MSI K8N Neo4 nForce4 Ultra Socket 939

[Zap]

Originally posted by: GeezerMan
Well gee whiz. The Ultra ram I have, I got it last week, may be better than the high dollar Corsair. I wonder if I order another stick if I just might get another one with the same chips.That would be great,,,

One could hope... but it's really a crapshoot. In the other Hot Deals thread on the $50AR Ultra 1GB deal, people were reporting all kinds of stuff. One person got Micron, another got Liberty... never heard of those.

Originally posted by: GeezerMan
Here's what I have right now. HTT at 300 X 9 = CPU speed of 2700
Memory divider at 166, CPU-Z says the memory is at 245.9, so X 2 = 491 speed ?
I'm trying the Ultra ram, that has the aeneon aed93t500 chips. I set the voltage at 2.8, settings are at 3 3 3 8

Very good results. You may want to bump Vcore up a hair. I'm running an Opteron 144 @2.7GHz in my gaming rig with a voltage bump, IIRC to around 1.45v. Generally speaking +10% may be safe. Standard disclaimers apply. Your temps are good, so go for it.

BTW, in my experience usually a CPU gradually needs more voltage as the clock speeds climb, until at a certain point it needs more and more voltage to even go up a hair, after which you can't get it stable no matter what voltage. I just settle on a point before the curve rises.

 

[GeezerMan]

OK, sorry Kenton, Zap, etc. I got excited and tried to run befiore I could walk. It was unstable at 2700, ram at 166. Would not always post. I left it at 2700, and lowered ram down to 133. Still had quirky post problem. I'm thinking I might have to do as Zap suggests, and Kenton has done, and raise Vcore up to be stable at 2700.

At 2600, ram at 166, and prime95 on both cores, my temps went to 55 to 58 or so, according to speedfan, at full load.

I'll do as Kenton suggests, and try it at 2200 and then go up.

 

[imported_maildude]

I'm sure glad I decided to go with this 939 board. Those new AM2 chips are a little expensive.
http://www.buy.com/prod/AMD_Athlon_64_F...6KB_L1_2MB_L2/q/loc/101/202601592.html

 

[kenton]

Wow. I must confirm that these new(er/ish) Opteron's do run warmer... I still idle in the mid/low 30s with my computer desk door open, closed it idles a couple C higher but = no airflow.

Are you using the AC Freezer or the stock 4 piper? Someone over at hardforum claimed today that the AMD/OEM heatsink with two heatpipes per side is better than the heatsinks we have with the 4 pipes coming out (looks like a 4-cylinder exhaust manifold (header)) I was under the impression the heatsink we have is superior. Doesn't matter much to me but I am using two of them in other computers so curiosity will get the best of me.

http://blog.geeqs.net/photos/blogimages/picture660.aspx <-- His heatsink, the story went he RMA'd his Opteron that came with the linked heatsink and he was given this heatsink ----> http://www.mylilsite.net/images/tolchester/0551/sdstockside1.jpg

I have the latter and I was always under the impression it was the best one. Can someone confirm (GeezerMan!)

Something else I've thought of is strapping a huge 120mm fan to my 4 piper. All you would need to do is ziptie the screw holes to the heatsink somehow, I'm more than sure it can be rigged up and work well. Another thought I had was strapping another 92mm to my AC F64P, the stock fan already blows towards the heatsink (it almost blocks RAM slots 1 and 2) but I can barely feel it on my hand. So I figure another similar CFM fan should work well in getting more across the CPU.

 

[GeezerMan]

Well, the 2 piper AMD has a 70mm fan, the 4 piper has a 80mm fan. Frosty tech had a review that showed the 2 piper was number 2 for cooling, behind some much bigger, a real honker, of a HSF. That was before the 4 pipe version came out I think. The 2 pipe also beat the Arctic 64 pro. I got the 2 pipe version with my 165, but I'm using the 4 pipe right now with arctic silver 5 that has not cured yet. They say 200 hours to cure and show better temps. . I have a 2 pipe right here. Maybe time to run a comparison. Temps are still OK, but wait till summer. Maybe best to run this at a lower speed for better temps?

Say maildude, did you buy one too? Great if you did. We will for sure have many people with the same CPU and board. Other variables will still exist of course.
Right now, I'm thinking 2600 is doable at stock CPU volts, my ram at 166. It has running prime for 2 hours. If it fails, I'll go back to the beginning, and start slowly up as I should have. The surprise has been the very good Ultra ram I got with the good chips.

 

[GeezerMan]

Say Kenton. What is temp 2 on speedfan? Under 100% load, at 2600MHz, my temp 2 is 50C, Core is 56C
Thanks

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: maildude
I'm sure glad I decided to go with this 939 board. Those new AM2 chips are a little expensive.
http://www.buy.com/prod/AMD_Athlon_64_F...6KB_L1_2MB_L2/q/loc/101/202601592.html

Chump change. I'd buy two of them if they weren't OOS.

J/K.

Originally posted by: kenton
Wow. I must confirm that these new(er/ish) Opteron's do run warmer...

http://blog.geeqs.net/photos/blogimages/picture660.aspx <-- His heatsink, the story went he RMA'd his Opteron that came with the linked heatsink and he was given this heatsink ----> http://www.mylilsite.net/images/tolchester/0551/sdstockside1.jpg

I have the latter and I was always under the impression it was the best one. Can someone confirm

The Opterons do seem to run warmer... maybe has to do with higher transistor count? Dunno.

I was also under the impression that the second one is better. Perhaps the first one has an advantage from a higher RPM fan and the smaller fan having a smaller hub/motor, meaning a smaller "dead" spot, coupled with two of the heatpipes closer together to spread the heat out more... Still, the other one is more flexible in that you can use whatever fan you want. My gaming rig has one of those with a Thermaltake Starforce fan on it (using the 92mm to 80mm adaptor that comes with the fan).

 

[GeezerMan]

Say, what's the deal with the ram settings in my bios. I'm not allowed to change the command rate to 1. It's blued out and has an x by it. Even when set to manual.

 

[GeezerMan]

I'm using a utility called Core Temp Beta 0.94.
You guys probably already use it. My cores show a 4 to 7 degree difference, averages 5 degree difference at full load. Anyone else have a different temp for each core?

 

[kenton]

There's another setting in the DRAM menu to allow you to change to 1T. Not only do you need Manual at the top (that unlocks the memory dividers and timings) but there's another setting to set to manual towards the bottom. It's should be the first or second option you can select ABOVE the blued out 2T setting.

And yes, I have a temperature difference between my cores, I'd say my average at full load is 4C off, Core1 being hotter than Core0.

I also had that difference with a 4400+ in this board (during the short time I owned it) but the problem with the 4400+ was it was umm.. exceeding 60C at stock voltage

 

[aimanzym]

good deal. i don't think you are going to believe what you see on the pix. just go over the model in the MSI site and look at the speces.

 

[GeezerMan]

Had a little trouble in River City last night. I'm at 2600MHz still, 166 divider, 3 3 3 8,
It was going good when I went to bed. At that time, about 4 hours prime stable, both cores at 100% load, temps in the mid 50s. Woke up early to find the PC was off. Hmmmm. Anyway to track what happened? Got it going again in prime, so far 5 hours stable. May need to crank the ram volts up a notch.

Thanks

 

[GuildBoss]

Got it all up and running but having trouble getting my SATA recognized as primary master...Primary Master in BIOS is blank! The SATA drive is the only hdd in the system but I do have a DVD plugged into IDE1, set up as Primary Slave. Any ideas how to get the SATA drive as Primary Master? Thanks

 

[GeezerMan]

Originally posted by: GuildBoss
Got it all up and running but having trouble getting my SATA recognized as primary master...Primary Master in BIOS is blank! The SATA drive is the only hdd in the system but I do have a DVD plugged into IDE1, set up as Primary Slave. Any ideas how to get the SATA drive as Primary Master? Thanks

Is it a new drive? set up as primary?

 

[Odeen]

Originally posted by: GuildBoss
Got it all up and running but having trouble getting my SATA recognized as primary master...Primary Master in BIOS is blank! The SATA drive is the only hdd in the system but I do have a DVD plugged into IDE1, set up as Primary Slave. Any ideas how to get the SATA drive as Primary Master? Thanks

If you haven't set up a SATA board before, SATA hard drives show up as separate channels.
IDE channel 0 is usually primary master and slave (PATA 1)
IDE channel 1 is usually secondary master and slave (PATA 2)
IDE channels 2 through 5 are for SATA connectors. Since SATA supports one drive per channel, there are no slave configurations and they do not share channels with the PATA connectors.

 

[Towermax]

I downloaded and read the manual, but I don't see an answer to this question:

What kind of fan control does this board have? Aside from the CPU, can any of the other fan headers be controlled by Speedfan or similar software?

 

[Lurker1]

Guildboss: set your DVD to master. Then in the BIOS change your boot sequence to boot off of CDROM, then HDD, which I believe will be something like HDD2 or HDD-SATA or something like that. I don't have the machine in front of me, or I'd tell you exactly how to configure it. That will allow you to boot off of CDs/DVDs first, then the HD. Also, remove/disable floppy etc, unless you have a floppy drive connected.

 

[GeezerMan]

OK, coming up on 8 hours at Prime95 running on both cores. Temps at 55C average. CPU volts at stock. CPU at 2609MHz, ram is set at 166, so Ram speed is at 237MHz or X 2 = 474MHz , timings 3 3 3 8 that's pretty darn good. Ram at 2.8 Volts. HSF is the AMD 4 pipe. Room temp is 77F.

I'm wearing my blue plaid pajamas, smoking a cigar, and drinking a shot of bourbon...wait, too much info...

Anyway, what do you guys think? I'm thinking let it go 24 hours straight on Prime95, I need to do memtest too. From previous postings, going to 2700MHz probably takes a CPU voltage bump. I may leave it alone at 2600MHZ since it would probably run cooler at that setting anyway

 

[kenton]

I didn't see too much of a temp rise when I bumped voltage up. I think I'm doing 1.375 + 3.3%, or maybe it was 6.6%, too lazy to break out calc.exe.

Anyways, if it's good for 24 hours then great! Temps look fine... compared to mine. I wouldn't worry about a voltage bump, I think the extra +100MHz and +RAMClk is more important.

I still idle in the low 30s if I open my computer cabinet to expose it to fresh air.

 

[GeezerMan]

Originally posted by: kenton
I didn't see too much of a temp rise when I bumped voltage up. I think I'm doing 1.375 + 3.3%, or maybe it was 6.6%, too lazy to break out calc.exe.

Anyways, if it's good for 24 hours then great! Temps look fine... compared to mine. I wouldn't worry about a voltage bump, I think the extra +100MHz and +RAMClk is more important.

I still idle in the low 30s if I open my computer cabinet to expose it to fresh air.

It might be that the AMD heatpipe is better than the Arctic Cooling 64. I'll give it 24 hours, then try 2700 at higher vcore

I'm using the Ultra X-Finity 550 and Ultra ram. Of course, I got lucky on my Ultra ram

 

[marulee]

 

[kenton]

I really doubt the stock 4 piper is any different than the A64FPro, but if you're feeling bored swap out heatsinks for us and report back. I suppose I could do the same, but I'm lazy

 

[GeezerMan]

Originally posted by: kenton
I really doubt the stock 4 piper is any different than the A64FPro, but if you're feeling bored swap out heatsinks for us and report back. I suppose I could do the same, but I'm lazy

Frosty Tech liked the 2 pipe heatpipe better than the A64FPro

 

[GuildBoss]

Originally posted by: Lurker1
Guildboss: set your DVD to master. Then in the BIOS change your boot sequence to boot off of CDROM, then HDD, which I believe will be something like HDD2 or HDD-SATA or something like that. I don't have the machine in front of me, or I'd tell you exactly how to configure it. That will allow you to boot off of CDs/DVDs first, then the HD. Also, remove/disable floppy etc, unless you have a floppy drive connected.

Thanks. It does boot to CD if I choose that option in BIOS but I don't see any HDD2 or HDD-SATA options in there though, only HARD DISK.

It *seems* to be working because I did make a primary partition but don't have an OS on there yet and when it boots it says it's missing NTLDR. So it seems like it's looking at the SATA drive for a boot partition.... Just have to throw an OS in there now!

 

[kenton]

Let us know! I'm soon switching to an SATA drive to boot from, just waiting a good Seagate 200+GB/16MB deal. I sure as heck want to boot from SATA