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

[Jack Bauer CTU]

Talee1977, I think you need a new power supply. 380W is minimal at best. If you decide to get a new supply I would get at least 500W, and the higher the current rating on the 12V rails the better. Check out the article below (yes it is dated but it has an interesting page on how much power the individual components of a PC use.)

Text">http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/01/22/getting_the_right_power/index.html</a>

A weak or failing PSU is probably one of the hardest devices to troubleshoot because it fails intermittently, and the symptoms can change.

 

[svenge]

I was thinking of getting this motherboard (MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum) in conjuction with a Cooler Master Centurion 5 case, but when I got the front-panel pinouts off both manuals they don't exactly match. Is it just different terminology for the same things or would the case's front panel wiring and the motherboard headers be incompatible? I transcribed the pinouts below with the ones I'm not sure of in bold:

FIREWIRE CONNECTOR
## ## (--CASE--) vs (--MOBO--)
01 02 (TPA+; TPA-) vs (TPA+; TPA-)
03 04 (GND; GND) vs (GND; GND)
05 06 (TPB+; TPB-) vs (TPB+; TPB-)
07 08 (+12V; +12V) vs (PWR; PWR)
09 10 (NONE; GND) vs (NONE; GND)

USB2.0 CONNECTOR
## ## (--CASE--) vs (--MOBO--)
01 02 (USB+5V; USB+5V) vs (VCC; VCC)
03 04 (LP-; LP-) vs (USB0-; USB1-)
05 06 (LP+; LP+) vs (USB1+; USB1+)
07 08 (GND; GND) vs (GND; GND)
09 10 (NONE; NC) vs (NONE; USBOC)

FRONT PANEL AUDIO
## ## (--CASE--) vs (--MOBO--)
01 02 (MIC IN; GND) vs (AUD_MIC; AUD_GND)
03 04 (MIC PWR; +5V) vs (AUD_MIC_BIAS; AUD_VCC)
05 06 (LINEOUT-R; B-LINEOUT-R) vs (AUD_FPOUT_R; AUD_RET_R)
07 08 (NC; NONE) vs (HP_ON; NONE)
09 10 (LINEOUT-L; B-LINEOUT-L) vs (AUDFPOUT_L; AUD_RET_L)

This is my first build, so I'm trying to smooth out any problems before I actually make the purchase. If anyone could help me out with this (especially with the meanings of "NC", "HP_ON" and "USBOC", that would be great.

 

[DJFrustration]

Has anyone else had as slow of an RMA experience with MSI before? I overnighted my mobo on 2/6, they received on 2/7, entered testing on 2/10 and is still in repair today. Does it really take 2+ weeks after a board is received for a swap out?

 

[Aries64]

Originally posted by: pacho108
i've had this board for nearly two weeks. great overclocker, happy so far, but i've heard that many of this boards have a problem with draining the cmos battery very quick, is this true?
and about the issue with the nb hs/fan and videocards that go over it, how bad is it? i dont know about this because it's my first pci-e mobo and until the x1900xt is out i got a 6200tc which is very small.

AFAIK the X1900 Series PCBs' are the same size length and height/width so I wouldn't worry about the clearance for an X1900 Series - I have a VisionTek X1900XT-X and while it is close quarters, there is no rubbing or other interference problems.

I would be more worried about the clearance inside the case, as the X1900's are about 9 1/2" in length from the end of the PCB to the edge of the mounting bracket. This means tight clearance in some cases. This is especially true if you have an optical drive or other large drive that is mounted in the bay directly adjacent to the videocard and you are using a case with an inverted motherboard layout such as my (Lian LI) V1000. This arrangement gives adequate but minimal clearance between the end of the videocard and the back of the drive. Just food for thought.

 

[alexeikgb]

I just bought the K8N Neo4 Platinum running it with 2 gig Corsair and Athlon 64 X2 3800+.

But for some reason I cannot get the RAID5 Silicon Image controller to work properly.
The drivers that came with the board either lock up during the XP install or do not recognise the 4 SATA drives as a single RAID drive.

I was finally able to install XP all the way through, but the HDD read times (in RAID5) are horrendous (Average: ~15 mb/s).

Anyone out there running RAID5 and can give me some advise at what might be the problem??

Thanks in advance.

 

[redbug2]

I have a K8N neo4 and i can't seem to get this board to overclock an opteron. If i change the FSB at all it freaks out and i have to reset csmos.

 

[codeyh]

Set up my system:

AMD 3700+ San Diego
1 GB Patriot Dual Channel
Antec TruePower 550W
evga 7600 GT


I need someone to basically babysit getting me through the BIOS and some of the settings to get the best result out of the machine, not too worried about OC'ing, just getting the best stable run going.

Thanks.

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: codeyh

Set up my system:

AMD 3700+ San Diego
1 GB Patriot Dual Channel
Antec TruePower 550W
evga 7600 GT


I need someone to basically babysit getting me through the BIOS and some of the settings to get the best result out of the machine, not too worried about OC'ing, just getting the best stable run going.

Thanks.

well if you don't want to overclock, I would just make sure that your memory is posting at the suggested timings...I have some Patriot LLK (2 x 512mb in dual channel) memory and I remeber it not posting at CAS2 and 1T...I had to bump up my mem voltage to 2.7 ( from the default 2.65 ot 2.6 I think and manually set the timings to 2-3-2-5 1T...I no longer have my system OC'd as in my sig.

 

[slayek]

Hey, is there anyone here got a run around installing a SATA2 drive as boot drive?

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: slayek
Hey, is there anyone here got a run around installing a SATA2 drive as boot drive?

Yeah...I have 2 of them on a RAID0 as a boot drive.

 

[pickle965]

Hey, I've been running on a Neo4 Platinum for about a year so far with minimal issues. Just recently the chipset fan started getting increasingly loud and I was wondering if I should attempt to RMA it and just get a new revised board and hopefully quieter fan or just to replace it? The Vantec CCB-A1C IceBerq is apparently a perfect replacement with a very quiet fan, any experiences with this cooler? Thanks.

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: pickle965
Hey, I've been running on a Neo4 Platinum for about a year so far with minimal issues. Just recently the chipset fan started getting increasingly loud and I was wondering if I should attempt to RMA it and just get a new revised board and hopefully quieter fan or just to replace it? The Vantec CCB-A1C IceBerq is apparently a perfect replacement with a very quiet fan, any experiences with this cooler? Thanks.

I considered a replacement fan, but opted for a Zalman heatsink....it's been workin' just fine. Although, I did have to cut it a bit to get it to fit under my graphics card. If you do repplace it, I would like to know if it's noticebaly quieter.

 

[cupajava]

Originally posted by: MayanGuy

Originally posted by: pickle965
Hey, I've been running on a Neo4 Platinum for about a year so far with minimal issues. Just recently the chipset fan started getting increasingly loud and I was wondering if I should attempt to RMA it and just get a new revised board and hopefully quieter fan or just to replace it? The Vantec CCB-A1C IceBerq is apparently a perfect replacement with a very quiet fan, any experiences with this cooler? Thanks.

I considered a replacement fan, but opted for a Zalman heatsink....it's been workin' just fine. Although, I did have to cut it a bit to get it to fit under my graphics card. If you do repplace it, I would like to know if it's noticebaly quieter.

Thumbs up for the Zalman passive heatsink. Have had mine in place for 6 months with no issues. IMO, it's the better way to go. All NB fans will eventually become louder and fail so avoid having to make the same repair twice. Regardless of whatever choice you make, be prepared to remove the mobo from the case for this repair. To remove the push pins, you must crimp or squeeze them from underneath the mobo. I tried to rip them out from on top and almost did some serious damage.

 

[pickle965]

Thanks for the suggestions, which one do you recommend?: http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/code_list.asp?code=014. Did either of you take temp readings before and after going passive? I would love to cut down on the noise if I can, but I want to make sure this is a good option for overclocking. A fried NB would make me very sad :C.

 

[cupajava]

Originally posted by: pickle965
Thanks for the suggestions, which one do you recommend?: http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/code_list.asp?code=014. Did either of you take temp readings before and after going passive? I would love to cut down on the noise if I can, but I want to make sure this is a good option for overclocking. A fried NB would make me very sad :C.

I installed the NB47J. Temp readings hover around ~30C. I currently don't have my NB overclocked but when I had it at 1.6v it hovered around 40C under load. I also used some AS5 with it to keep it cool. I have read many posts from people worried about using passive heatsinks on the NB and I don't understand why. That's what it is designed for. If you want to risk cranking up the NB to its limit for just a few more fps then even a fan may not help you from frying it. I have yet to hear anyone frying the NB because of replacing their stock fan heatink with a passive one even after overclocking. I always suggest to keep your case well ventilated and you should be fine.

 

[MiTz]

I needed to upgrade my video card because Oblivion was killing my X800XTPE at high res etc , so the best option was to change to PCI-E.

I did alot of research and the MSI gets decent reviews on all the sites i checked.. I'm finally up and running and playing Oblivion at over 30fps with everthing maxed at 1600x1200

I only had a few hiccups during the setup, but i thought i'd share and hopefully it will help someone else..

I got everything installed and pressed the power button, but the graphics card fan was going into overdrive and i had no screen, so i started to stress... After reseating everything and still having the same problem i started with the bare essentials adding one thing at a time and it turned out to be my modem card (no broadband where i live before you start ), with the card in the system it wouldn't post... I left out the card until windows was up and running then put in the card and it worked first time, weird.

Also my floppy drive light was on permanent and that was because id plugged the IDE cable in wrong way round, my floppy drive has a locating notch on both sides to make life difficult :roll:

My next upgrade will have to be the cpu as it's probably causing a bit of a bottleneck, but things seem to be playing nicely atm

 

[pickle965]

Originally posted by: MayanGuy

Originally posted by: pickle965
Hey, I've been running on a Neo4 Platinum for about a year so far with minimal issues. Just recently the chipset fan started getting increasingly loud and I was wondering if I should attempt to RMA it and just get a new revised board and hopefully quieter fan or just to replace it? The Vantec CCB-A1C IceBerq is apparently a perfect replacement with a very quiet fan, any experiences with this cooler? Thanks.

I considered a replacement fan, but opted for a Zalman heatsink....it's been workin' just fine. Although, I did have to cut it a bit to get it to fit under my graphics card. If you do repplace it, I would like to know if it's noticebaly quieter.

Just slapped the Vantec IceBerq NB cooler in today and it's great. Perfect fit, no cutting or disfigurement required and DEAD silent. Got it from SVC by the way, good price and fast shipping.

Originally posted by: MiTz

Also my floppy drive light was on permanent and that was because id plugged the IDE cable in wrong way round, my floppy drive has a locating notch on both sides to make life difficult :roll:

Remember: 99% of the time it's red pin facing power.

 

[MiTz]

Originally posted by: MiTz

Also my floppy drive light was on permanent and that was because id plugged the IDE cable in wrong way round, my floppy drive has a locating notch on both sides to make life difficult :roll:

Remember: 99% of the time it's red pin facing power. [/quote]


I remember that now you've mentioned it, i was stressing out that much when i had a blank screen that i couldn't think straight lol

 

[Kaido]

Does the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum support the Opteron 170? MSI's website says it's "under testing", but labels the other opties as OK.

 

[pickle965]

Ok, I need some help with my K8N Neo4 Platinum BIOS version 1.A. Recently got a CACJE Opteron 146 with an AC Freezer64 Pro along with a new all-copper Vantec chipset cooler. I set the HT frequency to 4x, Memclock to 166Mhz, and FSB to 240Mhz. All stock voltages. It ran awesome like this for about 3 days with no stability issues and then on one restart it decided not to POST. I reset the CMOS and it booted fine but anytime I try to reach 240 again it just refuses to POST. Can anyone explain whats going on here? I don't understand how it could go from running great to not booting period. Any suggestions? Different BIOS?

 

[Gamite]

I picked up my mobo a few months ago, I didn't have any issues except for that weird restart error, where it restarts after you shut down.

I read a through a few pages in this thread, and tried reinstalling the Lan drivers, it seems to have done the trick.

Another thing, they say you can't run 4 slots of double sided ram at 400mhz. I'm wondering why this is. I actually am runnning 4 slots, and I put my ram back up to 400mhz by adjusting the dram ratio.

Are there any consequences to this? Overheating perhaps? My ram was getting quite hot at one point, so I went out and got that thermaltake active ram cooler, now they all run fairly cool.

 

[cw42]

I just wanted to post that my MSI Neo4 Platinum bit the dust yesterday. I don't know why. My PC froze, and when I tried to start the PC again it would no longer post. I swapped out all the parts, and came to the conclusion that it was the mobo. The poor thing was only about 7 months old.

I've enjoyed my MSI very much until now, but I chose to order a new Asus mobo because I need a new mobo ASAP, and don't want to wait for the RMA process. The MSI has been very very stable, and provided me with good OCing ability. So long MSI, so long...

 

[pickle965]

Originally posted by: pickle965
Ok, I need some help with my K8N Neo4 Platinum BIOS version 1.A. Recently got a CACJE Opteron 146 with an AC Freezer64 Pro along with a new all-copper Vantec chipset cooler. I set the HT frequency to 4x, Memclock to 166Mhz, and FSB to 240Mhz. All stock voltages. It ran awesome like this for about 3 days with no stability issues and then on one restart it decided not to POST. I reset the CMOS and it booted fine but anytime I try to reach 240 again it just refuses to POST. Can anyone explain whats going on here? I don't understand how it could go from running great to not booting period. Any suggestions? Different BIOS?

Anyone?!

 

[codeyh]

I recently upgrade to 2GB of Patriot PDC1G3200LLK. So my memory throttled down to DDR 333. i tried booting back up at DDR 400, but it wouldn't post.

2 questions.

what settings should i change to throttle this back up?


i also have an A64 San Diego 3700+, what settings can I change to get more out of this proc??

 

[you2]

Would this build work ok with the msi k8n neo4 platinum (no sli):
x1800xt
2 1gig stick of g.skill memory (probably cheap red sticks which are said to run t1)
san diego or opty 146 - probalby san diego since it is a good price with stock heat sink
1 sata drive (raptor 74)
1 optical
fsp 600w
--
a litle concern about video card and the various boards but this one (or asus a8nx5 or jetway) seem to have best fit