Post your MSI Neo2 Platinum results here

B

Bop

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 1, 2003
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We all know the board is shipping, I should be getting mine in tomorrow.

Whether you keep your Athlon64 S939 stock or overclock post your results, like what OC you are able to get with it Prime95 stable or if your system works fine stock with 0% issues.
 
Mine arrives monday, will update then! Cant wait for it to arrive :)
 
Mine should be here next week with my 3500+, so I'll post then, too.

Btw also just ordered the Gainward 6800GT that became available about 5 min ago on zipzoom :D
 
ehZn said:
Mine should be here next week with my 3500+, so I'll post then, too.

Btw also just ordered the Gainward 6800GT that became available about 5 min ago on zipzoom :D
Click to expand...


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YAY! Ill post some oc results also!!!
 
I think I'm going to lose some sleep tonight, I got the K8N Neo2 Plat coming in tomorrow along with a bunch of other new stuff:)

I'm getting my OCZ DDR Booster on Friday so I can set my BH-5 to 3.2-3.4v and really see how high this board goes. Anandtech got their FSB at a 1:1 ratio all the way up to 290mhz stable with this board!(9x290)

If I get at least 10x250mhz(1:1) with 2.5-3-3-10 my pants will explode :eek:
 
Well, I can say this much about the Gigabyte nforce3 939 board...

With my 3800+, I can't really overclock *AT ALL* without Prime95 crashing in under 30 mins. I can't even turn on that "Maximum Performance" bios option without it crashing either (even at stock speeds).

But when everything is left@stock otherwise, it runs forever.

took a few benches, not a whole lot... really waiting on the msi board. http://www.weckstrom.com/perf
 
KarmaPolice said:
How much did the 6800 cost ya?

Am i lame for doing the Evga 6800GT?
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$499 (PNY preorder).

And no, you're not lame. I have yet to see a GT that didn't clock to 400/1100 without any issues, and at that speed you're within 2 or 3 fps of an ultra. I've OC'd the Ultra to 440/1200, and it increased my 3dmark score by a whopping 200 points, and my Doom3 bench by 1-3fps all around, except at 1600x1200 where the difference was 1fps.

They got the GT right for sure. The ultra, eh, they could have done better..
 
Ice Nine said:
$499 (PNY preorder).

And no, you're not lame. I have yet to see a GT that didn't clock to 400/1100 without any issues, and at that speed you're within 2 or 3 fps of an ultra. I've OC'd the Ultra to 440/1200, and it increased my 3dmark score by a whopping 200 points, and my Doom3 bench by 1-3fps all around, except at 1600x1200 where the difference was 1fps.

They got the GT right for sure. The ultra, eh, they could have done better..
Click to expand...

But i mean they have a 6800GT that looks awesome..is it anyh better other then that?
 
I'm a little confused about the memory slots with the Neo2 Plat.

For dual channel do I place the memory in slots 1&3 or 1&2? The manual says slots 1 and 3 are channel A and slots 2 and 4 are channel B.
 
KarmaPolice said:
But i mean they have a 6800GT that looks awesome..is it anyh better other then that?
Click to expand...

I don't think any of these cards are better than another, but that's a discussion for another thread :)
 
Bop said:
I'm a little confused about the memory slots with the Neo2 Plat.

For dual channel do I place the memory in slots 1&3 or 1&2? The manual says slots 1 and 3 are channel A and slots 2 and 4 are channel B.
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you need 1&2 or 3&4 or 1&2&3&4 for dual channel memory to work. That was the way it looked to me in the downloaded manual anyways.
 
I saw a pic at Anandtech and it looked like the memory is in slots 1&3, I hope is 1&2 or else my OCZ DDR booster might not fit.
 
channel A is slots 1 and 3, so to me that means if you put the ram in those slots it would be single channel ie A. The diagram clearing states you only get dual channel with memory in slots 1 and 2, or 3 and 4 or all the slots filled.
 
Thanks, I get it now. I was reading the manual wrong too lol, I just noticed the two 128~1GB boxes under DIMM 1 and DIMM 2 were to signify the memory in those slots.
 
My K8N Neo2 results so far:

- Passed 22 hours Prime95
- Passed (so far) 5+ hours of 3DMark03
- Next up: storage system torture test

No hiccups or problems except that it wouldn't recognize the first 2 PS/2 keyboards I tried. Luckily I have a selection of keyboards. The one that worked was the classic Fujitsu FKB4726 buckling-spring IBM-feel keyboard. The 2 that didn't work were both Dell logo'd but made by completely different subcontractors. I'd go so far as to say that the Neo2 has some PS/2 keyboard issues, but that's a minor problem unless it won't work with the keyboard you're in love with.

The nVidia driver set that came on the bundled CD was newer than any available from nVidia's site (that's a new one, usually I never use anything off of the bundled CD).

The nVidia system info tool doesn't fully function on the nForce3, it shows temps but no voltages.

It doesn't look like nVidia has released the software component of their firewall?

There was a 1.1 BIOS available from MSI that I flashed before any testing.

I'll have to repeat some of the tests once the real memory I'm going to use arrives FedEx tomorrow (I had no idea I'd get the board this early, I was expecting the 27th). When I put the Neo2 in my main system, I can't use the RAM I'm using now, since I have 4 DIMMs of 512 Mushkin and the nForce3 will only do 333 with 4 DIMMs. I have 2 1GB DIMMs of Kingston HyperX on the way.

The system wouldn't POST without a fan speed monitoring fan connected to the CPU fan header. I can't find any option in the BIOS to disable CPU fan monitoring, so for the time being, the Zalman fan is connected to the mainboard instead of my fan speed controller.

I am not going to overclock at all until I establish that everything is 100% stable at stock speeds.

Test configuration:

Athlon FX-53
Zalman 7000 cooler
2x512MB Corsair PC3500 (for some reason the BIOS defaulted to 166 so I manually set it to 200)
Antec True 480 PS
Hitachi 7K250 PATA HD
Lite-On DVD+-RW
ATI X800 Pro with VGA Silencer (passing 3DMark03 at low speed)

I should note that I have legacy serial, parallel & floppy disabled in the BIOS (as on all of my systems since I have no use for them).

KC
 
KCComp said:
The system wouldn't POST without a fan speed monitoring fan connected to the CPU fan header. I can't find any option in the BIOS to disable CPU fan monitoring, so for the time being, the Zalman fan is connected to the mainboard instead of my fan speed controller.
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hmm...I made a post about this the other day because I wasn't sure :\
Will the cpu fan header be able to handle a 120mm Panaflo L1A?
 
When I put the Neo2 in my main system, I can't use the RAM I'm using now, since I have 4 DIMMs of 512 Mushkin and the nForce3 will only do 333 with 4 DIMMs.
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Crap!! I totally forgot about this. Right now I'm using 4x256 of CorsairXMS pc3500, but I didn't buy new memory, planning on transferring what I had straight to the new system. Now it looks like I'm gonna have to shell out some major bucks for a pair of 512 CorsairXMS pc3500...anyone wanna buy the other sticks? :D
 
KCComp said:
My K8N Neo2 results so far:

Zalman 7000 cooler
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Sweet! My 7000CU didn't fit on this Gigabyte NF3 939 board. Any install issues fitting it on the MSI? Mine arrives tomorrow.

Even at full blast, that 7000CU is practically inaudible.
 
this sucks...

I'm seriously going to miss my board by hours and have to wait until Monday night to go get it(2 hour drive*)

I preshipped all my stuff to my aunt and uncles.

Everything got there except the board


Go figure.
 
OK all is not perfect in K8N Neo2 land.

The board failed 3DMark03 after about 7 hours, WCA (Windows Crash Analysis online) identified the stop error as a CPU failure.

I decided to try City of Heroes and I had a lockup within 20 minutes. I tried again and wasn't able to duplicate the problem in about 2 hours' play.

This does not bode well.

Since it's already passed Prime95 and there's nothing to change to see if I can get 3DMark03 to run overnight (RAM is already at relaxed timings), I decided to run the Windows Memory Diagnostic overnight instead. [EDIT] no, I decided to run 3DMark03 again to see if I can duplicate the bluescreen.

2 instances of flakiness are 2 more than I had with the Abit AV8 previously in this same test rig. However, the VIA chipset is very technologically inferior (PCI gigabit, PCI SATA 3&4) so I'd rather run the Neo2... but my confidence is slipping.

KC
 
Mine arrives today. :D

KCComp: What are the RAM timings? Those Mushkin L2's are BH5 based, right? I think I read that the A64/NF3 combo doesn't always like BH5 sticks. How about temps? (do the temps even seem right?)


Tom
 
Are you running those 4 x 256 mushkins at 400FSB? I read somewhere that with 4 slots filled you can only get 333 speeds. Maybe thats the source of your instability?

*hugs* his 2 x 512mb PC3500 level 2* :D
 
If you are OCing at all you must set the AGP speed to 67mhz in the BIOS or else the PCI lock won't engage.

Well looks like I will be RMAing my K8N Neo2, it fails Prime95 after 1 minute with my 2x512MB sticks and fails after 2 hours with my 2x256MB sticks.

My ABIT AV8 ran my CPU at 2500mhz(10x250) at a 5:6 ratio with the memory with 2-2-2-10 timings and I ran Prime95 and it didn't crash after a minute. However I only ran Prime95 for 11 minutes on that system but it shows that it didn't have a Prime failure with my current memory/CPU after a few seconds.

Looks like MSI can never get good QC.
 
Bop said:
If you are OCing at all you must set the AGP speed to 67mhz in the BIOS or else the PCI lock won't engage.

Well looks like I will be RMAing my K8N Neo2, it fails Prime95 after 1 minute with my 2x512MB sticks and fails after 2 hours with my 2x256MB sticks.

My ABIT AV8 ran my CPU at 2500mhz(10x250) at a 5:6 ratio with the memory with 2-2-2-10 timings and I ran Prime95 and it didn't crash after a minute. However I only ran Prime95 for 11 minutes on that system but it shows that it didn't have a Prime failure with my current memory/CPU after a few seconds.

Looks like MSI can never get good QC.
Click to expand...

Not good. I know it sounds ridiculous, but maybe it's the BH5's? Do you have any other RAM to test with?


T
 
trinketsummoner said:
Are you running those 4 x 256 mushkins at 400FSB? I read somewhere that with 4 slots filled you can only get 333 speeds. Maybe thats the source of your instability?

*hugs* his 2 x 512mb PC3500 level 2* :D
Click to expand...

Can anyone actually verify this? I found a review that said running 4 DIMMS will stress the system a little more, but apart from having to run at a 2T command rate, there should be no other performances differences.

I currently have 4x256 CorsairXMS pc3500 that cost me almost $400 more thana year ago and would rather not shell out another $300 to buy 2x512 :rolleyes:
 
I'm gonna potentially get some flameage here, but I'm gonna come out and say it. I bought the K8N Neo despite all the crap I had read about it because it had gotten such awesome professional reviews as well as reviews from other lesser websites. I also could tell by reading a lot in forums, that people that had trouble generally missed a step or two, didn't read the manual, didn't do their homework, etc. You guys with problems, are you sure you have crossed your T's and dotted your I's? We've all troubleshot something for hours only to realize it was something stupid or something we just didn't know before. Before you just shove it in a box, maybe post what you find here and lets all attack it. I have a friend that sends hardware back all day and night, and its not because its bad... Please don't be offended, I've just seen SO many people knock the K8N Neo for the wrong reasons or their own inexperience, and then try to pursuade others of the same... An example would be many read that you can lock the AGP/PCI, but they didn't know you have to set the AGP to 67 to do it. Many said you can't run all DIMM slots filled and do DDR400 when in fact you can (I am on the Neo that is, I don't know about the Neo2). And heres a link to the memory question... http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2128&p=11. Looks like DDR400 with all slots filled is possible, just with the right latency timing (just like my Neo).
 
Hemi, you're reading my sig which you'll notice is my existing P4 system. The Neo2 is running 2 Corsair PC3500.

It ran 3DMark03 from 1AM to 11AM (10 hours) without a hitch.

My friendly FedEx guy just arrived with the real RAM I'll be using (2x Kingston HyperX 1G, part # KHX3200K2/2G) so I'm going to swap RAM right now and start back up with Prime95 again.

I notice that 3.3V reads low (MSI CoreCenter reports 3.10), and the problem is with the motherboard regulation, since the PS is an Antec True 480 that's been my test-bench PS for a year and is rock-solid.

On a side note, I'm really surprised this thing runs stable with an ATI video card, since the Neo2 is an nVidia chipset... especially considering that some systems without a manufacturer bias have trouble with ATI lately, namely AMD 8111 dual Opteron. The real video card I'll be running is the 6800U in my sig, though.

KC
 
KCComp said:
Hemi, you're reading my sig which you'll notice is my existing P4 system. The Neo2 is running 2 Corsair PC3500.

It ran 3DMark03 from 1AM to 11AM (10 hours) without a hitch.

My friendly FedEx guy just arrived with the real RAM I'll be using (2x Kingston HyperX 1G, part # KHX3200K2/2G) so I'm going to swap RAM right now and start back up with Prime95 again.

I notice that 3.3V reads low (MSI CoreCenter reports 3.10), and the problem is with the motherboard regulation, since the PS is an Antec True 480 that's been my test-bench PS for a year and is rock-solid.

On a side note, I'm really surprised this thing runs stable with an ATI video card, since the Neo2 is an nVidia chipset... especially considering that some systems without a manufacturer bias have trouble with ATI lately, namely AMD 8111 dual Opteron. The real video card I'll be running is the 6800U in my sig, though.

KC
Click to expand...

Don't get mad (though if you do its cool) but this would be an example. ATI cards won't be unstable just because they are in an nvidia chipset motherboard, and your voltage will be throttled by your processor due to Cool n Quiet (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9485_9487^10272,00.html) Mine goes below voltage regularly but ramps right back up when I start using the system. I've had no issues. Now if you don't have Cool n Quiet enabled, that might be a different story... I don't know if it will do it regardless or not...
 
An example would be many read that you can lock the AGP/PCI, but they didn't know you have to set the AGP to 67 to do it. Many said you can't run all DIMM slots filled and do DDR400 when in fact you can (I am on the Neo that is, I don't know about the Neo2). And heres a link to the memory question... http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2128&p=11. Looks like DDR400 with all slots filled is possible, just with the right latency timing (just like my Neo).
Click to expand...

Thank you. That is very helpful. I'm hoping that the timings will auto set correctly and all I will have to do is set the command rate to 2T to avoid problems. I will also make sure I correctly set the agp to 67 for the lock, even though I don't see myself overclocking right away until I am dead sure everything is stable.

My Neo2, 3500+, 36gb raptor, enermax 480W psu, new dvd and dvd-rw, extra 200gb storage HD (bringing the grand total to 5 HD's), and hauppage pvr-250mce will be here monday, with my gainward 6800GT following shortly. Hopefully by the end of next week I'll have it all up and running and be able to put some info up on the thread.
 
The 3.3v showing 3.1v is definitely a board regulation problem.

Despite my confidence in my test bench Antec True 480, I swapped in just about the best power supply in the world for verification -- an A+GPB 550 EPS12V (I use them in dual Xeon builds but they come with a 24-to-20-pin adapter).

3.3v is still showing 3.1v. It doesn't seem to be affecting stability but that's way out of spec.

KC
 
Well, I did a P95 torture test run... 10hrs at stock speeds with no problems. So far so good.

Using Corsair 3200LLPT ram, if that matters (2x512).

Update: Anyone notice your sandra benchmarks for memory bandwidth being around 1GB/sec below what they should be?

Update2: Woops, had ram set to 2T instead of 1T. That fixed it.
 
1T might cause errors in Prime, you should run it again.

I ran my current CPU/RAM with my ABIT AV8 for 6hrs 30 mins until I manually cancelled Prime95, zero errors. It was set at DDR400 with 2-2-2-10-1T timings, just perfect. If the board could actually OC well I'd keep it in, but it doesn't.

Time for me to RMA my K8N board, wish me luck on lucky board #2.
 
What's your next board going to be?

so far, 2 hours on Prime95 at 1T, gonna let it run the rest of the day.
 
Same board, I bet it will be a great board when it works right. Anandtech got the FSB to 290mhz stable, I'm aiming for 10x250mhz 1:1.

EDIT: Over at the ABIT forums I got a response from a guy whos been in the business a long time and he said with his testing BH-5 performs very poorly with the Athlon64s, ugh.

I'm thinking maybe now I should buy some OCZ 3700EB and when they arrive test them in the K8N Neo2 one more time for 12 hours at stock speeds and see how they go and then test them at overclocked speeds.

If it fails the stock speeds then maybe I should RMA the board.

Either way I will have RAM that I know should be able to hit 250mhz easily with 3-2-2-10 timings.
 
Good luck with the next board, Bop. I can only hope I don't run into any similar problems myself.

Got my Neo2, 3500+ and raptor in last night, but I will be waiting for my optical drives and GT to come in, which should be a few days. Been reading the manual, especially about the DIMM configurations, and it looks like 4 DIMMS (dual sided, although aren't all newer modules dual-sided?) will run at DDR33 instead of 400, so I will be buying a pair of 512 corsair xms pc3700 sticks pretty soon.

A question to Bop, when running with two modules, you put them in the first and second slots (green and purple) and NOT the first and third, right? Apparently putting them in first and third only will also cause it to run at 333.
 
I've tried slots 1&2 and 3&4 no luck.

I was reading something at the ABIT forums from some system expert and he said after all his testing he has had horrible luck with BH-5, AndyT from OCZ said the same thing. Check it out:

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60734

I guess I might order some new memory anyway as it looks like a must have for high FSBs. The one guy at the ABIT forums said he topped out at 215mhz FSB with 2-2-2-10-1T timings with BH-5 at 3.2v. He also said his tests conclude that anything above 220mhz with BH-5 needs to run at 2T.

I will wait for new memory and then see if the board can run 10x233 with the OCZ stock timings of 3-3-2-10. If so then I will try 10x250 and if that works, I will declare the board kick ass.
 
Can someone try this for me? Anyone with SATA drives, set your HTT to 250 or so and see if even when your AGP is 67 enabling the PCI/AGP lock, that your SATA drives still won't be able to function.

I'm worried that the PCI/AGP locks don't extend to the SATA on this board. I just was curious to get some verification.

So far this looks to be a worse board than my old Rev 1.02 Asus A8V with the beta bios enabling locks. I was able to run 250x10 with my 3500 for 2500mhz on that board with no issues, but doing so on this MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum hoses my SATA.

So I ordered up a Rev 2 Asus A8V from ZZF (supposed to be 100% stable with locks enabled, unlike my old Rev 1.02).

Also, another quirk I don't like with this board is that even with the latest BIOS my clockspeed, rails, and temperature all ready WAY wrong in CoreCell and MBM5. I know my rails aren't low because I'm using a PCP&C Turbo 510 Deluxe, and I don't think my CPU temperature is less than 20, but it reads from 11-18 with spikes to what it's real temperature is occasionally.

Overall this board seems poor, and just like the K8N Neo Platinum Socket 754 board, it seems MSI has bad QC and that it's hard to get a board that shines like both their nForce3 250 boards have on Anandtech's reviews.
 
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