OFFICIAL MSI K8N NEO4-F THREAD

[msi or epox]

Info on this mobo needs to be consolidated.
I have questions and doubts about this mobo
from vdimm to recommended memory.

+JoN+:|

Also who has experience with this board and what's their setup?

great deal for $85 or what?

 

[Cobalt]

What about refurb? Retail is $85. With the 1.71beta BIOS it seems like a damn good board. Specs in sig.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Hey JoN, pick it up at ZZF for $84.99 shipped 2nd Day Air here. If you're looking for a budget board that OC's well, I'd highly recommend the Neo4-F.

I've only been running the Neo4-F for two days now but I really like it so far. Cobalt, Serpentor, and others are having great success with OC'ing 3000+ Venice chips on it. I've been able to get my 3000+ up to 2.6GHz using 9x288 and it's been very stable for me. Max available VDIMM setting is 2.85, and I'm using 2.8V to keep 2x1GB Patriot Signature PC3200 running stable at 216MHz (150 divider in bios) dual channel 3-3-3-8. Most of the people I've seen are using Value RAM on the board and using dividers to max out the FSB and still keep the RAM running stable. I know Serpentor is successfully using 2x512MB Corsair Value PC3200 and the 2x1GB Patriot Signature PC3200 is working well for me. If you get the board, don't use the 133 mem divider on the stock 1.3 bios (or any other bios version except 1.71 beta). Serpentor discovered that it caused all kinds of problems. Every other divider works with bios 1.3. The beta 1.71 bios has a working 133 divider, as cobalt discovered. I'm currently using bios 1.3 since that's what came with the board and it works well for me. You can check out Serpentor and cobalt's threads if you search Neo4-F in motherboards.

There have been some reports of the chipset fan getting loud - almost like a miniature leaf-blower, but mine has been ok so far. I went ahead and ordered the Evercool VC-RE here in case my fan starts acting up.

Good luck!

 

[msi or epox]

Has any1 heard of people using ocz mem with msi mboards?
I want 2 for oc purposes but im not sure the vdimm is provides enough voltage.

 

[msi or epox]

cobalt and doobie, what divider did u use and what cooling devices?

thx

 

[KeepItRed]

I vote no, I bought a refurbished X-box and I was lucky it worked.

 

[DoobieOnline]

M or E - the board only goes up to 2.85VDIMM so you won't be able to take full advantage of some OCZ mem that requires higher voltage. They do make some good value stuff that doesn't require too much extra voltage, though. If you're set on getting the Neo4-F and want to OC 1:1 then I'd recommend picking up some RAM with TCCD chips. You should be able to get up to around 260-ish FSB using 2.85V. IMHO you should get some good value RAM and run a divider. I'm using 2x1GB Patriot Signature with the 150 divider at 9x288 and that gets me 216MHz on the mem with 3-3-3-8-1T timings. I use the Thermalright SLK-948U with a 92mm Panaflo M fan and AS5. It keeps my CPU nice and cool at 2.6GHz - usually in the mid to upper 30's at idle and I've maxed out at 49C under Prime load in a moderately warm room. I'd recommend the Thermalright XP-90 (I've seen these for as low as $29 online) with a 92MM Panaflo M if you're going to get something good.

Edit: Here's the XP-90 for $27.95 plus shipping and adding a 92mm Panaflo M is only $8 more. I just ordered from jab-tech for the first time last weekend and the item arrived on Wednesday via Priority Mail. These guys seem to really have it together and I'll definitely be ordering from them again. XP-90

 

[msi or epox]

what are your thoughts about the chaintech vnf4 ultra compared to this?
-the price is right and nforce 4 ultra with sata II.
-pros and cons? which is better for first timer?

 

[DoobieOnline]

The Chaintech Ultra board would be fine, especially if you're thinking of making the move to SATA 2 anytime soon. I think either of the boards will work well for first timers.

 

[feelthaflo]

I thought there may have been a problem somewhere since I'm having difficulty getting over 2400. I got the PCI lock working, and overvolted the CPU, memory, and northbridge. HTT to X3 and DRAM to 133. Then used clockgen to take care of the FSB in case it crashes so I don't have to reset the BIOS. Monitoring heat using Core Center, set CPU fan to maximum (manual setting in Core Center). Voltage monitoring through Core Center and CPU-Z. I never overheated, voltage didn't cut out (just some fluctuation), and memory was around 200MHz, but the thing just blue-screened every time I went over 2.4. Now from this thread it seems there is an issue of the 133 divider not working with anything less than beta BIOS 1.71, so hopefully that will get me where I want to be. Thanks alot for the advice and I will post back here when I find out for sure that that solves the problem.

 

[feelthaflo]

Still can't get over 2.4. Got max bus speed of 318x6, max mem speed of 220, and max CPU at 272x9. I don't know if it's the instability of my Vcore line (set to startup, it fluctuates between 1.36 and 1.42 or so) and the fact that I cannot manually change it in the bios?? Could my power supply be the issue or might it be a faulty Vcore line on the motherboard? If I set it to anything other than startup, the bios shows the voltage increase, but Core Center and CPU-Z show around 1.1 volts and the CPU multiplier lowered to 5!?!?!? Anyone with similar issues or a possible suggestion/solution, please let me know. Thank you.

By the way, I am now running at 2.2 stable with VCore set to 1.45 via ClockGen, but it is really between 1.39 and 1.47 or so.

 

[Mykl]

I can't seem to get higher than 245x9 and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Currently I'm running the 166 divider. I can drop the divider to 150 which brings my memory in check, but if I increase the FSB speed more than 245 it will post, but never make it to Windows. vcore is set at +3.3%.

Currently my HT is 5x, I dropped it to 3x and it made no difference, boot still hangs at anything higher than 245.

I'm running the most current "official" BIOS, which appears to be 1.6.

I'm a little confused... am I overlooking something? This is my first overclock, but I was really hoping to get a stable 2.4 after seeing the results others were getting.

 

[aiya24]

another victim for the winnie bug... lol jk

you have a winnie so you might wanna try other bios cause clearly MSI hasnt fixed the bug yet.

Link

that site has a list of bios that work with the neo4-f. i personally used 1.71b and it works wonders, but i have a venice i dont know what the results will be for a winnie. hope this helps.

 

[Mykl]

Ah dammit... this is my first overclock so I was really hoping I was making some rookie mistake. I've been searching these forums and Google like crazy with absolutely no luck.

Thanks for the link, I'll see if I can do anything with it..

At least it went past 219. :laugh: