MSI P6N SLI Platinum nForce 650i Motherboard Review

While a 680i chipset has obvious benefits over the 650i, after looking at this MSI solution I have to question if those extras will be worth the extra cost on most boards. The 680i chipset adds dual PCIe x16 graphics slots (and physics card provision), dual Gigabit NICs with DualNet technology, 6 SATA II and another 2 USB 2.0 ports, LinkBoost, SLI Ready Memory, extra overclocking and memory options. Now weigh those features against the cash saved by using the likes of the MSI P6N SLI Platinum, a board that has proven here today to be extremely capable in all areas.

Unless you are running a high end SLI setup or planning on extreme overclocking then chances are you and your wallet will be just as happy with a 650i. While the MSI P6N SLI Platinum did come in slightly behind our 975x based Abit AW9D during CPU tests, it still performed similarly for multimedia and came out in front for games and memory.

..All in all, the MSI P6N SLI Platinum is a good board, especially when you take in to account the price of it ($156 USD at time of writing). Take a look at the features, the contents package and the performance seen here today and ask yourself; do you really need to spend more on a board? Assuming your not an extreme overclocker, then your answer will probably no.

ViperLair