Verdict: Great value and a good overclocker

MSI is one of the biggest motherboard manufacturers in the world and regularly comes up with new, snappily titled features for its products, such as D.O.T. (Dynamic Overclocking Technology). For this reason, you'd think it could come up with a better name than RD480 Neo 2-FI for this motherboard.

The RD480 Neo 2-FI is MSI's first attempt at a Socket 939 Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition motherboard and, unlike many first attempts, it's been remarkably successful. The two high-speed PCI-E slots are placed further apart than they are on most CrossFire motherboards, which allows the graphics cards to run cooler. This also means that long graphics cards won't obstruct the four RAID-capable S-ATA ports that lurk between the PCI-E slots at the edge of the PCB.

If that isn't enough expansion for you then there are two EIDE channels, and a pair of 1x PCI-E and PCI slots. The on-board audio is a step above what you find on nForce4 SLI motherboards, as the Realtek ALC880 is compatible with the HD Audio codec. Eight USB 2 ports and three FireWire ports round off the hardware bundle.

The BIOS of the RD480 Neo 2-FI is very clearly laid out and provides plenty of overclocking options. You can send a transistor-roasting 2.05V to the CPU, but a far less distinguished 2.85V to the RAM and 1.5V to the chipset. The S-ATA controller and 2T default Command Rate made the RD480 Neo 2-FI the slowest Socket 939 motherboard out of the box in this Labs test, but it was able to overclock our test CPU, an Athlon 64 X2 4200+, to a 239MHz FSB, which increased its frequency from 2.2GHz to 2.63GHz. By dropping the CPU multiplier to 4x, the RD480 Neo 2-FI was able to reach a maximum stable FSB of 250MHz, which is far less impressive.

While the RD480 Neo 2-FI doesn't provide as much overclocking potential as the awesome DFI Lanparty UT RDX200 CF-DR, it's less than half the price and has the same widely spaced high-speed PCI-E slots. The Lanparty is the best choice for overclockers who also want CrossFire dual graphics, but if you're a less ambitious overclocker who also wants to save money, then the RD480 Neo 2-FI is definitely worth considering.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

• AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition - Processors
• Shuttle XPC SX48P2 Deluxe - Desktop PCs
• SilverStone Raven - Peripherals
• Raptor Gaming M3 Platinum - Peripherals
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 - Processors
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 - Graphics cards
• DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS - Motherboards