• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

MSI K9N2 Diamond @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
2FA
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
58,444
MSI K9N2 Diamond - MSI brings us their K9N2 based on NVIDIA’s 780a chipset. Does being able to turn off that power hungry video card get your attention? On paper this board has a lot to offer but how does it work in the real world?

Dan and I had much difference experiences when it comes to the MSI K9N2 Diamond. There is just no way I can suggest using this motherboard after my personal experiences with it; Dan sees another side of the K9N2. I would highly consider fully reading at least this conclusion page if you are looking to purchase one.
Click to expand...
 
To this point I had never seen any B2 or B3 Phenom X4’s make it past 25MHz stable. However I was pleasantly surprised by the overclocking prowess of the MSI K9N2 Diamond as it was able to give me a 50MHz FSB overclock on my test Phenom X4 9600.
Click to expand...
You are not looking very hard, or used the wrong hardware. I have easily taken 3 9850's to 240-250 Mhz base clock. My own personal system is 24/7 load stable @240.

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=349425

edit - voltage is 1.312, CPU-z never shows the voltage on published numbers for some reason. I skimmed the article reading it proper now.
 
§kynet;1032890919 said:
You are not looking very hard, or used the wrong hardware. I have easily taken 3 9850's to 240-250 Mhz base clock. My own personal system is 24/7 load stable @240.

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=349425

edit - voltage is 1.312, CPU-z never shows the voltage on published numbers for some reason. I skimmed the article reading it proper now.
Click to expand...

It's the boards. The same CPU I got to 250MHz on the 780a couldn't break 25MHz on previous boards I've used which were all 790FX based. I've just not had very good experiences with the 790FX chipset and HTT overclocking.
 
Dan_D said:
I've just not had very good experiences with the 790FX chipset and HTT overclocking.
Click to expand...

I agree, many 790FX motherboards have not been the best, poor even. I had some good (and bad luck) with the Asus, but the MSI has been the best overall. I'm willing to give Nvidia a look, depending on the heat output/power consumption of the chipset (still reading)
 
Why did you use a 9700 x4 in the Gigabyte board? Or better yet if you already had data from the olden times of the unreleased 9700 why didn't you use the 9700 in the new board?:confused:
 
I guess this is just nitpicking, but with the comparisons between the Intel platform and the AMD platform you used a CPU that costs $1500~ compared to one that is $240~. I would love it if you could next time throw in a Q9300 instead, so it gives a more balanced perspective. Also if you argue that isn't relevant since it is a motherboard review then don't even include the Intel platform.
 
sc3252 said:
I guess this is just nitpicking, but with the comparisons between the Intel platform and the AMD platform you used a CPU that costs $1500~ compared to one that is $240~. I would love it if you could next time throw in a Q9300 instead, so it gives a more balanced perspective. Also if you argue that isn't relevant since it is a motherboard review then don't even include the Intel platform.
Click to expand...

The Intel processor scores are just there for comparison. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the benchmarks in regard to choosing a board. Today the real difference between motherboards is going to be their feature set and overclockability.
 
just wondering did you guys try out the hybrid SLi stuff?
 
For comparison though, the full system tested here used 227 watts of idle power without Hybrid Power savings turned on and only 109 watts with it
Click to expand...

I think thats a great saving, it probably wont add up to too much over the year, but as i spend probably 90% at the desktop i think thats great. Not only that but if its using less power its probably generating less heat overall in the system, another added bonus.
 
wasnt able to make 1200 mhz memorY?
i did 375 mhz fsb on 790fx o.0

i got print of 300 mhz on le1620 air ;) (gigabyte ma790fx dq6)

should be simple enough....
 
And for gods sake throw in more amd platforms, 790gx and alike, and have patience in amd clocking, aint ezy, its real hard, but its fun ;D 3.6 ghz le1620 btw, 3.6 ghz amd x2 5000+ be 3.5 ghz amd phenom 9850. opty 1222 3.75 ghz. be2350 3.4 ghz.

not on dice or anything and good enough stable! the le1620 was 100% stable the temp killed lots of the others since all was done with air, dice comming up on all.... but anywayz, ive used several weeks to tweak everything and learn everything bout the phenom, its a hard chip to clock......
 
AtkinS said:
And for gods sake throw in more amd platforms, 790gx and alike, and have patience in amd clocking, aint ezy, its real hard, but its fun ;D 3.6 ghz le1620 btw, 3.6 ghz amd x2 5000+ be 3.5 ghz amd phenom 9850. opty 1222 3.75 ghz. be2350 3.4 ghz.

not on dice or anything and good enough stable! the le1620 was 100% stable the temp killed lots of the others since all was done with air, dice comming up on all.... but anywayz, ive used several weeks to tweak everything and learn everything bout the phenom, its a hard chip to clock......
Click to expand...

When it comes to throwing in more AMD platforms, I'm guessing you are referring to the benchmarking section of the review. Feel free to address your concerns on the comparisons with Kyle. I'm going to go out on a limb however and say that the benchmark section is the least important section of the review. The differences between all the boards out there are relatively small. In reality the differences between all the boards out there come down to features and overclocking. The differences you see in the benchmarking graphs are purely academic. In real-world testing it all comes down to the graphics card and to a lesser extent the CPU. Buying a board based on the benchmark section is really doing yourself a disservice as that doesn't tell the whole story about a board or a group of boards. People don't run their games (generally speaking) at 640x480 with all details on low. That's how we have to test in order for a difference to show up at all. At normal gaming resolutions with even medium details the board is one of the variables in the performance equation with the least amount of impact.

Most of the processors you've listed are AMD Athlon 64 X2 processors and not Phenom's. Overclocking X2's and Athlon 64's is easy. Overclocking the Phenom is hard. (Through FSB/HTT adjustments anyway.) This board actually provided the best HTT (FSB) Phenom overclock I've ever seen giving me a 50MHz overclock. With the Athlon X2 I hit 344MHz so it's pretty clear that the processors are the limiting factor here and not the motherboards themselves. No doubt your Phenom 9850 is a Black Edition and you overclocked it by multiplier adjustments which is a fairly easy thing to do and not the same thing we are doing with them. We are reviewing the boards (not the processors) and as a result we are overclocking the motherboard as high as it can go. We often drop the multiplier of the CPU to ensure we aren't limited by the processor itself.

Try overclocking the Phenom by FSB/HTT adjustments for yourself. It isn't easy. I've rarely seen (or even heard of) overclocks that exceed 50MHz on any Phenom processor and board combination. AMD knows that these processors suck at that type of overclocking hence the reason for the Black Editions in the first place.
 
Got the board when it came out and have had nothing but problems. I am hopeful it is not a MB issue and may be a memory or cooling issue.

I am running XP2 SP3, Raid Mirroring 2 drives, 2 GB Crucial Ballistix, a new Corsair 520HX PSU, and a Cooler Master Vortex 752 Cooler.

At least once a day, I have to hard-power off because it either just freezes up or gives me a BSOD with a BAD_POOL_ERROR. I cannot simply press the reset button, but I have to turn the PS off in the back, wait about 10 seconds (yes, the wait seems to be important), turn it back on and it works fine.

I am typically NOT doing anything more than general word processing, email, or surfing. No overclocking.

A little research and I found that the BAD_POOL_ERROR is often a memory issue. I used the DDC program to boost the voltage to 2.2, but still no luck. I am about to dump this and go back to a good ole fashioned ASUS and Intel combo...

Anyone have any suggestions on what to check?

Thanks,
LittleGuy
 
Run memtest on your ram and try only one stick and see if that cures your ills. That way you can check out your RAM since that's what the error relates to.
 
Question. I'm VERY new to AMD boards. This board has the '4 pin' processor power thing on it, but there's a little plastic piece covering the additional 4 slots right next to it. In this picture the plastic piece is removed, and there's an 8 pin power requirement
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/images/articles/1214276694xbL8UL2bjB_1_18_l.jpg

What do i need to plug into that? does it need some 8 pin connector? or just the regular P4 power connector that i'm used to? (the 4 pin one)

Thanks
 
mystical_ice said:
Question. I'm VERY new to AMD boards. This board has the '4 pin' processor power thing on it, but there's a little plastic piece covering the additional 4 slots right next to it. In this picture the plastic piece is removed, and there's an 8 pin power requirement
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/images/articles/1214276694xbL8UL2bjB_1_18_l.jpg

What do i need to plug into that? does it need some 8 pin connector? or just the regular P4 power connector that i'm used to? (the 4 pin one)

Thanks
Click to expand...

You can use either the 4 pin power connector, or an 8 pin. Some power supply and board combinations do not work well with the 4 pin power connector. 8 is best when that is an option.
 
mystical_ice said:
Question. I'm VERY new to AMD boards. This board has the '4 pin' processor power thing on it, but there's a little plastic piece covering the additional 4 slots right next to it. In this picture the plastic piece is removed, and there's an 8 pin power requirement
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/images/articles/1214276694xbL8UL2bjB_1_18_l.jpg

What do i need to plug into that? does it need some 8 pin connector? or just the regular P4 power connector that i'm used to? (the 4 pin one)

Thanks
Click to expand...

What power supply do you have (exact name and model would be good).

And yes you can still use a 4-pin instead of 8-pin if your computer is not power hungry.
 
if im not mistaken.. wasnt the 8 pin requirement only needed for overclocking?
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
if im not mistaken.. wasnt the 8 pin requirement only needed for overclocking?
Click to expand...

It really isn't a requirement for overclocking, but some boards definitely behave better in that regard with the 8-pin connector than they do off of just the single 4-pin. It is always best to use the 8-pin connector if your board supports it and your PSU has one. If not, then you can usually get by on the 4-pin connector.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top