MSI P6N SLI-FI / Platinum (650i) Thread

WOW, 120 pages... Well, this should be easy for someone to answer- I hope. I picked up a P6N SLI FI, E4500, 2G Corsair XMS memory, MSI 9600 GT and the usual assortment of drives. Can someone give me a good starting point (FSB, memory setting, etc) to OC this system? I read the OP so I have a basic idea of what needs to be done, but I suspect that a lot of systems like this have been built and OCed and I'd like to eliminate as much trial and error as possible.
 
Intersting read here folks at the MSI forums with a quoted MSI support email responce to a guy trying to run a E8400 on his FI board .
Problem seems to be with the voltage regulator on the board was not adequate from the start and which requires a rma to fix . :rolleyes:

This would definitly explain why the new updated bios does not work for anyone with a E8400/E3110 .

Post made by "Beastrow" : http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=115127.new;topicseen#new
 
Firstly many thanks Netroller3D for the detailed guide but unfortunately it didn't solve the 'no post' problem that I was having with my P6N Platinum, even with BIOS version 1.6.
My E8400 was manufactured on 04/08/08 Batch Q808A164, Version E27439-001. After many failed attempts I thought that there was a slim chance that the cpu was actually faulty and returned it for exchange at Newegg (they were very helpful). Unfortunately the replacement is the same manufacturing date with a Q808A171 batch number and sadly still no post.
After reading Stereo55's post just above I now have to decide whether to RMA the motherboard, sell the E8400 on eBay and make a loss or sell the MSI P6N Platinum on eBay and put the money towards a new eVGA motherboard which is 100% compatible and certainly make a bigger loss.
So my first question is, if I RMA the P6N motherboard to MSI how likely am I to receive the same one back?
Like many others I think MSI has misled all P6N users who would like to upgrade to the Wolfdale so I am writing to the 'Dog' at MaximumPC to ask him to investigate, it may help a little.
Out of interest does anyone know the voltages that the eVGA motherboards using the E8400 are after the Wolfdale BIOS update? I thought this may help us if we knew just how high they went. Thanks.
 
speedfrk said:
WOW, 120 pages... Well, this should be easy for someone to answer- I hope. I picked up a P6N SLI FI, E4500, 2G Corsair XMS memory, MSI 9600 GT and the usual assortment of drives. Can someone give me a good starting point (FSB, memory setting, etc) to OC this system? I read the OP so I have a basic idea of what needs to be done, but I suspect that a lot of systems like this have been built and OCed and I'd like to eliminate as much trial and error as possible.
Click to expand...

OK, I'll answer this myself:) Set the FSB to 1066 with default voltages, memory at 800 and ran orthos to make sure it was stable. Good to go at 2.93GHz. Scored 11754 in 3DMark06.
 
I got the E8400 working using the settings posted earlier by NetRolller in post 2353. Prime95 stable after 10 hr. run, 3DMark05 13730. Going to play with settings over the weekend, see if any OC's will work.
 
Just wanted to confirm. http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1032332032&postcount=2353

The settings in this post solved my massive instability problem and kept me from going insane. So thanks Netroller and whoever the original poster is.

I am using an e8400 in an MSI P6N Diamond and was having all kinds of video driver errors, crashes, screen blanks, program crashes and BSODs. I also toasted a couple sticks of RAM. The settings from this post provide more voltage to the NB and the CPU, and since the NB controls video and memory, it all makes sense now.

I am NOT overclocking however. I'll leave well enough alone at this point.

Thanks again!!
 
Skipious said:
I got the E8400 working using the settings posted earlier by NetRolller in post 2353. Prime95 stable after 10 hr. run, 3DMark05 13730. Going to play with settings over the weekend, see if any OC's will work.
Click to expand...



I'd like to hear how it goes!

I bought my P6N Platinum with the 45nm. chips in mind but have yet to be brave enough to buy one yet... I have read everything you guys have been going through & it definitely has me scared of putting money into a chip that won't work. Looks like MSI has a bios update every three months so maybe, just maybe they will actually fix these problems within the next two months. Other than this issue, I have been very happy with the board...If they fix the Wolfdale issue I'll be more than happy with it..
 
Spanki said:
SLI-FI - v2.13 beta BIOS or later (including the latest "2.1" released BIOS)
Click to expand...

Did someone can pass me that bios Version? Because i´ve been looking for on google, and only found to download, the bios 2.1, but not 2.13.

thanks
 
Well, things came up this weekend, so I didn't get a lot of time to play around with my settings. But, what I was able to do so far was set the memory clock to 890 - 3Dmark up to 13850 and stable. Next I manually set the memory timings, CAS 5, tRCD 4, tRP 3, tRAS 8, tRRD 1, tRC 20, tWR 2, tWTR 8, tREF 7.8, CMD 2T, 3Dmark 13900 and stable.

Now, tried playing with fsb, bumped it up slowly to 1400, every thing was stable, forget the final 3Dmark but believe it took me over 1420, the ratio was 14/15. Now for my problem, I noticed that there was an update for nTune while I was taking a break from the OC session, so I downloaded it. Boot up. Fine no problems. So, back to OC the fsb. Took the fsb up to 1420, opps, not so stable and the cpu is constantly working. Bumped up the voltage slightly. No, go. Had to reset the bios. K, no prblem, reboot go back to previous good settings, Damn it, cpu still working at 97%. So, thats were I am so far, going to take off the nTune up date, see if that is my problem is or if it's some else. Reminder to self, NEVER do any driver updates while playing with the bios.

I'll be getting Vista 64 today, so I think what I'm going to do is install Vista, so I get to use all of my memory and put the settings back to the ones posted earlier by Netroller and start all over. I'll keep you posted.
 
Well i got a Q9300 working at stock on my msi P6N

it will not over clock hardly at all but i am still tweaking

i have the latest 2.5 bios ... so yorkfields will work
 
stereo55 said:
Glad to see your chip is working , but ....

WTH ??? Your chip is NOT supported at all . What is going on here with MSI ?
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?...=1141&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=170&cat3_no=2#menu
Click to expand...

yeah i read that... and the only reason i have a q9300 is that i ordered a q6600 on ebay and wont for 160$.... open the package... its a q9300

who am i to argue...... flashed the bios and it works..... the temps are reading all crazy... but other than that it works fine.....
 
this is just a related story about this mobo, not directly related but funny and I need to vent with people who can understand. So I just bought 2 more GB of system ram for my desktop, fry's has it on sale corsair twin x pc6400 for 19 after rebate. I'm using the P6N plat btw. I installed it and kept getting a bsod upon booting into vista. So I pull them out and see that there is an updated bios that is supposed to fix it. So I update the bios and it boots fine, until it gets to loading up the OS. I get the dreaded ntldr is missing. I'm not sure if it was my bios config or what, but I reset the bios and still the same.
This is on a dual boot system and all I can see is all the data and installing I'm going to lose by having to reinstall two OS's again. Long story short, I managed to repair boot XP, copied the ntldr file and ntdetect file from the install cd, then did a repair fix with the vista install DVD and updated easyBCD and now I'm all fixed. I'm just about getting ready to install the RAM again to see if the bios update actually worked.
Right now I'm in that relieved mood where I don't have to do it all over again. wish me luck on the ram install.
 
Well further to my post above I have decided to RMA my P6N Platinum to MSI (just hope I get the same board back) in the hope that they can make it compatible with the E8400. I have tried everything I can think of and must have switched the E8400 with an E4300 over ten times and even with all of the voltage increase etc.still no post. I can only assume that my board is a very early manufacture date and therefore not as flexible as the later ones.
I thought of selling the motherboard on eBay but the prices are very poor and as I need SLI the best alternatives (eVGA) are far more expensive. I think MSI withdrew all of the P6N's as most large etailers were not selling them for a week or two. Newegg only had 'open boxes'. So maybe the hardware mod is the solution. It is good news that some users are getting the Wolfdales to work but the stability issues, especially with overclocking, concern me. After all if a cheap sub $50 ASRock motherboard runs the E8400 why cannot the P6N Platinum?
 
ZebraCrossing said:
Well further to my post above I have decided to RMA my P6N Platinum to MSI (just hope I get the same board back) in the hope that they can make it compatible with the E8400. I have tried everything I can think of and must have switched the E8400 with an E4300 over ten times and even with all of the voltage increase etc.still no post. I can only assume that my board is a very early manufacture date and therefore not as flexible as the later ones.
I thought of selling the motherboard on eBay but the prices are very poor and as I need SLI the best alternatives (eVGA) are far more expensive. I think MSI withdrew all of the P6N's as most large etailers were not selling them for a week or two. Newegg only had 'open boxes'. So maybe the hardware mod is the solution. It is good news that some users are getting the Wolfdales to work but the stability issues, especially with overclocking, concern me. After all if a cheap sub $50 ASRock motherboard runs the E8400 why cannot the P6N Platinum?
Click to expand...


yeah i got a yorkie to work in my P6N... with the lastest 2,5 bios... but overclocking is a no go.... but it runs flawless stock
 
Just a thought but is it possible to try the v2.5 BIOS with the P6N Platinum and if it doesn't work switch back to the v1.6?
 
ZebraCrossing said:
Just a thought but is it possible to try the v2.5 BIOS with the P6N Platinum and if it doesn't work switch back to the v1.6?
Click to expand...

I am sure if u scan thru these 1000000 pages u will find someone who has tried it

in theory it should work fine.....
 
tonycooper said:
Hello from a noobie to this forum.

I have read much of what is in this forum on this motherboard and overclocking. My own experience about what works is listed below. I found that I could run faster, and with lower voltages, with stability... but accuracy suffered.

I ran prime95 on my T61 laptop for over 24 hours with no failures as a baseline... I multitasked on it while prime was running. CPU temps spiked to 80C!!, but prime95 never reported failures on this system. My accuracy target goal was established.

On my new desktop system, If I attempted to overclock higher then what I have below, accuracy suffered. I could run for 6 hours or so before a rounding failure would creep in, or if using the system when prime was running I'd see rounding errors. Temps spiked at 56C but typically ran at 48C-50C during the tests.

A note about spread spectrum settings. I found that only the CPU needed to be disabled. If I disabled the other settings I picked up stray noise in my 5.8 GHz phone and my flat panel display. Both are within 4 feet of the case.

Anyway here are my settings that resulted in an accurate and stable system using the components listed below.

I am open to all input and will try most any suggestion. I am also available to answer questions on my setup. Thanks in advance for advice and counsel.

I am still having one problem. The system sometimes loses BIOS settings. I get a checksum error on bootup. I've replaced the battery twice (both checked out good) and reflashed the BIOS this evening. Hoping the reflash fixed the problem.

Anyone else heard of or is having this problem? I'd appreciate any input on possible fixes.


P6N SLI Platinum BIOS Settings BIOS v1.5

Settings
CPU Features​
C1E..............................................Disabled (Hidden - Press F4 to access)
Executive Bit Support..................Disabled
Set Limit CPUID Maxval to 3........Disabled
​
Cell Menu​
HPET............................................Disabled
DOT..............................................Disabled
EIST..............................................Disabled
System Clock Mode......................Linked
FSB Clock....................................1333
Adjust CPU Ratio..........................9
Spread Spectrum
CPU....................................Disabled
All others............................Leave at default​
Advance Dram Config...................Manual 4 4 4 12 Auto Auto Auto Auto Auto 2T​

Voltages
CPU...............................................+ .125 Volts
Memory.........................................2.2 Volts
NB.................................................1.5
SB.................................................1.7
FSB...............................................20%​

Temps
CPU.......................Idle 30C Prime95 Stress 56C
System..................Idle 27C Prime95 Stress 46C​

OverClocked 25%
CPU Freq 3.0 GHz FSB 1333 Memory Dram 800 ( 5/6 ratio ) 4-4-4-12

MB.................MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel
Case..............CoolerMaster Centurion 5 - CAC-T05
CPU...............Q6600 GO 2.4GHz
CPU Cooler....Thermalright Ultra-120A CPU Cooler
Memory..........Patriot PCS-6400 2GB (2x1GB) Kit
Video.............PNY nVidia GeForce 8600 GT 512MB
HD..................Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 SATA 3.0Gb/s
Power............OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W PSU
Click to expand...


I posted the above info quite awhile back and wanted to report my latest findings. I have just resolved my BIOS corruption issue, and I've been able to lower NB & SB voltages by half, drop memory voltage to 2V, and CPU voltage to stock.

The Fix? A week ago I added an additional video card and I'm running in SLI mode! Makes no sense to me but it definitely stabilized the system. Anyone have any insight into what is going on here?

I have not tried raising the clock speed. I am just happy to have a stable system overclocked by 25%.

Tony
 
There were a few people on the MSI forums that had tried cross driver booting, some had success and some not. It is warned though, that you do this at your own risk, just so MSI is off the hook for any problems, lol. Thats funny, considering that most people are having problems with a chip MSI says the boards support.
 
After reading TonyCooper's post above - many thanks - I decided to reflash my BIOS with v1.6 just in case there was some kind of corruption lurking. I decided to use MSI Live Update 3 this time and kept getting the following error messages.
ERROR MAPPING PHYSICAL MEMORY
ERROR: PROBLEM FREEING MAPPING MEMORY
I wondered if anyone else had this problem and could explain what it means.
I will reflash using a floppy but it still puzzles me!
Do MSI send out new BIOS chips and is there a charge? Thanks.
 
tonycooper said:
I posted the above info quite awhile back and wanted to report my latest findings. I have just resolved my BIOS corruption issue, and I've been able to lower NB & SB voltages by half, drop memory voltage to 2V, and CPU voltage to stock.

The Fix? A week ago I added an additional video card and I'm running in SLI mode! Makes no sense to me but it definitely stabilized the system. Anyone have any insight into what is going on here?

I have not tried raising the clock speed. I am just happy to have a stable system overclocked by 25%.

Tony
Click to expand...

This morning I lowered the FSB to 12% (from 20%) and I am running prime95 for 24 hours to insure the settings are reliable. I am going to keep halving voltages one at a time until I see a failure. I still don't understand why adding another video card and moving to SLI mode stablized the system. Prior to this I had to run the NB, SB and FSB at max voltages to run Prime95 24 hours without a failure.
 
I know that the SLI-FI should have hard drive SMART support, but I cannot get any readings whatsoever. I tried using HD Tach, which I used on another older computer and could get readings from it. However, the SLI-FI does not give me any readings at all, not even the temperature or sectors... etc.

I have a WD3200AAKS hard drive, connected through SATA into the motherboards 1st (far left) SATA connector.

Any suggestions on what to check, or ideas? Anyone actually able to use SMART?

And I'm quite sure the BIOS is set to enable SMART. I did do some overclocking which may have changed some other setting though. Bios version 2.4
 
SMART works fine for me. I've never had a problem with it at all. I'm guessing something got changed in the BIOS while you were tweaking and you didn't notice it. You could also check some other programs that use SMART to make sure it's not something on the software level.


Those are just some thoughts. I've never had SMART actually not work for me, lol, so I really don't know how you might fix it other than re-checking the BIOS and trying different programs that use SMART.
 
I know this is probably a reach but, has anyone tried a E7200 Wolfdale? I am ready to get something besides the E2200 that I have & figured this to be a very nice budget overclocker.
 
I'd be careful since that chip is not yet supported, but it looks like you may be to get to work since it is in the same class (Wolfdale). Also, there has been a lot of problems getting the Wofldales to work on some mother boards, as you may have read in past posts. I've been playing around with the E8400 and OC'ing is not working too well on my board. Good luck.
 
Right on, so I guess I may be better off to drop a Quad 6xxx series in it & forget the Wolfdales then? Sucks there are so many issues with getting Wolfdales to work in the P6N...
 
Donovan Tipton said:
Right on, so I guess I may be better off to drop a Quad 6xxx series in it & forget the Wolfdales then? Sucks there are so many issues with getting Wolfdales to work in the P6N...
Click to expand...


i got my yorkie to work on the msi p6n... but it wont overclock at all... just ordered a EVGA 750i.... getting off this 650i boat .....
 
Yes, me too. This weekend I am going to have one last try with my E8400 and P6N Platinum but this time with some new Mushkin memory. If all fails I will go for the 680i or 750i not sure which. There are reports of video playback problems with the 750i and I am still not 100% convinced that the 680i is foolproof with the Wolfdales. I want to stick with DDR2 memory as I have invested $'s in it and eBay value is very poor. If I didn't need SLI I would certainly consider the Intel boards.
 
Has anybody been experiening there Bios resetting to the defaults? This have happened to me twice so far. I also experienced a single lockup about every month or two.
The system is stable, and the temps are fine. It is prime stable, and has never BSOD on me.

Here are my settings

Intel Conroe C2D e6700 (@ 3.3GHZ)
MSI PN6 Platinum
Corsair 2gb PC6400
eVga 8800GTS


Here are the settings:

Bios 1.3
C1E - disabled
EIST - disabled
D.O.T. - disabled
All Spread Spectrum settings - disabled
Bus speed option - set to Manual

FSB - 333mhz (1333)
CPU Multiplier - 10
Mem Speed - 400mhz (800) v2.1
vCore +.05

I just updated to the Version 1.6 BIOS. In the meantime I'm running the system back at the stock settings.
 
One question: i have the non platinum sli fi motherboard and I can't run my memory overclocked at all when I have my cpu overclocked. I have ocz's 2gb 1066 memory and a q6600. The Q6600 is running at 3 GHz and I want the memory to run at 1066 at 5-5-5-15 but no post. If I lower the memory to 890 it posts but I get a lot of bsods and memory errors. So I am left running the memory at 740 at 5-6-5-16 2T for stability.

Would a more expensive motherboard help me (ie the 780i) or is their something I am missing?

Oh and I have the latest BIOS installed.
thanks


EDIT: increasing northbridge voltages solved my troubles!
 
ZebraCrossing said:
Yes, me too. This weekend I am going to have one last try with my E8400 and P6N Platinum but this time with some new Mushkin memory. If all fails I will go for the 680i or 750i not sure which. There are reports of video playback problems with the 750i and I am still not 100% convinced that the 680i is foolproof with the Wolfdales. I want to stick with DDR2 memory as I have invested $'s in it and eBay value is very poor. If I didn't need SLI I would certainly consider the Intel boards.
Click to expand...



Let us know how it goes!

Speaking of the Intel chipsets...I built another rig the other day strictly for folding & it is based on the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L...Overclocks like a champ! Super stable & no problems what so ever.

I know that this is the end of the road for technology with the P6N if they do not get it stable & working with 45nm chips, which to me is very disappointing...
 
Still no luck and I pumped those voltages as high as I dared. It will not post! So I have written to MSI asking them for a new BIOS chip and a beta of the new BIOS I heard they were working on. I have decided not to RMA my board as they nearly always send a previously returned one and from what I have read in various fforums etc. the condition of these is not so good.
Donovan, if only that Gigabyte was SLI, maybe I should ditch my 2 8800GT's and go for a single faster card. Problem is all of these solutions cost money and if MSI got their act together it shouldn't be necessary. If even ECS, ASRock and many other low cost motherboard manufacturers can do it why can't MSI?
 
ZebraCrossing said:
Still no luck and I pumped those voltages as high as I dared. It will not post! So I have written to MSI asking them for a new BIOS chip and a beta of the new BIOS I heard they were working on. I have decided not to RMA my board as they nearly always send a previously returned one and from what I have read in various fforums etc. the condition of these is not so good.
Donovan, if only that Gigabyte was SLI, maybe I should ditch my 2 8800GT's and go for a single faster card. Problem is all of these solutions cost money and if MSI got their act together it shouldn't be necessary. If even ECS, ASRock and many other low cost motherboard manufacturers can do it why can't MSI?
Click to expand...


I couldn't agree with you more! Although I like this MSI board a lot with the exception of the Wolfdale issues, I don't think I will purchase their Motherboards again. Like you said, if ECS & ASRock amongst others can get it right then there is obviously something up with MSI.
I think I will probably stick with Gigabyte or pay the extra for my old faithful Abit products from here on out... Asus & DFI are just too expensive but I would give them a try as well...
 
I am done with MSI after this.... I have my evga 750I coming in .... no looking to use MSI again for anything in this life time.. and i suggest others do that same
 
I am a long time lurker, and registered just to help others.
I have an MSI 650i Platinum, and bought an E7200 CPU despite everybody's failure to get an E8400 to work. The E7200 did not work, despite hours of swapping in a lesser CPU, and playing with CPU voltages as high as +0.17, and higher voltages elsewhere. The symptom was, the fans would whirl, and the computer felt like it was booting, but there would be zero image to the monitor.
I had an HTPC computer, an EVGA NF77 630i micro ATX board, and the E7200 would boot just fine. But this CPU was just overkill for watching TV and recording programs on the 630i.
I ended up buying a new EVGA 650i motherboard off eBay for $41, hoping to put the new E7200 into it, and hooking up my MSI hard drives to have E7200 speed and pleasure. Well, the EVGA 650i works just fine with the E7200, no issue. but I could not simply hook up the MSI system hard drives and resume where I left off. All I got was BSOD's. Sure, I could have reinstalled Windows XP, and all the applications, but that would be a 2 week chore to get it all right.
So my daughter, who plays games, will get a new EVGA 650i with an Intel E7200 CPU, and I will stick with the MSI 650I with an E4300 clocked at 9.0 x 325 = 2925 MHz.
I will never, ever, buy MSI again, though this board does work without issues. I despise them for advertising some Wolfdale compatibility, and then fail to deliver. Yes, the E7200 is listed under testing, but the faster E7300 is listing as working. I bet they do list the E7200 as OK in the near future.... but do not believe it!
So my advice is, if you want Wolfdale, and are happy with a 650i chipset, buy an EVGA 650i for not too much money, and begin your Wolfdale experience.
 
POPEGOLD said:
moral of the story avoid MSI..... . .
Click to expand...

But then why is the hardocp site recommending msi motherboards?
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3NCw2LCw5MA==
They gave the MSI P7N a silver award.

Had I known MSI support was this poor I never would have bought the P6N board...now I can't upgrade to a wolfdale without swapping the board, which is too time consuming for my life right now.

We need to somehow get the word out to everybody to avoid MSI motherboards due to their poor technical support.
 
yea its pretty bad with your rivals all support WOLFDALES and YORKIES on the 650i and MSI cant .... got my EVGA 750i in the mail
 
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