Intel's P965 chipset has really shown us lately there is really no great point in getting a more expensive 975X chipset based motherboard but why? P965 has native DDR-2 800 memory support, its FSB overclocking potential is usually higher and it supports more peripherals on the ICH8 Southbridge. With Crossfire reorganisation from ATI, it has all the features of the 975X and more.

MSI's second P965 motherboard they have sent us left a much sweeter taste in our mouths. The cheaper P965 Neo that was originally sent to us really should not have been considered, however, we can say that the P965 Platinum has some major pull here and it's quite a capable product. And it's really not that much more expensive than the Neo version.

One of the major benefits of the MSI P965 Platinum (around $195 AUD) over the Gigabyte DQ6 is its price. It's pretty well close to half the price of the feature-packed and overclocking monster DQ6 (around $335 AUD) but with a couple PCI Express x16 slots to support Crossfire and some very decent FSB overclocking, this motherboard from MSI is definitely a very good motherboard for the price.