K8N Neo Platinum Edition

The K8N Neo is a high end nForce 250 Gb based motherboard from MSI, and it isn't red.

The first thing to strike you about this board, is not its layout or features, it's the colour. Over the years, we have become so accustomed to seeing MSI boards in their trademark bright red, that this sober dark grey board comes as a surprise. The board utilises the nForce 250 Gb chipset, with the nVidia Gigabit ethernet implementation, complete with the hardware firewall feature. The IO panel includes no less than five audio jacks, so you can make use of the 7.1 channel surround sound without a separate decoder unit.

The K8N Neo is very well laid out. Both power leads stay well away from the CPU socket area, and there is plenty of room around the DIMM slots, since they are mounted horizontally along the top of the board. The only problem is the graphics card retaining latch. The north bridge heat sink comes too close to the graphics card, completely obstructing access to the latch. The only way to remove the graphics card is to release the catch with the end of a screwdriver.

There are large heat sinks on the voltage controller MOSFETs, which will ensure they are more than adequately cooled. There are a wide range of overclocking options, with multiplier control, CPU voltages up to 1.8 volts and FSB adjustment from 200 MHz all the way to 300 MHz.

At £84.89, the K8N Neo Platinum Edition is priced in a similar range to the Gigabyte K8NS Pro, and the Asus K8V Deluxe. It lacks the RAID features of the Gigabyte, but has the benefit of the nVidia hardware firewall, and CPU multiplier options. It is a good contender to the market place, but has very few unique features. Of the MSI boards, the K8T is the better value option, while this board is more keyed up for the overclocker.

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