MSI Neo4 or ASUS A8N-SLI Premium

[CrimsonCutie]

Hey
i am debateing on mobos for my new system. Its going to be based on an AMD 64 4400+ X2 cpu. I am not going to use SLI right away, because i don't game enough to justify the expense in 2 GPUs, but that could def be an upgrade in 3 to 6 months with the sister card to the one i go with is cheaper and I want to use SLI.

here is a comparrision chart for the 3 mobos i am debateing on
Comparisson Chart


And here are links for the individual mobos.

MSI Neo4 w/o SLI

MSI Neo4 w/ SLI

Asus A8N Prem. w/ SLI

Thanks for all yor opinions, reivews, ideas and thoughts.

 

[ToeJam13]

MSI boards have been suffering a BIOS issue that causes CPU overclocking to top out with an HTT of 229x (default is 200x). A fix has been issued, however it does not seem to work with my Neo4-F.

I've also encountered an issue where my Neo4-F doesn't keep its digital channel open, so beeps are such are always clipped at the begiining. Furthermore, the onboard LAN doesn't resume from hibernation properly.

Other than those minor issues, the board isn't bad. Its never crashed on me once at stock CPU speeds, nor at just under the HT bug speed. It works with both my 256MB Mushkin 2-3-2-5 PC3200 and my 512MB Patriot 2-3-2-5 PC3200 modules perfectly.

The BIOS is a little odd for setting higher than stock voltages, but you can figure it out well enough.

 

[NokiaDude]

If you do pick up the A8N-SLI Deluxe, make sure to buy a Swiftech MCX159-R. The stock cooler does not do a good job at all. The MCX159-R is fantastic, I have one on my A8N-SLI Deluxe and it's quiet and cools excellently.

 

[CrimsonCutie]

thanks for the feedback guys, i am trying to decide which will be better. I am ordering most everything but the Mobo and CPU till last (the cpu is last just to maybe catch a price break.. though as we all know it will drop 2 days after i make my order LOL)

 

[imported_Kensai]

MSI.

 

[CrimsonCutie]

i love how when threads like this start.. its basically and 50/50 spilt LOL every other post is for the oppsite of the one above it hehe...

 

[Bateluer]

I would go with the Asus myself, never had any problems with an Asus motherboard, ever.

 

[Merovingian]

It's not even close I own an asus a8n sli deluxe and a MSI neo4 plat sli. Hands down, the asus dominates and that's WITH the annoying NB fan. Allow me to sing it's attributes...

-The asus is very easy to overclock, infact when you get yours I'll help you to optimise. MSI has all these really great options for helping you get your 3000+ to 2943GHz on water(what my msi does), and thats awesome but you don't need that for a 4400+
-It has raid5 for upto 4 drives on board in addition to another 4 sata. MSI has 6 sata ports which can run raid 0 and 1. Who needs raid 0 (do your homework if you think it helps you) and who needs raid one when you have raid 5?
-Watercooling everything including the NB chipset is easy at dangerden as they have a set up. MSI doesn't have enough room for SLI onboard using watercooling and not as much room for ventilation w/air cooling. (they are coming out with a fix for this, some vent in the middle slot between both cards)
-Easy BIOS update, no floppy and if you screw up your OC you don't have to flash the bios it just starts you in safe mode to get to the bios. MSI requires you to reset the cmos if you go to hard forcing you to reset the stock settings so keep a pen and paper handy.
-2T timings on the a8n-sli deluxe suck as does the NB fan but neither are problems with the premium.

-Both have good customer service in my experiance.
-Both have been stable

-MSI kicks but for taking a cheap processor with a limited multi to speeds equal to any other chip of the same core. The asus does this in a simple fashon however it treats you like a little kid and dials back your timings if you leave anything on auto. Manual OC and you will be happy using a 4400+. IF you use a 3000+ and you want to get the most out of it, use the MSI board. IMO.

Neo4-F is my favorite budget board right now but it still seems to be going though growing pains with bios issues, I would wait that one out. One of the advantages of an sli board is that with a big heatsink/waterblock on the GPU you still have 3 pci slots. Anyway, that's my two cents if you need help building the system I know a lot of solid parts you might want to take a look at, PM me! Cheers!