MSI "K8N Neo2 Platinum" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU

[Schneider879]

ok recently i looked at the anandtech review on the msi k8n neo 2 and it got the gold editors choice but then my friend showed me this topic on how someones capacitors leaked and i was wondering has anyone elses or people who have this mobo speak up if you like it cus it looks fine and all i think that guy was just unlucky but it could have happened to lots of people and i dont know and thats y i am asking

 

[Zebo]

That's normal for MSI. He's lucky it runs.

Anytime you see green caps on a board stay away.

 

[mysticfm]

I guess I've just been lucky with my K8N Neo Platinum (not Neo2, though). There have been no signs of problems with mine (either visually or operationally). My board has been in nearly constant operation for about four months now, and to date I'd have to say that I think it rocks.

Here's how I look at it: people aren't often inspired to post to a forum about how wonderfully their MB is working ... whereas the people who do run into problems are MUCH more likely to post messages about it. So I choose to not get too worked up and worried about over such problem reports, since there is no easy way to know how many people are doing just fine with their MSI boards. Even if one allows for the possibility there may be a higher failure rate on MSI boards, I believe it is safe to say that the majority of users aren't going to have problems.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: mysticfm
I guess I've just been lucky with my K8N Neo Platinum (not Neo2, though). There have been no signs of problems with mine (either visually or operationally). My board has been in nearly constant operation for about four months now, and to date I'd have to say that I think it rocks.

Here's how I look at it: people aren't often inspired to post to a forum about how wonderfully their MB is working ... whereas the people who do run into problems are MUCH more likely to post messages about it. So I choose to not get too worked up and worried about over such problem reports, since there is no easy way to know how many people are doing just fine with their MSI boards. Even if one allows for the possibility there may be a higher failure rate on MSI boards, I believe it is safe to say that the majority of users aren't going to have problems.

Of course what you say is true, or they would be out of biz tomorrow. Point is what kind of chatter you hear with enthusiasts. Most every board (except my last MSI) will run at stock and stable for years. How about when you overclock as many enthusiasts do? How about super tight ram latencies? How about heavy power loads like modern vid cards and overclocking them? This is what separates boards from other boards. I aslo tend to believe a board which is highly overclcokable and rock stable will last even longer when running stock because it obviously has high end components to allow it to run so out of spec in the first place.

 

[mysticfm]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Of course what you say is true, or they would be out of biz tomorrow. Point is what kind of chatter you hear with enthusiasts. Most every board (except my last MSI) will run at stock and stable for years. How about when you overclock as many enthusiasts do? How about super tight ram latencies? How about heavy power loads like modern vid cards and overclocking them? This is what separates boards from other boards. I aslo tend to believe a board which is highly overclcokable and rock stable will last even longer when running stock because it obviously has high end components to allow it to run so out of spec in the first place.

That's a good counterpoint. Myself, I don't overclock either my board or my videocard (I value stability and longevity far more than an extra few percentage points of performance), so I have no idea how well my MSI board would handle overclocking, and I'm not about to try it just to find out.

Just curious: in your last message, you said to "avoid any MB with green capacitors". Is there some specific reason for that advice? Does a green colored capacitor indicate a lower tolerance, a cheaper manufacturer, or something else? There are two green caps visible on the Neo Platinum 'poster' that came with my board, but I don't remember right now if any of the caps on the actual board itself were green (most of them were silver-grey, I think, just like in the poster).

 

[Zebo]

The green caps are from china manufacture and are prone to leak or were in the past. MSI, ECS and a couple other board makers are still in class action suits for thier massive failure rates and unstable voltages. To make a long story short, japanese capcitors use superior propritary manufacturing process and chemicals, however they cost more so companies are less loving them. So some board makers skimped use chineese and it's costing them. Have the problems been corrected since? I dont know. But I prefer not to take risk and so do reputable board makers like DFI/asus and abit and only use japanese rubicon or chemicon caps.

http://www.abit-usa.com/news/2004/20040301.php

 

[mysticfm]

I've read about widespread problems with some Taiwanese caps with a flawed electrolyte formula about 18-24 months ago ... might that be what you are talking about? If so, it appears likely that those problems have been resolved since then. And at the time, it may also be worth noting that Abit (who you list as one of the "reputable" ones) was reportedly one of the hardest hit MB manufacturers.