official MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI thread

Back to discussing the actual board :)...

I tried loading up the 5.0 beta 2 bios which is the one for the Diamond version I believe. The voltage options are a little different with that Bios. The memory now goes up to 3.1V instead of 2.85 and the VCore voltage only goes up to 1.45V instead of 1.55 but the percentage over VID increased from 3.3, 5, and 8.3% to 6, 12, 18% maybe (don't remember right off the top of my head). Well, it still didn't help my voltage problem during POST. Plus, if you have to reset the Bios using the CMOS reset, you will have some NVRaid IDE detect during boot that kept locked up my computer when I booted. I had to reflash to the actual Platinum Bios and then CMOS reset that one to get it working again.

I'm getting fed up with the voltage issues with this board. I don't think it is too much to ask to set the VCore to 1.5V and have the board boot properly. I might RMA this week and try the DFI.
 
yeah...I read over on xtreme that the new bios just changes the percentages...you actually end up not getting any higher voltages....looks like they attempted a "mind trick" to appease some people. "If they see a higher percentage, they'll think they're getting something...".

After reading all the stuff about both boards, I'm seriously leaning towards the DFI Lanparty board (not sure whether or not I want to go SLI or not though).

But I've also read that anything over 1.65v for a Winchester isn't a good idea unless you've got watercooling or something better than air...which I don't plan to watercool yet.

Does the ram voltage actually work though? can you feed 3.1v to the ram? My AI7 will feed 3.25v to the ram and my geil ram seems to like voltage (got them up to 285fsb on an IC7-G with a vdimm mod to 3.2v).
 
1)I'm having trouble using MSI live update. On the left side where my choices of updates should be is blank or just will not update. Any suggestions?

2)Also I was thinking of uninstalling the digicell. I doesn't seem to have any real purpose. Is anyone else using digicell is it worth keeping?

3)It seem I can adjust everything in corecell in the bios. Do you use the core cell or the bios?

4)Last one. ;) Is the any of the other MSI software programs worth picking up. There are several. Are there any that are good?
 
radnads said:
1)I'm having trouble using MSI live update. On the left side where my choices of updates should be is blank or just will not update. Any suggestions?

2)Also I was thinking of uninstalling the digicell. I doesn't seem to have any real purpose. Is anyone else using digicell is it worth keeping?

3)It seem I can adjust everything in corecell in the bios. Do you use the core cell or the bios?

4)Last one. ;) Is the any of the other MSI software programs worth picking up. There are several. Are there any that are good?

I used the live update thing, but there's nothing to update, so I don't think you're missing much. To this day I've never been able to flash a BIOS in Windows. Something always doesn't work right. Nothing that kills the computer, but it just never worked right for me. Others have had good success, so maybe I'm just unlucky :). Digicell is worthless. I usually set things in the BIOS, but I will adjust in Corecell as needed. You can't really adjust the FSB in Corecell with the precision you can in BIOS, so I normally just adjust voltages. I haven't used any of the other MSI software.
 
fbiguy said:
New subject...

Is the RAM timings limited by the motherboard or the stick of ram?


So $45 difference, and 2-2-2-5 vs. 2-3-3-6 CAS latency.

Is it worth it to go the extra $45 and would the motherboard handle either option?

Just make sure they are SINGLE sided :cool:
 
kirbyrj said:
I used the live update thing, but there's nothing to update, so I don't think you're missing much. To this day I've never been able to flash a BIOS in Windows. Something always doesn't work right. .
I've had alot of success with the Asus Live Upates. Havent tried the feature on my Neo4 Plat SLI yet
:confused:
 
giz said:
I've had alot of success with the Asus Live Upates. Havent tried the feature on my Neo4 Plat SLI yet
:confused:

I'm pretty sure the 12/31/04 bios is the current official one out there, so there isn't anything to update.
 
I got my Neo4 plat SLI without DBracket2 and 1394 cables. I contacted tech support through their web page, and they replied....

Dear Customer,

Your request will be process and ship out by UPS Ground and you will receive
an email confirmation once the package has been shipped out.
 
Has anyone fitted XP120 to SLI plat? According to Thermalright support it wouldn't be compatible, don't know why?
 
giz said:
I got my Neo4 plat SLI without DBracket2 and 1394 cables. I contacted tech support through their web page, and they replied....

Dear Customer,

Your request will be process and ship out by UPS Ground and you will receive
an email confirmation once the package has been shipped out.

I got hosed on that one then. I'll have to try that again and keep trying until they give it to me.
 
Are you all having those post-voltage related problems trying to OC the Platinum?...or they're just a few unlucky cases?
 
Well, my stuff should be comming in the mail very soon. New set up is in my sig. First off any tips while installing (this is my first major build) anything special to do or avoid? Which bios are the best? Also how do you get off the back plate because I heard its glued on and in order to use my zalman 7000B alcu I need to remove the stock one. I'm very excited to say the least. Thank you for your time and help!!!
 
Specialist[X] said:
will this board support the thermalright xp-120? if not, big time conflicts?

You really don't need the xp-120. I ordered the xp-90 because of the incompatibility issue. It works great! I have not been over 33C with my 92cm tornado running at only 1775 rpm (out of 4900). Uped the vcore 3.3% and OC'd with corecell (for now) to 2 ghz Anyway, I haven't had a chance to work on the set up yet, I just got it all together this weekend:

Lian Li v1000 case (love it)
AMD 64 3000 winchester
MSI K8N Neo4 plat/sli
120 gig hitachi sata
2x256 corsair ballistix
leadtech 6600gt (sux, have to RMA back to newegg)
Fortron Blue Storm 500w
L90D+ 19" monitor
And a few other goodies like logisys light up keyboard and mx510 mouse


ok - My question - I'm replacing my leadtech 6600gt hopefully with a 6800gt. I want to get one in hopes of a future SLI upgrade. I heard that leadtech's 6800gt only fits on some MB's in SLI configuration. Does anyone know if 2 leadtech 6800gt's will fit in the MSI MB. The 6800gt leadtech has a monster HS.

I upgraded from a Gateway 2000 Pentium II 400mhz processor w/ 128 megs ram, 10 gig hd, and a voodoo3 3000. Wahooooo!
 
Jbace said:
Would you recomend me that PSU?
I highly recomend this PSU...
Ample connections
loomed cables
2x 6 pin pci-e power
4x sata power
10x 4 pin molex
24 pin main connector (with -5, works great with neo4 plat)
24-20 pin adapter (worked great with P4C800)
2x floppy power
Dual fan
Active PFC and 680W!!!

The one downside is that the power cables aren't modular
 
I just got mine setup yesterday.

I just got some newb questions:

I put the ram in DIMM1(green) and DIMM2(purple). Is this correct. The manual is sortof hard to understand on this topic. It shows a table that seems to indicat that you put the two sticks in the same color. Then below it says that you put them in the first 2 banks first, if your only using 2 sticks.

?????



Thanks for any help.
 
BaNaNaS said:
Well, my stuff should be comming in the mail very soon. New set up is in my sig. First off any tips while installing (this is my first major build) anything special to do or avoid? Which bios are the best? Also how do you get off the back plate because I heard its glued on and in order to use my zalman 7000B alcu I need to remove the stock one. I'm very excited to say the least. Thank you for your time and help!!!

Hey. I wouldn't say glued, I'd say more "tacked" I have a 7700 installed and had to swap the backplate too. Remove the hsf mount from the top. You'll see two screw mounts exposed on the top now. I pressed lightly on one of them, and noticed the backplate seperating. It's no biggie...

Another Tip... don't pull that sli card out unless you are going sli. That thing is nasty to put back in :D
 
giz said:
I highly recomend this PSU...
Ample connections
loomed cables
2x 6 pin pci-e power
4x sata power
10x 4 pin molex
24 pin main connector (with -5, works great with neo4 plat)
24-20 pin adapter (worked great with P4C800)
2x floppy power
Dual fan
Active PFC and 680W!!!

The one downside is that the power cables aren't modular


Thx giz, cause I dont trust too much on the TT PSU's, I'd rather like an enermax or an OCZ, but that one is cheaper and has more goodies...
 
computadorka said:
I just got mine setup yesterday.

I just got some newb questions:

I put the ram in DIMM1(green) and DIMM2(purple). Is this correct. The manual is sortof hard to understand on this topic. It shows a table that seems to indicat that you put the two sticks in the same color. Then below it says that you put them in the first 2 banks first, if your only using 2 sticks.

I really can't answer that one. Logically I would assume that you would use the paired colors, however when I did that, it locked my ram at 167 (333). I have double sided Ultra PC4000 ram (yea laugh. I went cheaper there...)

BUT yesterday, I put one in the first green slot and 1 in the first purple, and voila, the bios posted Dual Channel running at 200 FSB. I am now able to overclock.

The manual is terrible!
 
I did a little bit of testing with the voltage/posting issue I was having and maybe this will help some of you other guys having the same issue.

I ended up using the clockgen program available from www.cpuid.com and set it up with the OC specs I wanted to when Windows starts. However, some specs you can't adjust anywhere other than BIOS, so I end up using a combination of the two to get the OC I want.

BIOS:
I set it up with a FSB speed of 235 or so, something low that isn't going to need any extra voltage. VCore I set to 1.35V but then set it +5% over VID. Memory timings/voltage need to be set here also for whatever FSB speed you are going to run in Windows (2.5-3-3-7 in my case). I'm shooting low here so that way it will POST everytime.

ClockGen:
I set it up to run via a config "save.txt" file and have it run at Windows startup. I give it a VCore of 1.45 (max it will let you give it in clockgen), Multi of x9, FSB of 267, and PCIE of 100. See documentation of program for how to do this.

You can adjust the % over VID and VDimm voltage manually using the CoreCenter, but I wanted it to all run right at startup, thus I had to set that in BIOS since you can't adjust it in ClockGen. Memory timings are the same way. This allows me to run the CPU at 2.4 Ghz with about 1.5V VCore Prime95 stable and have it Post/boot everytime. I haven't tried it at higher speeds, but I'd imagine it will go as high as you can take the CPU in ClockGen (mine goes up to about 2.55Ghz at this voltage).

I hope this helps some of you get the kinds of OC's you're looking for with some of the voltage "bugs" this board has (at least that mine has :D ).
 
giz said:
I really can't answer that one. Logically I would assume that you would use the paired colors, however when I did that, it locked my ram at 167 (333). I have double sided Ultra PC4000 ram (yea laugh. I went cheaper there...)

BUT yesterday, I put one in the first green slot and 1 in the first purple, and voila, the bios posted Dual Channel running at 200 FSB. I am now able to overclock.

The manual is terrible!

This was the case with the Neo2 Platinum. Sorry I wasnt able to respond earlyer to your post and tell you slots 1 & 2. But you got it now.
 
kirbyrj said:
I did a little bit of testing with the voltage/posting issue I was having and maybe this will help some of you other guys having the same issue.

I ended up using the clockgen program available from www.cpuid.com and set it up with the OC specs I wanted to when Windows starts. However, some specs you can't adjust anywhere other than BIOS, so I end up using a combination of the two to get the OC I want.

BIOS:
I set it up with a FSB speed of 235 or so, something low that isn't going to need any extra voltage. VCore I set to 1.35V but then set it +5% over VID. Memory timings/voltage need to be set here also for whatever FSB speed you are going to run in Windows (2.5-3-3-7 in my case). I'm shooting low here so that way it will POST everytime.

ClockGen:
I set it up to run via a config "save.txt" file and have it run at Windows startup. I give it a VCore of 1.45 (max it will let you give it in clockgen), Multi of x9, FSB of 267, and PCIE of 100. See documentation of program for how to do this.

You can adjust the % over VID and VDimm voltage manually using the CoreCenter, but I wanted it to all run right at startup, thus I had to set that in BIOS since you can't adjust it in ClockGen. Memory timings are the same way. This allows me to run the CPU at 2.4 Ghz with about 1.5V VCore Prime95 stable and have it Post/boot everytime. I haven't tried it at higher speeds, but I'd imagine it will go as high as you can take the CPU in ClockGen (mine goes up to about 2.55Ghz at this voltage).

I hope this helps some of you get the kinds of OC's you're looking for with some of the voltage "bugs" this board has (at least that mine has :D ).

Clockgen has been around for a while. I have used it to push my FX55 as high as 3.2ghz in windows. They are also the same guys that made CPU-Z. Its a fair way to get a little more but still not enough. The voltage settings still arent high enough yet for my likings. Thus why I have a Ultra D board as well. But if you want to go this route its good. Another program to get to help with memory stuff is A64 tweaker. Its pretty much the same settings as in Bios but can be used in windows much like Clockgen. You can get A64 tweaker Here
 
giz said:
Hey. I wouldn't say glued, I'd say more "tacked" I have a 7700 installed and had to swap the backplate too. Remove the hsf mount from the top. You'll see two screw mounts exposed on the top now. I pressed lightly on one of them, and noticed the backplate seperating. It's no biggie...

Another Tip... don't pull that sli card out unless you are going sli. That thing is nasty to put back in :D


So you are saying basically once you un screw it the back plate comes right off? Thanks! Should be here tomorrow according to "Scheduled Delivery Date 3/3"
 
Im curious to know if the folks that are experiencing the startup issue with this motherboard are using 24pin or 20 pin PSU and what the wattage and amp ratings are. Im using a 20 pin 465watt enermax psu with 33a on the 12v rail.
 
tesfaye said:
Im curious to know if the folks that are experiencing the startup issue with this motherboard are using 24pin or 20 pin PSU and what the wattage and amp ratings are. Im using a 20 pin 465watt enermax psu with 33a on the 12v rail.

I have a OCZ Powerstream 520. 24-pin, 33a on 12v rail. I thought that would fix my problem after coming from a 20-pin with adapter, and it didn't :( .

Captin Insano said:
The voltage settings still arent high enough yet for my likings. Thus why I have a Ultra D board as well.

The voltage for me "seems" to be high enough. I can run my chip at 2.5Ghz prime95 stable (not sure what week it is...been too lazy to rip off the heatsink to look) with 1.55V or so, but my problem is the board won't post when I try to start with that much voltage. The most it will post with is about 1.425V or so. Not sure if that is a board problem or a BIOS one that can be addressed in a later release. That's why I had to go to those measures...I needed the board to post all the time and still give me the Vcore voltage I needed to overclock.

Overall, I like the board. If I find someone who wants to take it off my hands, I might try the DFI SLI-DR but it's never in stock and costs a fortune :eek: :D .
 
I really like this motherboard. Aside from the voltage problem it has yet to give me any problems. If I start seeing a lot of positive reviews about the DFI board I might give it a shot as well. I'm not too excited about rebuilding my pc again.
 
giz said:
I really can't answer that one. Logically I would assume that you would use the paired colors, however when I did that, it locked my ram at 167 (333). I have double sided Ultra PC4000 ram (yea laugh. I went cheaper there...)

BUT yesterday, I put one in the first green slot and 1 in the first purple, and voila, the bios posted Dual Channel running at 200 FSB. I am now able to overclock.

The manual is terrible!

The manual outlines the various memory configurations. The ones you mention are in there.
 
BaNaNaS said:
So you are saying basically once you un screw it the back plate comes right off? Thanks! Should be here tomorrow according to "Scheduled Delivery Date 3/3"


NOT ALWAYS is it that easy. I would recomend that after removing the screws and the plastic hold down for the CPU to use a hair dryer and heat the metal backplate up. The heat will not hurt the mobo but it will make the adhesive become soft so its easyer to push off. BETTER SAFE THEN BROKEN PARTS!!!!!!!!!!!
 
tesfaye said:
The manual outlines the various memory configurations. The ones you mention are in there.

Ya you're right, Page 2-8 says to refer to the chart on the previous page. Unfortunatly the the chart is on the same page...
 
computadorka said:
I just got mine setup yesterday.

I just got some newb questions:

I put the ram in DIMM1(green) and DIMM2(purple). Is this correct. The manual is sortof hard to understand on this topic. It shows a table that seems to indicat that you put the two sticks in the same color. Then below it says that you put them in the first 2 banks first, if your only using 2 sticks.

?????



Thanks for any help.


yes dude that bullshit fucked me up also, and it turned out i was running in single channel, put them in DIMM slots 1 + 2 for dual channel

i was having problems with games crashing and a low 3dmark scores then i realized i was in single channel mode buy looking at CPU-Z
 
I was talking with someone who has the DFI board and he has the same voltage posting issue that some of us have been having with the MSI boards. Although, his is a little worse. He can't adjust the VDimms or chipset voltage and have it post all the time. So I guess I'll just stick it out with MSI.
 
kirbyrj said:
I was talking with someone who has the DFI board and he has the same voltage posting issue that some of us have been having with the MSI boards. Although, his is a little worse. He can't adjust the VDimms or chipset voltage and have it post all the time. So I guess I'll just stick it out with MSI.


The main reason for this problem is not the Mobo being the cause. Its either your cpu topping out or its at the max it can handle with the cooling it has at the moment and thats why it does this. I have the DFI and Let me tell you voltage options are way more superior then the MSI and day of the week. Its kinda a pain in the ass to use the jumpers to get the settings of Vcore and Vdimm that you want and I think it should all be done in the bios but they do have more then the MSI does at this time. The MSI is unfortunatly regulated and cant even be volt modded to bypass the problem. The DFI can reach Vcore of 2.17 and Vdimm of 3.9. Much more then any board out there unmoded will do. Now I will say I like thoes functions on my DFI board but man its but ugly. The DFI was made with the extreme to mid Overclocker in mind as well as the blind.

Cpt I
 
Alright - I have had this board for almost a week now. Of course I didn't get the d-bracket with it, but I plan on calling MSI about that to see if they'll ship one out to me since I expected it ( I didn't really, but it mentions it on the box so hey, why not).

The CoreCenter is only OK. I cannot choose the "auto" option since it is no where to be found. I still can't figure that one out.

I cannot get my memory to clock over 215 stable. I've lowered the multiplier and HT. I've tried increasing the voltage to 2.75. I've relaxed the settings. Do I have crappy memory? Is it possible I have an incompatible pair? BTW - the sticks would not load windows in slots 1&2, but load fine in 3&4. I'm thinking about shipping it back out to Crucial and getting some OCZ. Is it my PSU? I thought I had a good one of those too.

My rig:
Athlon64 3000 winnie cooled w/ XP-90 and 92cm tornado
MSI Neo4 sli plat
Crucial Ballistix 4000
Fortron Blue Storm 500w
all in the lian-li v1000

and some other stuff. I'll need to add it to my sig, but regardless - I've followed the simplified OC guide too. If the memory is rated at 4000 and can reach only 215 fsb, is it the memory that needs to go? I just purchased the pieces to my rig a week ago . . .
 
got mine installed with no problems running great right now!!!!! one question, when i boot it says "floppy failed" and i don't have a floppy installed. I also have floppy disabled from boot order. Anyone know where its at to turn off, and how do i turn off the screen that comes up after post that says press blah blah to load raid?! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'm so happy! lol
 
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