MSI p35 neo2 - by all reports it should be compatable out of the box, you still need to flash the bios, but at least it will boot so you can do so. There are no major PSU or RAM incompatibility problems that i have heard of (there are for abit and asus that do effect my build, perhaps not yours). It overclocks as far as I want it to (400mhz fsb). It has all the features I need.
Needless to say that I have thought about this matter and compared many of the same boards you are looking at. For some reason this forum does not have many vocal MSI fans. Lots of support for gigabyte and asus, with a smaller but outspoken group of DFI fans. When i started asking around for a p35 board it seemed that gigabyte was hands down the favorite. So, lots of bias on this issue. Me, well I curently have an ASUS with no complaints about it. I am fine with any main brand, just don't have any preference between them. So, as someone who was in your shoes last week let me tell you what i found out.
After looking into it, it seemed that all p35 boards perform the same at stock, so it is just a feature question and overclocking.
If you are going to overclock to 400-450 maybe even 500, they can all do it, except for the first version MSI's, the second version can overclock just as well (the Neo2 is an updated version). So again, all down to features. If you want to overclock above a 500mhz fsb then i think gigabyte/DFI is the way to go, but check out the gigabyte site's forums for any particular issues you may run into.
Lastly, i haven't mentioned the ASUS, basically because it is identical to the otherboards, it just did not have the features i was looking for so I did not go with it. Seems fine though, if it fits your needs.
Forum post from Gary Key says:
"**Start on 12/5 with the MSI Neo2FR - Budget P35 Boards to include four boards. Out of these, we have winners with the Gigabyte DS3L, MSI Neo2FR, and abit IP35E, all three boards should suit 90%+ of the users... ** Appears IP35E is being replaced by the IP35V, not good... **** Update, abit is keeping the IP35-E in production, we will give Editor's awards to the Gigabyte DS3L and abit IP35-E here shortly. " And they have already given the Neo2 a
Silver Award.
I am getting a Neo2 unless the review comes out before hand, then i will read it and see. The major problems noted for the Neo2, keeping it from a Gold award, are BIOS and utility related. So, with a good software/bios update it may be a gold award, but the hardware was fine and im ok with that.
edit: make the links actually work