MSI isn't the flashiest motherboard maker, but they've built some solid and affordable products over the years, many of which we've quite liked. At first glance, the P35 Platinum looks to continue that trend, at least as far as affordability goes. The board is selling for less than $180 online, making it less expensive than the Asus and Gigabyte offerings we've looked at today. Abit's IP35 Pro is a little cheaper, so the Platinum will need more than just an attractive price point if MSI wants to entice enthusiasts.

The P35 Platinum is perhaps best described as quirky, with all the positive and negative connotations that come along with that distinction. MSI has always marched to its own drumbeat, and with the P35 Platinum, it's an erratic tune that leaves me delighted and confused all at the same time—not that there's anything wrong with that. I'd rather listen to Aphex Twin than Fatboy Slim.

Apart from an incredibly ornate chipset cooler, the P35 Platinum isn't much to look at. The black board is set off with multicolored ports and slots, but the hues are dark enough that the board doesn't end up looking too much like a rainbow.

We don't start to run into problems with the Platinum until we take a closer look at its layout. This is the only board in the round-up that doesn't mount the auxiliary 12V power connector along the top edge of the board. Instead, the secondary power connector is located near the lower left-hand corner of the socket where it disrupts a collection of heatpipes tied to the chipset cooler. The area is so cramped that the board actually comes with a plug extension that raises the 12V connector up above the sea of heatpipes.

Readers have no doubt tired of my harping on motherboard makers to move auxiliary 12V connectors to the top edge of the board, but doing so does eliminate problems like this one.

Extravagant heatpipe coolers are all the rage on motherboards these days, but the P35 Platinum manages to set a new standard in artistic flair with a pair of loops that look like they belong in a theme park. This cooler has inspired us to include a Most Outrageous Heatsink category in this year's TR Awards, if only as an excuse to take more pictures of it.

The board's intricate cooler flanks the CPU socket on three sides as it snakes heatpipes between the chipset and voltage regulation circuitry, but it doesn't crowd the socket as much as some of the other chipset coolers we've seen today. Somewhat surprisingly, it's not that difficult to get at the CPU cooler's retention posts, either.

MSI uses a taller south bridge cooler than the other boards, but it doesn't interfere with double-wide graphics cards. Longer cards with double-wide coolers can block access to some of this board's Serial ATA ports, though. A GeForce 7900 GTX installed in the primary PCIe x16 slot leaves just enough room to get at all four purple SATA ports, but throw in a card with a longer double-wide cooler, and you can lose up to two SATA ports. When installed in the secondary (yellow) x16 slot, cards like the 7900 GTX will also block access to the blue SATA port connected to the Marvell storage controller.

Unlike the boards we've seen from Abit, Asus, and Gigabyte, the P35 Platinum only taps the ICH9R south bridge for four internal Serial ATA ports. The south bridge chip's remaining two SATA ports appear in the rear port cluster in eSATA form. This arrangement is a little odd—motherboards usually rely on auxiliary storage controllers from their external Serial ATA connectivity—and I suspect some folks won't be eager to lose south bridge SATA ports to external devices.

Moving to the slot stack, the Platinum serves up pairs of PCIe x16, x1, and standard PCI slots. Running a single double-wide graphics card only costs you a PCIe x1 slot, but adding a second card in a CrossFire config will cannibalize an arguably more valuable PCI slot.

We don't have many PCIe x1 cards in-house, but there's a chance that longer cards could conflict with the Platinum's tallish south bridge cooler. Keep that in mind if you plan to run PCIe x1 peripherals. And do let us know if you're able to find any.

Regardless of the ports that lie within, the P35 Platinum may have the ugliest port cluster we've ever seen. It's the chunky block of USB ports that throws me, and I'm surprised MSI didn't come up with something a little more elegant given the artistic attention it paid to the board's chipset cooler. There's certainly room there to squeeze in some additional ports, such as an S/PDIF digital audio input.

Still, the Platinum's port cluster is reasonably complete. An additional Firewire port and six more USB connections are available via onboard headers, as well.