official MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI thread

[Lowbatt]

How accurate are the temps with this board? I run with the stock cooler at 2.4ghz (9x267) with 1.5V and the temps with Prime95 get to 40C. My system temp is around 31C. Is the board running hotter than this or is this temp accurate?

Well one thing you have to note is that in runing the stealth fan it is 1700 rpm. So it's quiet and thats why I like it. Plus with that low of airflow it's cool. So if you had a higher speed fan it would be better im sure. I know the stock cooler probaly has a higher airflow rate.

 

[Teukka76]

Has anyone taken the NB cooler away and checked the cipset? On one review I saw about MSI K8N NF4 Ultra (non SLI) they found out that it actually used nForce Pro 2200 chipset instead of NF4 ultra:

Basicly it has all the same specks.

 

[Teukka76]

OK I checked chipset on my MB and its NF4SLI A3.

But I found something else intresting from back of the mobo, anyone else has this kind of jumpwire:

 

[LittleMe]

Can't let everybody else post their pics. Here's mine, replaced the a8n-sli with this. Love this thing more than the a8n.

Ok, now a question. I'm running my ram at 2-2-2-5 1t. I'm guessing I really shouldn't worry about it since the ram is rated for it but just checking. Oh, and really no problems with my 300gb maxtor drives. I'm still on 1.0 and booting off a 1.2TB raid only problem is I have to cold reboot otherwise the drives get dropped. Going to upgrade to 1.1 soon and if that doesn't fix it move up to a beta.

 

[sauria]

Has anyone taken the NB cooler away and checked the cipset? On one review I saw about MSI K8N NF4 Ultra (non SLI) they found out that it actually used nForce Pro 2200 chipset instead of NF4 ultra:

Basicly it has all the same specks.

Is this photo of your board's chip?

 

[Teukka76]

no, that's from a review about K8N Neo4 Ultra (non SLI).

 

[sauria]

Ok, thank you

 

[sauria]

In Europe you can get both diamond and platinium, diamond is more expensive and equipped with more accessories.

Have you got a link to both products in Europe?

thanks!

 

[sauria]

This is really odd. I just got what I thought was my K8N NEO4/SLI delivered on Friday, but in looking over the board there seems to be something odd about it. In the pictures above where the motherboard name is silkscreened onto the PCB itself mine says K8N Diamond with a N1996 above it. Everything on the packaging says K8N NEO4/SLI as does the manual and everything.

What gives?

I just got a Diamond Board in a Box that says K8N Neo4 Platinum /SLI (601-7100-020), I'm in the USA.

MSI Taiwan has different BIOS on their site for each board and I can't find the Diamond on th US site.

 

[Ravenrex]

I just got a Diamond Board in a Box that says K8N Neo4 Platinum /SLI (601-7100-020), I'm in the USA.

MSI Taiwan has different BIOS on their site for each board and I can't find the Diamond on th US site.

Does this mean we have to look for a different BIOS then for these boards?

 

[Dan7816]

hey guys I got a ram timings question, I just built a new system with an athlon64 3200+ winchester, this board, and 2x512 corsair xms pc3200 (twinx1024-3200c2pt, 2-3-3-6). When I put the 2 sticks in the first 2 dimms, on the dram settings menu (when in the cell menu aggressive timings were enabled, and high perfomance was also enabled) it listed the cas# as 3 and the other timings didn't look right when on auto so I put the timings in manual mode and set them to 2-3-3-6. This is how I have it set now:

this my dram timings page:
http://home.comcast.net/~dan474/pics/IMG_6391sm.JPG

did I set them right?

 

[Arvig]

Hello,

I already have this board, and love it. One question though, does anyone have any suggestions for aftermarket aircooled GPU coolers for two 6800GT's in (obviously) SLI mode? Just looking at it, I'd say that Arctic Cooling NV5's wouldn't fit between the primary & secondary card. I know someone who has two stock 6800 ultra heatsinks, so I may just put those on my GT, that (I'd assume) would be slightly better then the stock 6800GT heatsinks, but I was hoping that someone else had tried some other heatsinks on them.

 

[DlStreamnet]

Hey guys, sorry I would read all this great content but really I don't have the time.

Can someone tell me what is a really good (under $60) heatsink for this motherboard? It's going on my Amd 64 3000+, i want it really cool yet really quiet but under that budget. Also what kind of case fans will I need?

 

[Arvig]

Hey guys, sorry I would read all this great content but really I don't have the time.

Can someone tell me what is a really good (under $60) heatsink for this motherboard? It's going on my Amd 64 3000+, i want it really cool yet really quiet but under that budget. Also what kind of case fans will I need?

For roughly $40.00, you can get a Thermalright XP-90. They don't come with a fan, so you'll have to get a fan, but takes a 90/92mm fan so it will be a bit quieter then a 80mm, and there's a lot of decent $10.00 fans that would work on it. Thermaltake Smart Fan II wouldn't be bad on it really, they usually come with a little control knob that one can hook up to the back of the case in an empty PCI slot to dial in the speed manually. Or get something like the medium speed Panaflo 90mm fan for a good mix between cooling and sound volume.

Bit cheaper, the Thermaltake Venus 12 is a nice basic unit, and it's fan can be controlled like most of the Thermaltake fans. Yes, Thermaltake cases are (usually) kind of ugly, but most of their heatsink designs are okay...although they do have some oddballs out there too for heatsinks.


Here's a good store for the Thermalright XP-90:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/thxpforforin.html

The Thermaltake Venus 12 is pretty common, just about anyplace will carry it for about the same price. Newegg probably has the Thermalright for that matter, but I haven't looked to see what they charge for it.

 

[Dan7816]

Hey guys, sorry I would read all this great content but really I don't have the time.

Can someone tell me what is a really good (under $60) heatsink for this motherboard? It's going on my Amd 64 3000+, i want it really cool yet really quiet but under that budget. Also what kind of case fans will I need?

I'm running a thermalright xp-90 with a 92mm panaflo h1a, cpu idles at 30C, and so far is up to 35C while running prime95. I would definitely recommend the xp-90, it cost me $50 from newegg I believe.

edit: i have a 3200+

 

[LittleMe]

hey guys I got a ram timings question, I just built a new system with an athlon64 3200+ winchester, this board, and 2x512 corsair xms pc3200 (twinx1024-3200c2pt, 2-3-3-6). When I put the 2 sticks in the first 2 dimms, on the dram settings menu (when in the cell menu aggressive timings were enabled, and high perfomance was also enabled) it listed the cas# as 3 and the other timings didn't look right when on auto so I put the timings in manual mode and set them to 2-3-3-6. This is how I have it set now:

this my dram timings page:
http://home.comcast.net/~dan474/pics/IMG_6391sm.JPG

did I set them right?

Go back into DRAM Configuration and select manul under User Config mode and set your 1T/2T timing to 1T and not 2T

 

[DlStreamnet]

Thanks guys, thing is i'm in UK and i was just making my budget easier on you lot as most of you are from US. The Xp-90 is $60 here. I will probably go for that.

www.overclockers.co.uk

I was asking here because I was scared that they wouldnt fit and buying them offline would be a bitch to send back.

I will order an XP-90 on monday

 

[nst6563]

Thanks guys, thing is i'm in UK and i was just making my budget easier on you lot as most of you are from US. The Xp-90 is $60 here. I will probably go for that.

www.overclockers.co.uk

I was asking here because I was scared that they wouldnt fit and buying them offline would be a bitch to send back.

I will order an XP-90 on monday

not sure if these guys ship worldwide...but they had the XP-90 for $39 - $10 instant rebate. "An XP-90 for $29!?!" I said!! I jumped on that deal quick. Already shipped out. Not sure if the $10 is still good, you had to use a promo-code of XP-90, but it's still cheaper than $60 as long as the exchange rate doesn't rape you.

:EDIT: oops, it would help if I provided the link huh?
http://www.svc.com/xp-90-21.html

 

[Dan7816]

Go back into DRAM Configuration and select manul under User Config mode and set your 1T/2T timing to 1T and not 2T

should I set the timing mode back to auto also or leave it where it is now?

edit: fuck it wont boot after i did that

edit2: after removing the second dimm and clearing the cmos i'm back at 2-3-3-6 with 2t
i think i'll keep it here, prime95 went 1hr 15mins stable before i restarted to change those settings, i'll let it run again for a while

 

[DlStreamnet]

What ram should I look at guys? I originally wanted some Xms ram but it doesn't seem worth it.

I want atleast 1gb under $180 (£90) that'll perform good for gaming mainly.

 

[Arvig]

What ram should I look at guys? I originally wanted some Xms ram but it doesn't seem worth it.

I want atleast 1gb under $180 (£90) that'll perform good for gaming mainly.

Don't know if it's sold in England, but I've seen some good reviews for a brand called PDP/Patriot memory, sounds like a pretty new brand that's so far underrated.

Here's a review from a site based in the UK, so I'd assume it can be found there. Didn't read the review, so don't know if he mentions price or plugs any resellers:

http://www.techniz.co.uk/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=156

Seen sligtly relaxed latencies of the same memory in a 1 gb kit (2 x 512mb), running at 2-3-2-5, 1t DDR 400 for well under $180.00 USD at a couple USA resellers, if that helps any for a possible price comparsion. The stuff at 2-2-2-5, 1t is over $180.00 by a fair amount though, if memory serves.


Otherwise, just the usual stuff, I actually like the Corsair XMS XL Pro PC 3200 on mine, and a lot of people like OCZ on this board from what I've seen.

 

[kirbyrj]

PDP/Patriot XBL I think runs Samsung TCCD chips. They might not reach the OCZ Plat Rev. 2 levels, but should run 2-2-2 @200mhz.

 

[CMAN]

What ram should I look at guys? I originally wanted some Xms ram but it doesn't seem worth it.

I want atleast 1gb under $180 (£90) that'll perform good for gaming mainly.

I am using some Corsair XMS 4400C25 in mine. I have had it at 580 with 2.5,3,3,8 1T. right now i'm seeing what it will do at cas 2,it is at 460 at 2.0,2,2,8,1T and stll working it up a little at the time. These are 2- 512 dimms. Execellant memory.

 

[DlStreamnet]

I have ordered some Corsair Xms Pc3200 ram for it, is this decent? Would I be better going with say OCZ or patriot? (it's $180 for just 512mb xms).

 

[tesfaye]

I am using some Corsair XMS 4400C25 in mine. I have had it at 580 with 2.5,3,3,8 1T. right now i'm seeing what it will do at cas 2,it is at 460 at 2.0,2,2,8,1T and stll working it up a little at the time. These are 2- 512 dimms. Execellant memory.

With the relaxed timings at 290mhz how did it compare in benchmarks and gameplay to the tight timings at 230mhz. I found that the relaxed timings really hurt system performace overall. I checked to see how far the chip and motherboard would go then I stuck with the fastest it would run at 2-2-2-6 2T. I have tried 1T but this memory doesn't seem to like it. I have 1gig of XMS Pro memory that will run at 1T but it wont take the overclock on top of the fact that it benchmarked lower than the mushkin memory at any similar speed. I'm still not sure if I should spend the money on the kind of memory that you are using. How long can you run prime95 at 430mhz 2-2-2-8 1T? What kind of voltage do you need for that speed?

 

[kirbyrj]

New Bios is available (3.1). I just flashed to it and it worked . There are some different voltage options with the % over VID. Didn't look around too much. Maybe it will address the voltage issues with Winchester CPU's *Fingers Crossed*.

 

[sauria]

Does this mean we have to look for a different BIOS then for these boards?

I am starting to believe it is the same board. I was worried about it not because of support pages listing different BIOS. I noticed last night that mine actually shipped from the factory with the "US" K8N Neo4 Platinum /SLI v3.0 BIOS on my K8N Diamond board. There is also a naming issue to confude things more:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1483367&enterthread=y

These Threads may interest you:
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=72726.0
http://www.rhcf.com/sis-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/21/155.html?#000005

I'm testing my Newcastle now and priming at 300 fsb 1:1 with GSkill LA 2 x 256M so it flies! That's with two MSI 6600 GT's in SLI mode!

With New Bios (3.1)

 

[meelk]

hey everyone just got some pics of my system with THE motherboard here

The cable running between your audigy and your cd/dvd drive is useless in 95% of cases while running winXP.

 

[Ravenrex]

One other thing I wonder is that my manual is printed as a manual for a Neo4 Platinum, not a Diamond board. Although the layout looks similar I wonder if there aren't certain specific differences between the Platinum and the Diamond boards that having the wrong manual is to my detriment here.

 

[sauria]

One other thing I wonder is that my manual is printed as a manual for a Neo4 Platinum, not a Diamond board. Although the layout looks similar I wonder if there aren't certain specific differences between the Platinum and the Diamond boards that having the wrong manual is to my detriment here.

Does your Diamond board have a Neo4 Platinum /SLI v3.0 BIOS?

I have read that Diamonds may be performing better!
http://www.rhcf.com/sisubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/21/70/5.html#000060
Yet, I think it is the same board

 

[Ravenrex]

Does your Diamond board have a Neo4 Platinum /SLI v3.0 BIOS?

I have read that Diamonds may be performing better!
http://www.rhcf.com/sisubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/21/70/5.html#000060
Yet, I think it is the same board

Er, I'll let you know in a few days, I haven't assembled it yet. I have the mobo, processor, video card and HSF, but the power supply is still coming in the mail. I ordered a PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool® 510 SLI (510W) ATX-Deluxe Sleeved Power Supply and it's still shipping. The rest of the beast will be coming from scavenging my old PC, RAM hard drives and optical drives. I'll let you know after Thrusday what I find out.

It's annoying having so much of the machine but not being able to assemble it without the PSU.

 

[DlStreamnet]

/edit nvm i found out that 1 red light ment it wanted a floppy drive

 

[kirbyrj]

Hey guys, I assembled my pc yesterday and the USB that plugs into the board with the 4 debugging lights on has 3 green on and 1 red, i looked it up in the manual and it says their is a memory problem of some sort.

Now can I fix that problem in bios (i dont have a graphics card for the monitor until tomorrow) or is there an actual problem with the ram i'm using (corsair xms). If i put it in a different DIMM slot would that make any difference?

If you can get in your bios, I'd set the memory timings fairly loosely and run memtest86. If you can get to the bios, you can probably run memtest86. See if you get errors.

 

[sauria]

Er, I'll let you know in a few days, I haven't assembled it yet. I have the mobo, processor, video card and HSF, but the power supply is still coming in the mail. I ordered a PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool® 510 SLI (510W) ATX-Deluxe Sleeved Power Supply and it's still shipping. The rest of the beast will be coming from scavenging my old PC, RAM hard drives and optical drives. I'll let you know after Thrusday what I find out.

It's annoying having so much of the machine but not being able to assemble it without the PSU.

Great, I have the same power supply and it has the most stable rails that I have ever tested.
More stable than my OCZ 600W adj.

 

[lazarus0]

do you guys think my enermax 431 psu can run a neo4 sli?


and have they released a bios to fix the 219 FSB wall with the WINNIE proc?

 

[Lowbatt]

snip
and have they released a bios to fix the 219 FSB wall with the WINNIE proc?

it's not 219 it seems to be somewhat random for most people and really you can get much higher using clockgen inside of windows. But no the latest bios fix didn't do squat for my posting problems when settings the FSB too high.

 

[kirbyrj]

do you guys think my enermax 431 psu can run a neo4 sli?


and have they released a bios to fix the 219 FSB wall with the WINNIE proc?

Is your memory set to "Aggressive"? That will cause lower overclocks. I can get my winnie up to 280+

 

[lt_wentoncha]

***ATTENTION MAXTOR SATA hard drive owners!***

If you try to fire the board up with a 300 GB Maxtor drive, the thing probably ain't gonna boot. I encountered this with my Maxline III. For those with a 300 GB Maxtor, unplug the drive, and set the BIOS to halt on no errors as a temporary fix (I dunno if this could damage your system or not, so do at your own risk. I did that for a few days... you will have to redo it every time you do a cold boot though...)

I'm also going to try to update the firmware for my HD through Maxtor. Maxtor said some of their drives don't play well with the Silicon Image SATA controller, so that's another avenue for users with POST failures to explore.
I'm now running a beta BIOS version with a fix for it, but God knows how long it will be before the official release comes out (I'm actually running the Neo 4 "Diamond" SLI BIOS beta for my Platinum... )
After I did the BIOS update, I could boot with my SATA drive attached with halt on all errors turned on.

Now a question:
Can I run my 2x512 MB Crucial Ballistix DDR400 RAM at 1T timings SAFELY on this board? what are the ideal times to run my RAM at (without them vaporizing?) 2-2-2-10 (I heard that AMD64s run better at 10 over 5... that true?)

So anyone know if Maxtor or MSI have released firmware or BIOS updates for those respective products?

Thanks.

 

[2disturbed]

i found the timming for my kingston ddr 400, for instance 2-2-2-3 but when I was looking at the bios I was unsure on where to change it?what does each number represent? also how much can I increase the cpu voltage with stock cooling and be safe.

 

[kirbyrj]

i found the timming for my kingston ddr 400, for instance 2-2-2-3 but when I was looking at the bios I was unsure on where to change it?what does each number represent? also how much can I increase the cpu voltage with stock cooling and be safe.

I don't know how far you should push the voltage with stock cooling, but I run 1.525-1.55V with stock cooling and don't get over 38-40C under load.