MSI 865PE Neo2-LS - motherboard - ATX - i865PE

...same.

MSI is a highly respected motherboard manufactorer and have incorporated the intel 865PE chipset into this fantastic motherboard.

Thanks to Rabid's suggestion, I went to the MSI section of overclockers. There I found the one he suggested, below it was this baby. For just £10 more I could have dual DDR RAM, as well as a few other minor enhancements.

This board has all the standard features, like ...
...also got 4 ram slots (with dual DDR ram support and supporting up to 500Mhz RAM on overclock speeds). It supports all pentium 4 chips including the new Extreme and Prescott processors. For those who don't understand that, It's damn good and supports all the new connector types.

It also has 8 possible USB ports (4 on the motherboard staight away, an adapter for another 2 and a socket to plug in another 2 if you buy them) and 2 serial ... more

Welcome to the fourth installment of my computer component reviews!

My motherboard is the 865PE Neo2 - P. I'm assuming that this is the same, it certainly looks the same.

MSI is a highly respected motherboard manufactorer and have incorporated the intel 865PE chipset into this fantastic motherboard.

Thanks to Rabid's suggestion, I went to the MSI section of overclockers. There I found the one he suggested, below it was this baby. For just £10 more I could have dual DDR RAM, as well as a few other minor enhancements.

This board has all the standard features, like AGP 8x, ATA 133 support and 5 PCI ports. It's also got 4 ram slots (with dual DDR ram support and supporting up to 500Mhz RAM on overclock speeds). It supports all pentium 4 chips including the new Extreme and Prescott processors. For those who don't understand that, It's damn good and supports all the new connector types.

It also has 8 possible USB ports (4 on the motherboard staight away, an adapter for another 2 and a socket to plug in another 2 if you buy them) and 2 serial ATA slots (this runs at 150 instead of 133 and has narrower cables which increase airflow. Basically it's for connecting really fast hard drives).

It also comes with 5.1 surround sound support built in. Of course, this is still a very basic version and you'll need a seperate sound card for the full experience.

There are 4 fan connectors (much to my delight), 1 CPU, 1 North Bridge, 2 "System". I don't use any speed control but one assumes you can set speeds in the bios.

It's supplied with an array of cables, including serial ATA, ATA 133 and other bits and pieces required to connect up all your bits. I was rather imrpessed actually, dreading having to hunt down my own cables, everything was supplied.

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Setting It Up
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Luckily, my dad is an electronics engineer and has done a few computers in his time. So setting this up wasn't too challenging. However, having virtually no prior knoledge on how to set up a motherboard, it seemed fairly easy. I just had to check a few things with dad.

It will take an hour or so to connect everything in correctly, because you have some very fiddly bits and you have to refer to diagrams, try to work out where to put things.

But a motherboard is a motherboard, it's the same connectors whichever you get. It's always going to be a little complicated to set up.

The instruction manual is fantastic at explaining everything and showing you where everything is. I think even a novice could set this up in a few hours with that instruction manual.

It includes a huge fold out real size photo of the motherboard with every bit labeled and instructions on what to do.

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Quick complaint
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They've attached a little "MSI" symbol on a plate resing in the north bridge heat sink. This is loose and will rattle when the computer is on. Also note that screws for most northbridge fans are too small to screw any fans to it.

So, if you get a rattling sound, you'll have to super glue the little plate to the heat sink. This is perfectly safe and perfectly doable. It wont stop you being able to remove the heat sink at all. It's just one of those annoying little things.

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The Bios
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Oh how I wish you could just turn on a computer, it does some tests and works out the fastest, most reliable settings that work with your hardware. I'm just a dreamer though, editing the bios yourself is the only way.

However, there is some automation. It'll detect RAM speeds, CPU compatibility and things like that automatically and it does make life a little easier.

You'll have to do things like set which hard drive to boot from. By default the HT technology on a chip is disabled. There's also other settings you might want to look at, like the on board LAN (ethernet for networking or connecting cable modems) is switched off by default.

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Buyer Advice
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This board should support all the modern technologies you'd need. But check with your hard drive, DVD drives etc. The ATA is backwards compatable with old IDE drives.

This board is only compatable with DDR RAM. You can't use the old RD RAM from very old P4 systems. I'm unsure if old P4 chips will work, but there's no point buying a new motherboard and keeping your old P4 Willamite chip anyway!

If you're connecting it to a network or cable modem, be sure to switch on the onboard LAN in the bios. It took me 30 mins to work out why my moedem wasn't working!

Be sure you've got a 400 Watt PSU (power supply unit, the one with the big fan that connects to the mains, usually 300W) to power it. This is especially important if using the new P4 chips, DDR 400 RAM etc.

It's probably a good idea to have at least one extra system fan to keep things cool (I have 5). This board is likely to generate a bit of heat.

If the sound doesn't work when you first switch it on, remember to install the drivers from the CD. We forgot and me and dad had a huge fight over what the problem was and how to fix it! Turns out we'd just forgotten the drivers!

ALWAYS remember to ground yourself when touching anything on the motherboard. I've put this in all my reviews on computer components! Static destroys computer components, I've seen it happen. You wont know it's gone till you switch it on. I can't stress enough how important grounding yourself is!! There is a damn good reason it comes in a metalic type bag!

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Conclusion
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This board provides all the technologies I need to run my new computer system. It's pretty much future proof and has everything any computer user should want or need. The bios is upgradable, the drivers supplied are fantastic, including a live update option which will scan for updates when you're online and download them if needed.

If upgrading to a new pentium system, I would recommend this board, well worth the money. It's designed for overclocking and the bios makes this easy. I wouldn't try it, but it is a good option for overclockers.

I paid about £65 for mine, which isn't too bad considering the wealth of options it offers!

Thanks for reading, next up in this series of reviews: Emprex DVD Dual Internal DVD writer 

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