Verdict: This board might be able to use either DDR2 or DDR3, but we wouldn't use it all.
The blurbs on the back of motherboard boxes can sometimes be a little too enthusiastic: 'Triangular voltage regulation chips to bring the stability of the Egyptian pyramids to your extreme hardware!!' Okay, so it's never that bad, but there's a lot to be said for being stoutly cynical when it comes to the plethora of 'innovations' and 'revolutions' that adorn the latest products. The Platinum Combo's 'Circu-Pipe' technology - a loop-the-loop heatpipe - cooling its Northbridge and VRMs, is interesting to look at, but not strictly necessary.
Bendy cooling kit aside, it's the features packed into the Platinum Combo that matter, and taking centre stage is the board's ability to handle either DDR2 or DDR3 memory. This is an interesting idea, since having both memory technologies on one board will allow you to keep your trusty DDR2 memory from your current PC and then upgrade to DDR3 memory when it drops in price.
Intel's P35 chipset was designed from the start to incorporate both DDR2 and DDR3 memory controllers, in anticipation of a sluggish DDR3 uptake. However, it wasn't really intended to support both memory types on one board, as forcing the P35 chipset to use both memory controllers requires a little smoke-and-mirrors trickery. This is the first of two such boards this month - Asus is also flexing its design muscles with the P5KC. Before you get excited, though, you should be a little wary of this mini-trend for combined DDR2 and DDR3, as the added complexity of offering two incompatible technologies on one board can compromise performance.
The method MSI uses for switching between modes didn't fill us with confidence. It provides two terminators (called, oddly, 'Turbo Memory Cards') that act as manual switches to tell the board which type of memory is fitted to it. When you want to use DDR2 memory, you place the dummy sticks in the two DDR3 slots, and when you want to use DDR3, you place them in two of the four DDR2 slots. When switched on, the LEDs on the side of these dummy DIMMs light up, spelling out either 'MSI DDR II' or 'MSI DDR III' in bright, lurid colours. The Asus P5KC doesn't require these terminators, so it's cheaper.
The Platinum Combo's audio is in the capable hands of Intel HD Audio via a Realtek audio chip, rather than an X-Fi Xtreme Audio daughterboard as with the P35 Platinum. This chip doesn't offer premium goodies such as enhanced MP3 playback quality, nor does it offer fancy EAX effects. There are eight channels of good-quality audio, though, via the usual analogue ports or the full-sized optical S/PDIF port on the backplate. With two eS-ATA ports, the Combo can handle as many as seven S-ATA II drives. These are the only extras in the box - there are no gimmicky additions.
Like all P35 boards, the Platinum Combo supports CrossFire but, as with other P35 boards except the Asus Blitz boards, the second high-speed slot is fed from the Southbridge, so it has only four PCI-E lanes (1GB/sec in either direction). We've seen that boards with this configuration, and which use CrossFire, are up to 13 per cent slower than Blitz boards with their CrossLinx chips providing the second graphics slot with eight PCI-E lanes.
The Platinum Combo's layout leaves a lot to be desired, and the Circu-Pipe cooling system proved to be the biggest irritation when setting up the MSI board. More significantly, the area around the CPU socket is cramped and, while we were able to fit our Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Cooler, the presence of sharp copper fins surrounding the LGA775 push-pin connectors meant that bloody knuckles were a distinct possibility. This cramped feeling continues throughout the board, with the 8-pin EPS12V power socket needing an extender to raise it above the copper tendrils of the Circu-Pipe. The arguably superfluous heatsink next to the DIMM slots made fitting RAM tricky too.
Furthermore, while there's good spacing between the two high-speed PCI-E slots, we'd prefer another PCI slot above the uppermost PCI-E slot, rather than the Molex connector and three fan headers that MSI has placed there.
Performance
The motherboard to beat at the moment is the DDR2-equipped Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP, which costs £132. If this cheaper board came close to the Asus, it would be worth considering. We tested with both DDR2 and DDR3 to see which the Platinum Combo prefers, and if it stinks when using the other. Annoyingly, the BIOS resets itself when you switch RAM type, but at least this means that the DIMM voltage settings will be correct for each memory type.
Unfortunately for MSI, at stock settings with both types of memory, the Platinum Combo was consistently slower than the P5K Deluxe. The Asus board forms the basis of our reference PC, and as we've used the same components when testing this board as used to record our reference score of 1,000, anything lower means that the Platinum Combo is slower. In the GIMP image-editing test, the Platinum Combo scored 973 when using DDR2, but slowed to just 926 when we switched to DDR3.
This trend continued in the video encoding test, with sub-1,000 scores when using DDR2, and even worse scores with DDR3. However, matters really went downhill in the multitasking test. The Platinum Combo scored a rubbish 701 using DDR2, and an almost as bad 752 when we switched to DDR3. As this board and the reference PC are so similar on paper (same CPU, memory, hard disk and chipset), something is obviously wrong with the Platinum Combo. We double-checked everything, and benchmarked the Platinum Combo again to try to obtain results that looked right, but without any joy (in fact, with quite a lot of anti-joy).
The terrible multitasking score also helps to explain the poor performance in Supreme Commander. The benchmark built into the game is a toughie, with most P35-based boards offering a (CPU-limited) minimum frame rate of 9-10fps. The Combo managed just 5fps.
The Platinum Combo had a stab at redeeming itself with its overclocking abilities, which are in the same league as those of the high-end Asus boards we've featured recently. The BIOS is simple and clearly laid out, and the voltage options allowed a maximum of 2.0875V through the CPU, and a massive 2.75V through the DIMM slots. The MSI had no problems pushing our E6750 from 2.66GHz to 3.66GHz with an FSB of 458MHz (1,832MHz effective), the limit of the chip with air cooling. The benchmark scores were good until we came to our multitasking test. While the image editing and video encoding test scores rocketed up accordingly with the increased CPU clock speed, the multitasking test barely reacted. This suggests that there was a bottleneck in the system that wasn't caused by the CPU, or potentially a flaw in the BIOS or design. This makes the huge maximum FSB of 505MHz pointless - you just won't obtain the performance from the board that this number suggests.
Conclusion
One of the most important features of a motherboard is speed. In this crucial aspect, the Platinum Combo left us feeling more than a little disappointed. The Platinum Combo could have been a real winner, as it has all the characteristics of a board we should love. It costs less than the Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP and offers a similar level of overclockability. The focused BIOS has everything you need; there's plenty of voltage control for the areas that need it, plus it can handle a massive maximum FSB of 505MHz and it allows you to upgrade to DDR3.
Unfortunately, it's the board's flaws, rather than its plus points, that stand out. Switching between DDR2 and DDR3 modes wasn't convincing - the terminators felt like a workaround. Given that the board also performs poorly with both memory types, it's one to avoid.
