MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum?

[imported_DanW]

So, when I read the reviews here Anandtech keeps saying that the MSI M8N Neo2 uses the nVidia Gigabit ethernet solution. But, when I read the specs on the MSI website, it says they use two gigabit lan solutions, Marvel, and Realtek. So, I was curious if anyone knows who is right about this?

DanW

 

[SpikeyNL]

Great board! Just got it! For information about the idea behind the on single chip gigabit ethernet, read this review of Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2004&p=6. Note the difference between PCI Gigabit LAN and on chip Gigabit LAN.
Spikey

 

[VadRad]

Where did you get the board from Spikey? I cant find it anywhere.

 

[DarkAmeba]

Yeah i'm waitin for this board before I buy my new PC.

 

[SpikeyNL]

So you two are from the US and Canada. I have no idea where to by the board at your places. I'm from the Netherlands (Europe) and bought it from a local shop (I'm proberbly one of the first people that bought it???). You proberbly can ask your local resellers if they can order the board and deliver it in a short time. A lot of resellers are waiting with selling the board I guess since they want to sell there K8N Neo Platinum Socket 754 boards first. Same thing counts for the great NuTech DDW-082 DVD burner, resellers want to sell the DDW-081 first (btw, you can upgrade the DDW-081 for free to DDW-082 with a firmware upgrade, but that's an other story).
Spikey

 

[imported_DanW]

Ok, I get it now. The Marvel is just a transciever and that hooks into the backend (PHY) ethernet solution coming off of the nForce 3 Ultra 250GB chip. Then the Realtek is a complete second gigabit ethernet port on its own chip.

Thanks for the help,

DanW

 

[JeffR]

I got my board (along with 4 other boxes of stuff) yesterday from http://www.newegg.com

I think it was $124.00

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-457&depa=1

Was up and running in about 3.5 hours (including WinXP install and Raven Shield, to check out the video card heheh) but had to go to work, so no tests or anything yet.

The only issue I noticed in the short time I had to mess with it was the temperature misreadings that many have experienced (59-61C at idle). Will try a bios update this morning after work and see if that doesn't fix it.

Very happy with it so far for my very first complete build, had never done a MB before, but had done everything else.



-------------------
MSI K8N Neo 250Gb Platinum (G52-M7030X4)
AMD 64 3000+
Giel pc3200 DDR400 (1 Gb)
Gigabyte GeForce FX5700 256mb
Samsung 160 GB HDD
Aspire X-Alien ATXA1AW/420

 

[anthrax]

Originally posted by: JeffR
I got my board (along with 4 other boxes of stuff) yesterday from http://www.newegg.com

I think it was $124.00

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-457&depa=1

Was up and running in about 3.5 hours (including WinXP install and Raven Shield, to check out the video card heheh) but had to go to work, so no tests or anything yet.

The only issue I noticed in the short time I had to mess with it was the temperature misreadings that many have experienced (59-61C at idle). Will try a bios update this morning after work and see if that doesn't fix it.

Very happy with it so far for my very first complete build, had never done a MB before, but had done everything else.



-------------------
MSI K8N Neo 250Gb Platinum (G52-M7030X4)
AMD 64 3000+
Giel pc3200 DDR400 (1 Gb)
Gigabyte GeForce FX5700 256mb
Samsung 160 GB HDD
Aspire X-Alien ATXA1AW/420

Umm, we are talking about the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (M7025).... Thats the S939 version of it..

 

[Gaothfanai]

I noticed y'all seem to be happy with your onboard 1Gb ethernet port, and was wondering if any of you found anything related to the problem I have: My 1Gb works fine, except that at random times (always idle, never when actively using the machine) my ethernet port seems to go south on me - sometimes disabing/enabling the port (this is windows XP) does enough to fix the problem, occasoinally I have to uninstall/reinstall the driver, and everything works fine (although once or twice this also hasn't fixed the problem).

Any ideas? I'm about to toss this 1Gb port and jsut install a pci card (I do *NOT* want to do this), having never had any kind of problem like this in the past (I've built about a dozen or more machines in the past 4 or 5 years).

Thanks,
Mark


____________

MSI K8N neo Platinum mb
AMB 64 2800
Mushkin pc3200 1gb
Seagate 120GB IDE HD
Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 128mb

 

[Luthien]

Yep, I am finally ready to upgrade and want that 939 chipset MSI myself and a BFG 6800GT or Gainward if the price is right. Once I can buy those two parts I will buy the rest of the stuff on my list that I dont have yet. I figure I will have my new pc in 6 weeks. Cant wait since I have doom III and may other games I have been waiting to play or replay on my new gamers orgasmic system.

 

[wraith3k]

Sounds like there's been mostly good things about the Neo2, but that most people didn't like the K8N Neo (the first one) because of stability issues. Is this one better?

 

[SpikeyNL]

Gaothfanai
Your problem sounds like a problem with the drivers (HP DL560 Server had this same problem when it was just released. New drivers fixed the problem). Did you install the correct drivers or did you install them correctly? If you can reproduce the problem on your board after reinstalling/flashing/updating everything posible, you might have something to complain about at MSI. Send them an e-mail to.

Luthien
Why do you want the 6800GT?

theslug
Neo and Neo2 are both good motherboards.

Cheers,

Spikey

 

[RalNL]

i'm very curious about your experiences and much more the installing of the cpu cooler Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu or CNPS7000B-Cu on the athlon 64 3500+ on the MSI K8N Neo2 nForce3 Platinum.

Does only SpikeyNL has experience with this or perhaps with any other specs i'm looking to buy? Or even (in the same pricerange) better specs??

Looking to buy almost the same specs he has after careful consideration (nooboo here )

it would look like this:
MSI K8N Neo2 nForce3 Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Zalman CNPS7000A/B-Cu(Al)
Kingston HyperX Dual channel 1 GB (dont know wich pc (yet))
Chieftec DX-01BD-U
sata WD 200 GB
Levicom X-alien black (500W)
Asus V9570 256 mb (already got that)
and some other stuff i allready have (DVD-player, TV-card, CD-burner)

 

[TCD]

Mine is shipping as we speak

 

[Goofy666]

Originally posted by: RalNLLooking to buy almost the same specs he has after careful consideration (nooboo here )

I'm also looking to buy the same stuff (at least the cpu, motherboard, cooler and memory - the non-pro version), but I wasn't sure if the cooler (Zalman CNPS7000A, maybe B) would fit on the motherboard. But now I'm pretty sure . I'm looking forward to the time these motherboards are well available...

Btw, hello to everyone, I'm new on the AnandTech Forums . Greets from Belgium!

 

[mpm1015]

Just found this thread and am thinking about purchasing about the same list. Any suggestions are appreciated. Memory seems to be getting harder and harder to figure out.

Chassis = Antec Lifestyle Sonota
Power Supply = Antec TruePower 550 watts
Motherboard = MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum [MS-7025]
Processor = AMD Athlon 64 FX-153
Memory = Kingston KVR400X64C3AK2/1G 1GB Kit 400MHz DDR PC3200 DIMM 3-3-3
Hard Drive = 2x Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 250GB SATA/150 16MB 7200RPM [6B250S0]
Optical Drive = Plextor PX-712SA SATA [PX-712SA/SW-BL]
Graphics = nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra

Do I need worry about heat? Do I need an intake fan and/or an additional/replacement CPU cooler? I don't plan on overcloaking, but it seems heat has become an issue. That is why I am shying away from the new Pentium 4s.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Ethex]

Nice setup. I just picked up a neo2, 3500+, and 2gigs of corsair over at zipzoomfly. This things gonna be a screamer. I never recommend the stock fan and this time am even going with a water cooling solution. If you aren?t overclocking it the stock fan may be fine. The thing you want to check out is if it has a copper core. If not pick up one that does.

Now for my question. On the board one of the PCI slots is orange. I thought I read someplace it was for a wireless adapter. Does MSI make a wireless adapter with special features that the board takes advantage of? Or is it just a marketing ploy to keep up with Asus and be able to say ?we have a special wireless dohickie too??

 

[Gongo]

i want to get this mobo w/ a 3800+... what's some good RAM recomendations... i'm not looking to OC the ram.. I just want it stable and blazing fast... looking for 2x 512mb

 

[tieros]

Gongo, if you're going to keep the RAM at DDR400, there's only one way to go, IMHO, and that's with Corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPRO.

I nicknamed them "Wallet Busters" a few posts back , because they run 315.00 a pair at newegg, but they have 2-2-2-5 timings @ DDR400 and gave me an instant 15-20% performance increase over Mushkin Level 1 PC3200 dual pack on the same machine (A64 3500+).

They have massive heat spreaders and go-faster LEDs on them, too

 

[RedHunter]

Next week I'm going to order my new computer. But I really want to be sure that a Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu cooler fits on a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum mobo.


my new spec's will be:
Antec P160 Performance One Case
Cooler Master RS-450-ACLY (Real Power 450)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum 54G (Special WLAN edition)
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu
Hitashi Deskstar 7K250 250GB, with Cooler Master Cooldrive 3
Western Digital 740GD (raptor 74GB), with Cooler Master Cooldrive 3
Corsair CMX 3200 XL Pro, 1024 twinx
MSI Nvidia Gforce 6 - NX6800 Ultra-T2D256
Mitsumi DiskDrive (Silver)
and the stuff I allready got: DVD Combo 16x52x24x52, TV-card


Greetz from the Netherlands!

 

[Ice9]

I found this board to be... mediocre.

I also have the Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939, and prefer it for the moment.

The MSI is a little faster (and from what I hear, a WHOLE lot more overclockable, but I already have a 3800+). But they botched SATA RAID on the MSI badly - at least on mine. I'm hoping there's someone else out there who's a disk junkie and can verify that the MSI has a problem with RAID0 on twin Raptors (or with SATA RAID0 in general).

On the Gigglebyte board, I get 106MB/sec on my RAID0 stripe (Sandra filesys benchmark, HDTach confirms with long-version bench). On the MSI, built exactly the same way with the exact same stripe sizes, drivers, etc, I score 57MB/sec, about half.

Obviously something's not right.

Here's what I get on my gigabyte, if any of you guys with MSI's & RAID0 want to compare:

http://www.weckstrom.com/perf/sata_gigabyte.jpg
http://www.weckstrom.com/perf/sata_gigabyte2.jpg

 

[Fuhglee]

Originally posted by: RedHunter
Next week I'm going to order my new computer. But I really want to be sure that a Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu cooler fits on a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum mobo.

No problem. But don't get the XL Pro memory, it might be too tall. I've got the normal 3200XL and it fits fine, but I think a stick of Pro (with its extra height and lame-ass LEDs) in slot 1 would touch the heatsink.

Greetz from southern California...

*edit*
You might be able to use Corsair PRO modules in slots 3 and 4, instead of 1 and 2. Check here: http://forum.msi.com.tw/thread.php?threadid=58662
Note that the manual says

For the purpose of ensuring the stability of Cool'n'Quiet function, it is always recommended to have the memories plugged in DIMM1.

...but then the manual lies about which slots enable dual-channel mode, so who knows.

-Fuhglee

 

[Entropy42]

I was considering this MSI board, but i had some questions about the memory overclocking features.

Lets say i have a A64 3500+, and PC3200 RAM.
If i overclock the processor, does the ram automatically overclock on a 1:1 basis?
What (if any) are the options to adjust this ratio?
Can the memory frequency be locked like the AGP/PCI bus?

I also had a question about fans. I noticed the board has "Cool n Quiet".
Does anyone use this?
Can it be used with any cpu cooler, or only the stock?
Does it reduce the multiplier when the computer is idling, or only control fan speed?

I plan to moderately overclock, so I will probably use stock cooling. Cool n Quiet sounds good to me cause my current computer is REALLY loud.

Hope one of u can help. Thanks a lot.

~~Nick~~

 

[Fuhglee]

Originally posted by: Entropy42
I was considering this MSI board, but i had some questions about the memory overclocking features.

Lets say i have a A64 3000+, and PC3200 RAM.

If that's what you have, you shouldn't get the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum; they're not compatible.
This board takes (at the moment) only the 3500+, 3800+, and the 939-pin FX53 CPUs.

 

[Entropy42]

Originally posted by: Fuhglee

Originally posted by: Entropy42
I was considering this MSI board, but i had some questions about the memory overclocking features.

Lets say i have a A64 3000+, and PC3200 RAM.

If that's what you have, you shouldn't get the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum; they're not compatible.
This board takes (at the moment) only the 3500+, 3800+, and the 939-pin FX53 CPUs.

Yeah, I'm dumb. I'm actually looking at the Neo, not Neo2, but i imagine the BIOSes are similar enough that my questions may still be relevant.