AM2 Motherboards

S

Spiff64

n00b
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
11
I've been building a system in my head for a while now as I saved up money, and thought that I was limited to a 939 board because of my AGP videocard that I didn't want to dump just yet. However, I found out that I can get the PCIe version of my card for about half the cost of what I paid for mine originally and I may have a friend who would buy my AGP one. So basically my whole plans are up in the air right now, and while I new my way around the 939 mobos pretty well, I'm not sure what to look for in an AM2 board. Someone told me this one would be a good bet, but alot of the comments seem negative when it comes to overclocking and ram issues. I will be getting the 3800X2 chips to go with this thing and some DDR2-667 ram if I can.

Edit: DDR2-667 is what I wanted, sorry. Not 800. I should also mention Im looking on spending around 100 - 130 dollars on the motherboard.
What the system looks like so far:
ASUS M2N-E ATX AM2 Nforce 570 Ultra
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ AM2
2x1GB of OCZ DDR2-667
Radeon X800XL PCIe (This is what I own now in the AGP form, I know I could do much better but the 10 dollar upgrade cost isn't bothering me, since I was happy with the card's performance.)
 
It's picky... liek most Asus and what kills it, from what I hear, is the mem V settings... is it still under 2V? Bleh... that sealed the deal for me...

I'm looking for AM2 as well but most boards don't have V settings over 2.2 :(
 
Hmm, is that what you're using? I know one of the MSi isn't doing so well. Don't know which one.
 
MC FLMJIG said:
Hmm, is that what you're using? I know one of the MSi isn't doing so well. Don't know which one.
Click to expand...
People that are having problems with their MSI K9N boards don't know what they are doing. They don't set their timings/voltages right on their ram or use incompadible ram and blame it on the board, or they don't have good airflow in their case and blame it for overheating. I've actually helped 3 people fix their RAM issues with MSI boards that were blaming the problem on MSI. It just turned out that they were setting up their RAM incorrectly. Most people actually just have more of a RAM issue because they order some random cheap memory, then find out it doesn't work. Naturally, it isn't their fault, its the mobo manufacturer's fault. If you look at any of the new AM2 boards, nearly half the people are having problems with incompadile ram their first time around. Either that, or they aren't setting it up right even if it is compadible.
 
Thanks, I think you might be right. Seems it's an issue with OCZ but a guy said he went and raised it to V2.1 and it worked fine. However it seems that this board has NO V option for the CPU... since you've seen first hand is this true?

sigh... if it is search continues.
 
MC FLMJIG said:
Thanks, I think you might be right. Seems it's an issue with OCZ but a guy said he went and raised it to V2.1 and it worked fine. However it seems that this board has NO V option for the CPU... since you've seen first hand is this true?

sigh... if it is search continues.
Click to expand...
you can change the CPU voltage on the MSI K9N mobos.. my brother the K9N Platinum SLI. (570 chipset) Some people have been running into issues raising it past a certain voltage when overclocking pretty far, but you can up it pretty good. The next bios should fix the issue I suspect because it was reported on the MSI forums and the tech staff is looking into it.
 
Sorry, could you link me to this mobo? The one I found on NCIX was like 170 CAD, but I'm not sure if it's the right one. w1retap, are you saying that the DDR2-667 OCZ will work fine with it if I set it up properly? I should mention as well that I'm going to try and overclock the 3800X2s to 2.4GHz.
 
w1retap said:
People that are having problems with their MSI K9N boards don't know what they are doing. They don't set their timings/voltages right on their ram or use incompadible ram and blame it on the board, or they don't have good airflow in their case and blame it for overheating. I've actually helped 3 people fix their RAM issues with MSI boards that were blaming the problem on MSI. It just turned out that they were setting up their RAM incorrectly. Most people actually just have more of a RAM issue because they order some random cheap memory, then find out it doesn't work. Naturally, it isn't their fault, its the mobo manufacturer's fault. If you look at any of the new AM2 boards, nearly half the people are having problems with incompadile ram their first time around. Either that, or they aren't setting it up right even if it is compadible.
Click to expand...
well said. it's like how the dfi lanparties got a bad rep because of all the people who didn't know how to use them (granted, some definitly were dyin, but still..)


spiff, this is the board i have. with a sempron 3400+, i'm able to do around 2950mhz stable, htt has gotten up to 391mhz.. around 380 is the highest stable. i'm having trouble getting over ~420mhz with command rate at 1T with 2x1gb, but i think it may be a memory controller issue
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=19263&vpn=MSI 7250-020&manufacture=MSI/MicroStar
 
Spiff64 said:
Sorry, could you link me to this mobo? The one I found on NCIX was like 170 CAD, but I'm not sure if it's the right one. w1retap, are you saying that the DDR2-667 OCZ will work fine with it if I set it up properly? I should mention as well that I'm going to try and overclock the 3800X2s to 2.4GHz.
Click to expand...
Here's one on newegg.. I guess your in Canada? I don't know about int'l shipping, but this board is $129 USD. It really is a great board with tons of features. I'm sure the OCZ will work fine. My brother is using the OCZ Platinum EL 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2/800 in his.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130048
 
I'm not sure that will work, it only looks like it has 1 IDE controller, I have three devices I need hooked up through IDE, this would only give me two. (2 hardrives and 1 optical).
 
Spiff64 said:
I'm not sure that will work, it only looks like it has 1 IDE controller, I have three devices I need hooked up through IDE, this would only give me two. (2 hardrives and 1 optical).
Click to expand...
Most new boards only have 1 IDE controller. By new I mean the am2 boards or the p965 intel boards. If you need more, I suggest getting a IDE PCI card for around $20.
 
Yeah, that would work if I pick up one of those cards. w1retap, I can order that no problem up here for around 150. Question though, is your brother overclocking at all? I'd be interested in how it preforms, because people tend to say the M2N-e that I linked to originally is a nightmare for overclocking.
 
My brother bought the MSI K9N board and OCZ DDR2 667 memory (with an X2 3800+). It booted perfectly fine at 667 speed and 1.8volts. I heard some people had issues with this setup but its working fine for him. ;)
 
Pegasus said:
My brother bought the MSI K9N board and OCZ DDR2 667 memory (with an X2 3800+). It booted perfectly fine at 667 speed and 1.8volts. I heard some people had issues with this setup but its working fine for him. ;)
Click to expand...
That's pretty much the exact set up I'm looking to do, but I'll be overclocking. Good to know the ram is at least compatible and since the OCZ stuff is listed on MSI's site as overclocking well with that mobo I should be in good shape. We may have a winner.
 
So far legion and hexus are saying this isn't a great Ocer... but I'd rather take your guys word over theirs.

Hardwarezone is the highest out of the sites... 275 with the htt at 4x. Maybe if they dropped it down to 3x... duh.

;)
 
I read an article on AnandTech and they said they got pretty good overclocking performance out of it. As long as I can hit that extra 400MHz I'll be happy.
 
Spiff64 said:
Yeah, that would work if I pick up one of those cards. w1retap, I can order that no problem up here for around 150. Question though, is your brother overclocking at all? I'd be interested in how it preforms, because people tend to say the M2N-e that I linked to originally is a nightmare for overclocking.
Click to expand...

I'm installing an M2N-e tommorow morning (building an entirely new system as a matter of fact) and I'll have it running at full blast by tommorow evening if you don't mind waiting until then for the results.
 
Spiff64 said:
Yeah, that would work if I pick up one of those cards. w1retap, I can order that no problem up here for around 150. Question though, is your brother overclocking at all? I'd be interested in how it preforms, because people tend to say the M2N-e that I linked to originally is a nightmare for overclocking.
Click to expand...
No OC'ing for him. Its fast enough to do everything without the need to overclock.
 
MC FLMJIG said:
So far legion and hexus are saying this isn't a great Ocer... but I'd rather take your guys word over theirs.

Hardwarezone is the highest out of the sites... 275 with the htt at 4x. Maybe if they dropped it down to 3x... duh.

;)
Click to expand...
ouch. well at least they got the ht link over 1000. i don't think my sempron cares for going much over 900 :confused:
 
Actually, this past weekend I just built an X2 / M2N-E system as can be seen in my sig below. As can be seen the memory is XMS 667 5-5-5-12. Memory runs stock at 1.9v and can be clocked higher in the bios. Funny but I swear I remember seeing settings >2.0v in the bios for RAM.

The BIOS shipped on the mobo, v0103, resulted in many BSODs...nothing was stable. Once flashed to v0203 from the Asus website, I've had rock-solid stability with ZERO crashes in either xp64 or Vista 5472 x64.

Last night spent some time playing around with settings including a basic OC, auto fan speeds, and Cool n Quiet. With CnQ enabled my CPU ran 42idle/50Cloaded during testing with CS:S @ stock speeds! Also ran a basic overclock with CnQ enabled at 230x10 with out any issues at stock voltage. CPU load temp ran at 52C under CS:S. Once all fan speed controllers were disabled in the BIOS, temps came down to 32C idle... didn't get much chance to play CS:S with it at that point though. Again, this is completely stock cooling, even the OEM thermal pad. Tonite I'll take things a bit further... going for 2.5 Ghz this eve.

All temps were logged with CoreTemp. I'm waiting for my WC setup to arrive (TDX, D5, BIP2) and will be using AS5 with that... obviously those temps will be dropping a bit then. My goal is a 'simple' 2.5-2.7Ghz on stock voltage.... I use the machine all day every day for work and play, so it has to be rock solid stable.

Overall I would not worry about the M2N series... just make sure you have all the latest updates installed and you'll be fine. There seems to be plenty of options available for OC'ing in the BIOS... admittedly I have not pushed it to the bleeding edge yet, but I think the board will be more than sufficient to at least wring an extra 25% Mhz out of a decent x2 CPU.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top