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MSI P6N SLI-FI / Platinum (650i) Thread
- Thread starter Spanki
- Start date
Ok, thanks. Dumb question....Do i still install the drivers that're on the cd with the mobo, or are these replacing those? Like I said, i havent done this in a while...
I've found 'linked' mode to be kinda wonky... I usually just use Manual mode and set the memory bus speed where I want it (even if all the other memory timings and such are on auto).
They would be replacing the ones on the CD (MSI gets them from nVidia).
The one's on the MSI website look to be later versions...should I use those instead or stick with the ones on Nvidia's site? Also, do I use the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver thats on there as well? Nothing off the CD at all then?
Alright, 2hrs 41mins later and still stable on current overclock. This is the best Ive gotten out of this FI board.
Not to butt in, but if I'm not mistaken that's an Antec 900 case, which means he's got the Zalman blowing directly out the massive 200mm top fan those wind tunnels come equipped with
.Either way is fine.. the ones on the CD are the oldest... the ones on MSI's site are generally updated after the ones on nVidia's site... so for comfort factor, you could just use whatever's on MSI's site (including the Realtek audio drivers).
Nice, Roaddog! I've heard different opinions on how long to run til considered "stable". Anywhere from 8, to 12, to 24 hrs depending who you talk to. I think 12 hrs is good enough for me.
Not specifically, no. But as far as I know, it switches straps as you use higher FSB settings.
Alright, sounds good...thanks
Stable is relative
. I've seen reports where some setup was stable for 3 hours, but not 6 hours or stable for 6 hours, but not 8 hours, etc. You should have some basic feeling for how stable it is after a few hours... if it looks good then continue tweeking or use those settings. If you later find that some game is crashing (or whatever) then you need to go back and do some longer stability testing to determine just how stable it really is at those settings.
NoxTek
The Geek Redneck
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It's a trick with the Antec P180 and Nine Hundred cases. You reverse the rear fan so that it sucks air in from the back of the case, and then orient your Zalman so it's blowing up towards the top fan. This creates sort of a 'fresh air loop' and will drop your temps significantly.
There is a thread about this somewhere in the cases and cooling or overclocking forums.
that's why i said, "i'm assuming you have a fan exhaust on top as well?"
i have a p180b and both the top and back fans are 120mm... i point mine out the back since my AC freezer puts air down onto the mosfets and since i'm assuming MSI designed the board this way. all of that said i don't think it matters much, i just couldn't see the 200mm fan on his case... should i reconsider?
i guess this is a case-by-case basis :-P
whoops, was posting while you were posting... that's a good trick, i'll try that with my p180b, thanks BF
so since my AC freezer is pointed towards the rear, could i change the top fan to intake and basically do the same thing?
also a concern is if i have the front fan intake and the back fan intake and only one exhaust that's going to create positive pressure instead of negative pressure in the case, causing heat to circulate instead of exit the case... but i guess if it's tested method i'll try it.
so since my AC freezer is pointed towards the rear, could i change the top fan to intake and basically do the same thing?
also a concern is if i have the front fan intake and the back fan intake and only one exhaust that's going to create positive pressure instead of negative pressure in the case, causing heat to circulate instead of exit the case... but i guess if it's tested method i'll try it.
NoxTek
The Geek Redneck
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You can certainly do that, I chose to do the opposite in my case because I figure:
1. The top fan is 200mm or something huge like that, and I figure it would be better to make that one the exhaust due to there being to many sources of air intake in my case. Less positive pressure, or whatever.
2. Hot air rises, so why not have it take the path of least resistance? Plus my case is sitting right on my desk with it's ass pointed in my direction. I'd rather have the warm air blowing out of the top fan instead of blowing directly in my direction.
I'm getting bored waiting for my RMA to get turned around so I'll be joining the traitor camp (for a little while anyways) while I play with a P5B Deluxe until my P6N Platinum gets back
Still trying to figure out what happened to my Platinum board. Was great until plugging in the extra drive, but then again earlier on it was funky with that drive attached. Tried it in my GF's system and the HD is fine. Weird. Ordered another SATA drive, so will see how that goes.
Hey! My RMA posted, it's on to STEP 3 (which means there should be a return coming soon). I'm also going to buy more RAM. Excitement! I miss my Platinum.
Stable is relative
Alright, I think I'll run it 8hrs and call it good. Still chuggin along at 4hrs 14min. Have seen temps reach 62c a couple of time for just a sec but is currently running at 55c
Like Blue Falcon I take a lot of pics of my build. Spanki this first one is the worst in quality. I was attempting to capture the proximity of the Ninja's mounting bracket to the capacitors. They don't exactly touch but were too close for my liking:
Here's what I did to the mounting bracket to completely clear the way. Shaved about 1/4" or so off. Sorry 'bout then glare:
Some dremel-modding to the case:
Side view:
I could do better with cable management but she's OK I guess. Any suggestions for improvement welcome .
Here's what I did to the mounting bracket to completely clear the way. Shaved about 1/4" or so off. Sorry 'bout then glare:
Some dremel-modding to the case:
Side view:
I could do better with cable management but she's OK I guess. Any suggestions for improvement welcome
.Just got an MSI P6N SLI-FI today and started building a new rig from scratch.
Problem is, my hard drives won't get here until Monday. That didn't bother me, though, so I put together what I could, just to make sure everything fits.
I plug it in, give it juice (the orange light on the mobo goes on), flip the switch, and it powers on... but only for a few seconds. Then it turns itself off.
I know I'm being a little jumpy, but could the mobo detect there are no bootable drives (not even a dvd-rom is hooked up right now) and shut itself off? I'm used to a DOS error message, not the mobo shutting down.
Also: no monitor connected to the video card, but I wouldn't expect to see anything that quickly anyway.
I have to assume I've done something wrong: how do I diagnose it?
Thanks,
Dan
Problem is, my hard drives won't get here until Monday. That didn't bother me, though, so I put together what I could, just to make sure everything fits.
I plug it in, give it juice (the orange light on the mobo goes on), flip the switch, and it powers on... but only for a few seconds. Then it turns itself off.
I know I'm being a little jumpy, but could the mobo detect there are no bootable drives (not even a dvd-rom is hooked up right now) and shut itself off? I'm used to a DOS error message, not the mobo shutting down.
Also: no monitor connected to the video card, but I wouldn't expect to see anything that quickly anyway.
I have to assume I've done something wrong: how do I diagnose it?
Thanks,
Dan
I wouldn't worry too much until you get everything installed, but in the meantime...
Did you screw the motherboard directly to the case? Or is it screwed to little 'stand-offs' which are screwed to the case? It should be mounted to 9 stand-offs, that hold the board up above the metal case plate.
I screwed the mobo into the standoffs, which are screwed into the side of the case. It should be very similar to your setup: I chose an Antec 900.
On that note, a lot of my setup is spookily similar to yours! I went with the Radeon X1950, though.
I will see if this continues on Monday, and bring out the D-header if it happens again. Thanks.
BubbaWillis
n00b
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- May 2, 2007
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hey hey!
well, at 452.5 fsb (seemed better than 450) widows booted fine, no bsod's but it couldn't bench worth a crap (failed in othos within a couple mins) i tried all kinds of voltage combos (including bumping up the sb) and just couldn't get er stable.
question... the higher i bumped up the vcore the higher my vram got in speedfan. i tried lowering the ram voltage in the bios and it wouldnt drop. do you think this is a false reading by speedfan? i think i need to raise the vcore up more than i had tried to stabilize my oc, but then again i might have reached my limit too. also, it seemed to be alright up to 445 fsb.
i'm almost thinking of getting a 6700 (10x multi!!!!!) and seeing how far that will go 430fsb on a 10x multi mua ha ha
well, at 452.5 fsb (seemed better than 450) widows booted fine, no bsod's but it couldn't bench worth a crap (failed in othos within a couple mins)
i tried all kinds of voltage combos (including bumping up the sb) and just couldn't get er stable.question... the higher i bumped up the vcore the higher my vram got in speedfan. i tried lowering the ram voltage in the bios and it wouldnt drop. do you think this is a false reading by speedfan? i think i need to raise the vcore up more than i had tried to stabilize my oc, but then again i might have reached my limit too. also, it seemed to be alright up to 445 fsb.
i'm almost thinking of getting a 6700 (10x multi!!!!!) and seeing how far that will go
430fsb on a 10x multi mua ha hagunderhill
n00b
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- Apr 2, 2007
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Read a new review of the P6N Platinum today on neoseeker http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/msi_p6n_sli_platinum/ He isn't very kind to the board but it was an informative review. I found two things interesting: 1.He used standoffs on the back plate of the cpu cooler to avoid contact with that pesky capacitor 2.The heat pipes use a thermal gum instead of paste, he took them off and applied Arctic Silver 5 instead. Live and learn
Read a new review of the P6N Platinum today on neoseeker http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/msi_p6n_sli_platinum/ He isn't very kind to the board but it was an informative review. I found two things interesting: 1.He used standoffs on the back plate of the cpu cooler to avoid contact with that pesky capacitor 2.The heat pipes use a thermal gum instead of paste, he took them off and applied Arctic Silver 5 instead. Live and learn
Thanks - I hadn't read that review yet, but I was also thinking about using some sort of shims (plastic washer, etc) to get HSF backplate clearance.
OK, I just read that review... lots of typos (ahem, there's 2 PATA ports, not 1, etc.), bad information and misunderstandings on his part. It's always illuminating when a reviewer starts off one of these 650i-based board reviews with an out-dated spec list from nVidia (they removed LinkBoost from all 600-series chipsets, months ago... they also added 1333 FSB support for the 650i, months ago, etc).
It looks like he also didn't manage to find the "disable C1E" option (though MSI didn;t make it easy to find) - this would have removed a few paragraphs of rants about CPU-Z seeing a 6x muliplier (but likely added another sentance about the 'hidden' option).
I'm not particularly interested in censoring, but I also don't care to add links to reviews with so much bad information in them... I'll pass on this one.
Anyone who's been reading this thread already probably has enough good info about the board to put it into perspective.
It looks like he also didn't manage to find the "disable C1E" option (though MSI didn;t make it easy to find) - this would have removed a few paragraphs of rants about CPU-Z seeing a 6x muliplier (but likely added another sentance about the 'hidden' option).
I'm not particularly interested in censoring, but I also don't care to add links to reviews with so much bad information in them... I'll pass on this one
.Anyone who's been reading this thread already probably has enough good info about the board to put it into perspective.
Thanks prospero - It's my first build but I really enjoyed fiddling with the dremel. Its not much, but it made a difference in managing some of the cables. I could have done better, but what the hey
. Good luck and show pics of yours if you do a little cutting!Blue Falcon, I may have to try this, my temps are good, but I have my 9700LED fan facing the front, and i get 24-25C idle temps with 3.3ghz on my e6600 (volts 1.45). How do you think this would effect NB cooling? also what speed for the fans?
Thanks,
Sean
PS i've noticed a trend with the newer e6600's only being stable around 3.3, which is what I found with mine. I booted into 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 Ghz, but never orthos stable, even with .25V on the CPU. Oh well. Good luck ocing .
NoxTek
The Geek Redneck
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I see it affecting the NB cooling in a positive way since with my current configuration not only is more air being blown over the large heatsink at the back (the one that covers the mosfets and is connected to the NB and SB via heatpipes), but it's now getting totally cool air from the outside of the case.
The rear fan (the one I reversed) is a Yate Loon 120mm and it's running full speed. The top fan is the huge 200mm (or maybe it's 140mm?) TriCool that came with the case and I believe it's set to run full speed as well.
Blokhead said:
As of just now:
I can get it to boot at higher speeds but no matter what voltage I put into it I just can't seem to get it stable. 3.5 seems to be a sweet spot and ... well... if that ends up being all I can get that's still a 1100mhz o/c. I'm hoping that after I give it a month of burn in time I can push it even farther.
First of all great thread! I started overclocking my P6N SLI-FI paired with a E6600. I need this PC to last so I am not going to push it too far initially. I want to get it running around 3.0 - 3.2ghz stable with low temps. I purchaed a cooler master NB heatsink and fan that was suggested in this thread. I am very glad I did. Just to get it to post at 312mhz (1250) fsb I had to up the voltage on the NB to 1.3v. Is there an application that can monitor NB temps? Also I am having a problem with Ntune where the temperature is not being displayed and all of the voltages show up as not recognized. Any thoughts?
Neo
Neo
RoadDog- What version/stepping do you have of the 6400.
---------------------------
I've got an L2 6400 and can boot into WIN up to 8x 1564 FSB (391) but can only test out stable to 1520 (380 fsb) ---- where BubbaW has a B2 and is getting >400fsb.
And I'm having to goose the voltages more than what I see elsewhere.....
I can run 7x 1600 FSB (for 2.8Ghz) but haven't tested it out yet (My 3DMark scores were Ok, but haven't run extended Orthos). I tried a couple of FSB's higher than the 400 and couldn't get it to post, even. (And this at higher voltages and RAM on auto- looser timings).
Spanki,
I'm actually having an issue that when I set the Memory to MANUAL at a 1520 fsb (380) for ex. it runs the memory at 760 (as if it were linked.)
[MSI tech support had me flash to the 1.31 bios, but that didn't seem to fix it. And I had tried 1.1, 1.22b also]
If I put the Memory up higher than 800, like to 829, MANUAL (FSB 1520), it will run it at 829, though.
I tried dropping back down to one of the lower settings on the OC (1500 FSB/ 375) and the memory set at 800 MANUAL, and lo' and behold, the memory stays as set in Manual- at 800.
Spanki,
I'm actually having an issue that when I set the Memory to MANUAL at a 1520 fsb (380) for ex. it runs the memory at 760 (as if it were linked.)
[MSI tech support had me flash to the 1.31 bios, but that didn't seem to fix it. And I had tried 1.1, 1.22b also]
If I put the Memory up higher than 800, like to 829, MANUAL (FSB 1520), it will run it at 829, though.
I tried dropping back down to one of the lower settings on the OC (1500 FSB/ 375) and the memory set at 800 MANUAL, and lo' and behold, the memory stays as set in Manual- at 800.
Yeah, I saw that you (or someone) mentioned that problem earlier, but I hadn't seen it here so I didn't have anything to add. On the other hand, I haven't been over 375 FSB yet either, so that may be why.
Welcome Neo. I don't know of any way to monitor NB temps (I'm not sure it has a sensor). Ntune doesn't seem to know enough about these motherboards either. Speedfan 4.32 does a decent job of showing some other voltages and temps though. PC Wizard 2007 (from the CPU-Z guys) is also useful.