Improvements
Once again we'll retest the performance to make sure nothing gained in overclocking capability has been lost here. This is especially important considering that the board has received updates in both hardware and BIOS. All benchmarks from the P35 Platinum's previous review were retested under an identical software configuration, but the BIOS was updated to version VP.0B4 (6/12/2007).
Benchmark tests actually improved by 0.02% for the P35 Platinum Revision 1.1. That difference is small enough to be coincidental, but it's nice to see that none of the former revision's impressive performance was lost.
We continue to use our early-stepping Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 for overclocking stress tests Compare Prices on Core 2 Duo E6700, which is a part that constantly challenges motherboard stability by not having much FSB tolerance. Top boards typically push it to 3460 MHz at a 10x multiplier and 1.50V core, and the highest FSB we've reached in recent months was 459 MHz at a lowered 6x multiplier.
A maximum stable FSB clock of 463 MHz (FSB1852) is a new record for our stubborn processor and a tribute to MSI's engineering efforts.
Conclusion
The former MSI P35 Platinum Revision 1.0 won the performance portion of our earlier P35 DDR2 shootout, but by too small an amount to offset its staggering defeat in overclocking. Today's P35 Platinum Revision 1.1 maintains all of the original board's performance but with huge gains in overclocking stability that beat every board covered in our previous review. MSI could have easily won an Editor's Choice award had the firm presented such a beast for the original competition, but because all of its competitors have also continued their development work, it's unfortunately too late for such accolades.
The loss of 8+2 channel audio capability with the substitution of a standard eight-channel codec comes at the same time as a rebate in lieu of reduced retail prices. Buyers who would rather save money than pay for those extra audio capabilities will be pleased to see that the MSI P35 Platinum Revision 1.1 is now a stellar overclocker.
