and it falls to dead last in DX11. Overclocking shifts it to first place under DX9, but fails to move the needle in DX11. In any case, the difference is less than one percent, which is hardly noticeable.

MSI's power consumption surfaces in the middle of the pack, though it drops a little while running Heaven. Saving power there is offset by higher usage under a pure CPU load like Prime95. This is especially true when overclocked, but it's worth noting that idle draw didn't budge. Just be aware that power use did fluctuate during testing.

The placing in our CPU temperature testing mirrors what we saw from power consumption. Over the long term, we wouldn't want to see readings in excess of 70 degrees Celsius, which is what the Pentium hit under Prime95. But we'd expect that additional tweaking or a better cooler could bring this figure down.

Joe Trott is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews motherboards, specializing in budget Intel chipsets.
  • g-unit1111
    I have the H81M-E33 version of this board and after a year of use with a Pentium G-3258 it's still held up surprisingly well. I would definitely recommend these boards in a heart beat.
    Reply
  • Onus
    I think that's the one that Eric reviewed, and gave it an award. For basic boxes they're an excellent choice; much better than the schlock out there. A mere two SATA ports ought to be a deal-breaker for any rational builder.
    Reply
  • littleleo
    Will this board support Broadwell CPUs?
    Reply
  • Crashman
    16445254 said:
    Will this board support Broadwell CPUs?
    No.
    http://us.msi.com/support/mb/H81M-E35.html#support-cpu

    Unlike DRAM, where similar modules that haven't been tested will probably work, CPUs usually need new firmware specifically written to support them. So you should take MSI's word that it's a no-go.
    Reply
  • f-14
    this is a good basic entry level gamer board i have been building with since core 2 duo (G41M-P33 and such) for kids and college students who only want to spend the minimal on a decent gamer. i typically pair this with an Nvidia X60 series graphics card and a 22" monitor and a 460W-500W PSU with a low budget case or lower budget decorative windowed case with the best cfm to noise ratio led fans, usually kingwins.

    i try to buy the 4 ram slot versions incase future requirements change and it's cheaper and easier to add in than replace all the ram.
    Reply
  • RedJaron
    16444324 said:
    I think that's the one that Eric reviewed, and gave it an award. For basic boxes they're an excellent choice; much better than the schlock out there. A mere two SATA ports ought to be a deal-breaker for any rational builder.
    No, that was the E34. Looks like the main difference between this E35 and my E34 is the one PCI slot at the bottom. And I think your table is off, this looks like a 3+1 VRM. Actual value against the E34 is hard to compare. If you don't need that PCI slot, then why not save $5? However, if you do need it, an extra $5 isn't much.
    Reply
  • littleleo
    What uses a regular PCI slot any more? An old printer adapter?
    Reply
  • Onus
    Modems, cheap wireless adapters, some sound cards, and TV tuners may still use PCI slots. It seems unlikely to me that the average person would have one of those.
    Reply
  • RedJaron
    Or someone holding on to older, but still perfectly usable tech. If I bought an expensive PCI sound card years ago, I'd likely still use it, particularly if it had DDL. These cheaper boards are exactly the kind that people would get when upgrading older family computers and want to keep things affordable. I think it's very relevant for them to have a few legacy connectors. Older connectors on enthusiast and premium boards are a mystery to me.
    Reply
  • spentshells
    Nice review, I had an h61 which appears to be pretty much the same board with additional support, it worked great and was extremely stable.
    Reply