*** Official MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (nForce4 Ultra chipset) Thread ***

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: darkeyed

Originally posted by: Mari0Br0s
For those who have some stability problem when overclocked, I've made some test. Here's my result. The K8N Neo4 should prove to be an overclocker?s delight. Using a 1:1 ratio with memory, I was able to go all the way up to 270MHz using Corsair?s 4400C25 modules- definitely very impressive. Whats even more impressive is that setting the memory to DDR333, I was able to achieve FSB speeds of an incredible 370MHz.

Hey Phil,
Thats great although from the reading I have been doing some people are able to get high clock rates and some are not. The question is what are the differences. What is the rest of your system?

You are not the only one to get good results and there are many of us who have had some problems.

Ditto. Let us know all the dirty little bios settings and which sata ports you might be using. These boards seem awesome if we could get some consistency out of them. I wrote MSI an e-mail about the instability issues and I'd suggest everybody else here do the same so that they realize that a problem exists. I'll post up what they have to say.

 

[feverish]

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: feverish
Has anyone found out if the dual channel memory should be installed in the first green slot then the second in the first purple slot?

Yup, either that or one in the last green and one in the last purple.

Can you explain to me why they say that you cannoy have 2 sets of 2X512 ddr400 for a total of 2 gigs? If you can't even do this how could you ever get 4 gigs. I'm kinda pissed cause i bought 2 gigs of 512mg corsair that I thought I was going to be able to run in dual channel. But since its double sided i can't do it according to their recommendations. Makes no sense to me.

 

[Painman]

Originally posted by: feverish

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: feverish
Has anyone found out if the dual channel memory should be installed in the first green slot then the second in the first purple slot?

Yup, either that or one in the last green and one in the last purple.

Can you explain to me why they say that you cannoy have 2 sets of 2X512 ddr400 for a total of 2 gigs? If you can't even do this how could you ever get 4 gigs. I'm kinda pissed cause i bought 2 gigs of 512mg corsair that I thought I was going to be able to run in dual channel. But since its double sided i can't do it according to their recommendations. Makes no sense to me.

What recommendation is this? You can stuff all the board's slots with double sided DIMMs, the end result will be that the default DDR clock will be 333, not 400, but it will be running dual channel. This out of the owner's manual, BTW.

 

[darkeyed]

btw this memory issue I believe to be true with any nforce4 board not just msi.

 

[feverish]

Yes the manual told me this. Explain to me what would happen if I were to change the frequency to 333 instead of 400. Would it be better to have 2 gig's running dual channel in 333 or 1 gig running dual channel at 400?

 

[lordhawk]

Originally posted by: xjoe
where are you getting the beta bios from? is 1.31 the latest? i was under the impression that 1.1 was the only release from MSI, correct me if im wrong.

Thanks

Hi xjoe,

BIOS version 1.0 and 1.1 are official versions. Versions 1.21 and 1.24 (latest) are beta. Try Rebel's Haven Computing Forum for downloads.

 

[xjoe]

Originally posted by: lordhawk

Originally posted by: xjoe
where are you getting the beta bios from? is 1.31 the latest? i was under the impression that 1.1 was the only release from MSI, correct me if im wrong.

Thanks

Hi xjoe,

BIOS version 1.0 and 1.1 are official versions. Versions 1.21 and 1.24 (latest) are beta. Try Rebel's Haven Computing Forum for downloads.

link?

 

[Solo230]

can the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum run the AMD Athlon 64 3000+?
cuz on the specs i saw 3500+ so i wasnt sure

 

[Painman]

Originally posted by: Solo230
can the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum run the AMD Athlon 64 3000+?
cuz on the specs i saw 3500+ so i wasnt sure

ANY Socket 939 Athlon 64. Be sure not to buy a socket 754 chip by mistake.

 

[Painman]

Beta BIOS page linky

It says "unknown changes" for version 1.24. 1.21 is working fine for me, I think I'll sit for now.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: Solo230
can the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum run the AMD Athlon 64 3000+?
cuz on the specs i saw 3500+ so i wasnt sure

I think the specs say something like "supports 3500+, 3800+, 4000+,.." and doesn't include the lesser clock speed chips, I thought it would confuse someone someday just starting to build an AMD system too heh.

 

[lordhawk]

Originally posted by: Painman
Beta BIOS page linky

It says "unknown changes" for version 1.24. 1.21 is working fine for me, I think I'll sit for now.

Aw shucks... anyone else willing to volunteer to be the guinea pig?
I'd do it, but no time right now.

 

[darkeyed]

Originally posted by: Painman
Beta BIOS page linky

It says "unknown changes" for version 1.24. 1.21 is working fine for me, I think I'll sit for now.

How is 1.21 working and what chages have you found in it? I wish they would allow more memory voltage.

 

[darkeyed]

Well last night I had more then 30 minutes to play with my new system and I have learned a few things.

First most of my overclocking I did in windows. I have had post problems while doing it in the bios so I decided to set the basic bios data but leave the FSB at 218 which will always post. Then in windows I would push the clock to see how far it would go with different settings.

OK first test was
CPU Mult 8x
HTT 4X
Mem 166 2.5-3-2-8 1T
FSB = 218
Mem volts 2.85
CPU startup +3.3%

Using NvTune I got the clock all the way to 250mhz and ran Prime 95 for 45 minutes no problem. I wish the software allowed for higher settings then a combinned HTT of 1000. I am sure it would have gone higher.

2nd Test
CPU Mult 9x
HTT 4X
Mem 166 2.5-3-2-8 1T
FSB = 218
Mem volts 2.85
CPU startup +3.3%

Got all the way to 250mhz again. This gave me a core speed of 2250 mhz. Mem speed was 415ddr. Ran prime95 for 30 minutes no problem.

3rd Test
CPU Mult 10x
HTT 4X
Mem 166 2.5-3-2-8 1T
FSB = 218
Mem volts 2.85
CPU startup +3.3%

At fsb of 235 prime95 failed so I went and increased core voltage to +8% which in cpuz shows 1.55 volts. AT that voltage I was able to run prime95 with fsb of 235 for 65 minutes no problem.

Then went to fsb of 240. So at this point my specs were:
core speed 2400mhz
mem speed 398ddr
htt 960mhz

System ran prime95 clean over night for 6-1/2 hours.

Next step will be fine tunning memory to bring it up as far as I can. I will then see if these setting will work at startup in BIOS.

I will post more results later.

 

[darkeyed]

Just one more part to the post above. The max cpu temp I saw was 35c. Does heat or voltage reduce the life of a chip? If it continues to run cool can I push a bit more voltage through it?

I am running a Thermalright XP-90 which seems to work great.

Also my panaflow fan shows zero RPM's and I do have the three wire tail for the fan. Not sure why it doesnt show a speed. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[Elfear]

My fan rpm also shoes up as 0.

 

[darkeyed]

What fan you using with it?

 

[sgl]

MB: K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI

Does anyone know if you can plug in an SATA dvd burner (like a plextor dual layer) to either of the SATA controllers on this board? I'm building a new system, and was wondering if I could get away from IDE devices completely.

Any advice? If I can't use the MB controllers, any advice on PCI/SATA cards that would allow me to plug in both a DVD and DVD burner?

Thanks,
SGL

 

[darkeyed]

You have 8 SATA ports on the board. I believe 5-8 are for raid only but I am sure you can use any of 1-4. So unless you have more then 2 hard drives you should be fine.

BTW - there is no performane gain on a dvd burner using SATA. The cable setup is better but IDE works just fine for a DVD burner and the NEC DVD burner is a lot cheaper and just as good.

 

[sgl]

Thanks.

The docs seem to say that both controllers are for RAID, and I haven't found anything that talks about anything other than hard drives being plugged into the ports. I've definitely not seen anything about 1-4 being for non-hard-drives... Maybe I've missed something in the documentation. I saw a post where a user had a plextor DVD, but it didn't seem to be a burner (not sure if read-only devices would be different than RW).

I did think you'd get some performance gain with SATA, but didn't do any research to back it up.

Know anyone with an Enermax Noisetaker 600W SLI power supply? About to order it for the board, but still poking around to see what's what.

 

[darkeyed]

The only way you might have a performance gain is if the device was faster then the IDE interface. A DVD or CD drive is not even close to the bandwidth provided by IDE. And yes you can use any of the 1-4 for any SATA device.

There might be some differance on cpu ussage between the two but I would guess it is not significant.

As to the powersupply Enermax makes quailty stuff but I do not know about that model.

 

[sgl]

Dear Customer,

Some information about the question of if you can use a DVD burner on the SATA controllers of the motherboard. I had sent a question to MSI, and this is their response:

>The Nvidia chipset only support reading from the SATA Atapi drives and not burning >functions.

>Sincerely,
>Technical Support Division
>MSI Computer Corp.
>http://www.msicomputer.com

>MSI Platinum Series Motherboards -- In Pursuit of Quality Perfection.
>1-626-913-0828
>1-626-581-7721 Fax

I would assume that they know what they're talking about, but I'm surprised that DVD is ok, but DVD burning is not.

Go figure.

 

[darkeyed]

Hmmm ok I stand corrected. Sorry for the miss information.

 

[Heinrich]

This power supply issue is giving me diarrhea. I have a Seasonic PSU with a 20 pin connector and supports -5. Do I need a converter 20 - 24 pin? If so does the -5v carry over? Some seem to say I can just plug it right on in, that scares me....

 

[MTSteel]

From what I have read, just plugging it in is safer than using a 20->24 pin converter. Now 24->20 pin is perfectly safe(again from things I have read).