The MSI 875P NEO-FIS2R is one of the most fully-featured boards in this roundup, and you'd be hard pressed to find a missing element. This is a high-end i875P motherboard with PAT and dual-channel DDR standard features, but with all the onboard fixings as well, such as Gigabit LAN, 6-channel audio, Firewire, and 8 USB 2.0 ports. It includes standard Parallel IDE (x2) along with SATA RAID through the ICH5R (x2) and Promise 20378 controller (x2). The 875P NEO-FIS2R also features the MSI CoreCell technology, which includes many system performance, safety, power-saving and noise-reduction features that extend the board's lifespan, while allowing higher overclocks and less noise.
The 875P NEO-FIS2R wowed us with its incredible retail bundle, and MSI has moved to the top of the list in terms of included extras. Its retail package includes the motherboard, one rounded Floppy cable, one rounded MSI-branded ATA-66/100/133 cable, four SATA cables, one dual-prong SATA power adapter, a USB bracket, a Firewire bracket, an SPDIF/RCA bracket, an I/O Shield, a driver CD, a RAID floppy disk, a SATA and SATA RAID Setup manual, an 83-page hardcopy user manual, and a MSI case sticker. MSI has also added a Super Pack software bundle, including Photoshop Album SE, WinDVD 4, WinRip 2, VirtualDrive 7, RestoreIT 3 and Media Ring, along with a very helpful user manual.
The MSI 875P NEO-FIS2R's basic layout is extremely good, and it includes the same basic design of other top-ranked boards in our roundup. The main ATX power, floppy and IDE connectors are in a perfect location, at the top-right edge of the board. The Serial ATA connectors are placed at the bottom right of the motherboard, as is the IDE RAID connector. The DDR sockets are color coded, though by A or B channel, rather than the more conventional A+B dual-channel format. The processor socket is easy to get at, and the chipset fan is angled to allow the most real estate around the CPU.
The design of the MSI 875P NEO-FIS2R is very tight, but like other motherboards with so many onboard features, there are a few issues. The secondary ATX power connector is down beside the chipset, which may cause the cable to get a bit too close to the CPU heatsink. The CPU fan header is also placed in close to the CPU socket, and although we had no problems, it wouldn't hurt to give the two components a half-inch more space.
The myriad onboard features and extra hardware brackets of the MSI 875P NEO-FIS2R make for a more detailed installation, but don't add to the difficulty level at all. MSI has included exceptional installation manuals, and the color-coded ports and connectors make for a very easy install. Once we had all the brackets installed, the CPU, DDR and other peripherals came on without a hitch. MSI lists memory requirements on their site, but we tested with both Corsair TwinX and KingMax DDR400 in dual-channel mode with no problems whatsoever. The secondary ATX cable does require some maneuvering, but overall the entire hardware and software install was much easier than we anticipated. MSI has also gone with a full-sized ATX design for the 875P NEO-FIS2R, so we experienced no board overhang or flex issues when installing peripherals.
MSI is right up there with ASUS and ABIT in terms of high-end overclocking, and the 875P NEO-FIS2R definitely takes i875P tweaking to a whole new level. The System BIOS options start out rather standard, with 1 MHz CPU clock speed overclocking to a maximum of 500 MHz. The CPU core, AGP and DDR voltage options are present, and the maximum values exceed anything else in our roundup, and definitely slide into true enthusiast ranges. The only caveat to this is to be sure you know what you're doing when changing the voltage levels, but they are definitely there to play with if needed. MSI also gets extra marks for including DDR clock speed adjustments, with a maximum of 532 MHz at the 200 MHz front-side bus. Even the AGP/PCI overclock levels are a tad scary, with maximum AGP speeds topping out at a whopping 105 MHz. This is an AMI BIOS (though in standard Award layout), and in addition to featuring a wide range is overclocking options, it's also incredibly easy to navigate.
The MSI 875P NEO-FIS2R is definitely the top-end of the i875P motherboard crop, and has the onboard features, performance and overclocking capabilities to satisfy the gaming and enthusiasts markets with ease. This board is the real deal. We've been using it in secondary reference tests, and its overclocking features, stability and compatibility is topnotch. If you're looking for a high-end i875P powerhouse with all the options, then MSI has just the ticket.
