MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum?

[imported_Aelius]

Originally posted by: 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.

Actually they aren't the same. Similar maybe but very missleadingly so.

I have been reading the MSI boards and the issues with the BIOS for each board is quite different.

Having said that no board overclocks like the MSI ones so I'm buying my Neo2 this Friday.

 

[Fuhglee]

Originally posted by: Entropy42
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~~

Cool'n'Quiet lowers the clock speed and voltage level of the CPU when that processing power isn't needed. When the CPU isn't running hot, the motherboard can lower the fan speed on the CPU cooler.

As long as the fan on the CPU cooler can run effectively at low voltages (as low as 5V, I believe...), you should be able to use any cooler. My Neo2 did vary the speed of the fan on my Zalman CNPS7000, but that's a pretty quiet cooler to begin with. I'm still setting this system up, and I'm not going to enable Cool'n'Quiet in normal use until I'm done testing.

There are some good descriptions of what Cool'n'Quiet does here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article172-page1.html and here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article169-page4.html

 

[exdeath]

Ice9:

http://members.cox.net/~exdeath/raid.jpg
<br>[url]http://members.cox.net/~exdeath/tach.jpg
[/url]


This is on the K8N Neo2 939 with a FX53 and twin WD740GD Raptors on SATA channels 1 and 2.

Only problem I have is *sometimes* durring a warm reset, it hangs at "detecting array..."

Just have to reach down to hit the power switch.

I've heard of similar problems on Asus boards, fixed by BIOS 1004, or by disabling the fast boot option in the BIOS.

On a GA-K8NSNXP939 I couldn't even get the nVidia controller to work, it would randomly not find one of the drives or always hand at "Detecting Array..."

I had to use to SI controller and I peaked that at about 120 MB/sec due to that one being on the PCI bus. The nVidia SATA and LAN controller has its own path to the northbridge, sorta like what Intel started with CSA. A single Raptor has been known to push 70 MB/sec max, and since Im getting 140 sustained with 2 drives, thats perfect!

Oh yeah, I've found already that Sandra sucks as a disk benchmark

 

[exdeath]

http://members.cox.net/~exdeath/tach.jpg

 

[Tetsuo316]

Ice9, you may also want to check to see that you have enabled DMA for your SATA channel within the MSI BIOS. Apparently, it's disabled by default. You may see a performance increase if that's the issue.

 

[Chronoshock]

Heh in the HardOCP thread about the MSI K8N Neo2 Ice9 wrote how he fixed the problem by enabling DMA, he should probably update his status here

 

[Ice9]

Originally posted by: Chronoshock
Heh in the HardOCP thread about the MSI K8N Neo2 Ice9 wrote how he fixed the problem by enabling DMA, he should probably update his status here

Yep, enabling DMA in the bios did in fact fix this problem.

I just picked up some Ballistix PC4000 DDR. I'm not too keen on OCing, but I'd like to see how far I could push this 3800+ and still stay Prime95-stable. Anyone have a hint for some threads I can look through to get the basics? I see a lot of this "5:4" stuff and don't really understand what it all means.

 

[Compddd]

I thought the Neo2 had Nvidia lan and realtek giga lan? I disabled the realtek port through bios and just use the Nvidia Lan. In device manager it comes up as Nvidia Nforce Networking Controller?

 

[GhandiInstinct]

Overall, you guys are happy with this board? No problems? Graphics card fits fine? Lan very fast?

 

[Duc748]

Heya Fuhglee, you have the Neo2 and the Zalman CNPS7000, yea?

I have this Mobo/HS combo also but i've run into a problem

question : How did you mount this HS to the board? i've looked on Zalman's site and and it shows installation is pretty simple , mount backplate, washers , then standoffs ( or whatever there called that the bracket bolts too ) then HS.

problem is the board already has the backplate and standoffs installed ( Now this is my 1st build and i'm a little hesitant to dismantle the board ) but how do i go about getting this thing on and getting a snug fit?


Thanks

 

[Ice9]

Originally posted by: Duc748
Heya Fuhglee, you have the Neo2 and the Zalman CNPS7000, yea?

I have this Mobo/HS combo also but i've run into a problem

question : How did you mount this HS to the board? i've looked on Zalman's site and and it shows installation is pretty simple , mount backplate, washers , then standoffs ( or whatever there called that the bracket bolts too ) then HS.

problem is the board already has the backplate and standoffs installed ( Now this is my 1st build and i'm a little hesitant to dismantle the board ) but how do i go about getting this thing on and getting a snug fit?


Thanks

Pushing on the screwpost of the included backplate was enough for me to break the adhesive seal and pull the existing one off. Some others have used a hair dryer to heat it enough to break the adhesive as well.

I'm not sure what MSI was thinking affixing that plate at the factory.

 

[Duc748]

Bleh, not the answer i would like to hear but at least i know what has to be done.

Thanks Ice9

 

[imported_RobJ]

Originally posted by: Ice9

Pushing on the screwpost of the included backplate was enough for me to break the adhesive seal and pull the existing one off. Some others have used a hair dryer to heat it enough to break the adhesive as well.

I'm not sure what MSI was thinking affixing that plate at the factory.

hrmm ... I used a Thermaltake SilientBoost K8, and I just ignored the part about the backplate and installed the heatsink. My HSF didn't come with a new backplate, so I left the MSI one on. Are you saying that your Zalman HSF came with a different backplate, and that's why you had to remove MSI's one?

I just want to make sure that i didn't do something wrong because this is my first build, so i wasn't aware of an alternative to the MSI backplate.

 

[GhandiInstinct]

Can someone explain to me the point of having two gigabit lans? What is the advantage? If there is one.

 

[imported_zforgetaboutit]

Well you could use one to connect to the internet, and the other to connect to some local server/pc/router, without either having to share the network bandwidth with the other.

 

[Spamdini]

so all mobos with the nforce3-250GB have nvidia gigabit ethernet?

 

[gsaito]

I received my MSI Neo2 Platinum along with a 300Gb SATA DiamondMax 10 and they don't seem to get along well. This drive is only recognized by the BIOS in a cold boot (need to turn off computer on the power button then turn on again). A warm boot (CTRL_ALT_DEL) will cause BIOS not to recognize HD (RESET button same problem).

I have a 74Gb SATA Raptor that works fine with this motherboard.

So far I don't know if this is a motherboard or HD issue.

 

[Sunburn1979]

Hey there gsaito


I have the exact same HDD and the exact sameproblem as you,
in fact i have had many mnay issues with this motherboard and erroros with ram and instability.

from what i can make out a hell load of problem comes from the dodgy BIOS.


Soon as they get that fixed the better ...

 

[exdeath]

I've had similar problems where my 2 raptors in RAID0 would not show up, and every now and then it would hang at "Detecting arrays...."

BIOS v1.2 seems to have made the problem go away for the most part, if not at all.

Other than that, no problems at all. I can run my Corsair XL at 2-2-2-5-1T at DDR400 or go on up to 1000 Mhz FSB @ DDR500 and/or run my FX53 at 2.6 Ghz.

v1.2 also finally adds the half multipliers that were missing in the AAT review.

 

[dacull]

out of interest, how many of you are using a non wireless PS2 keyboard?

 

[gsaito]

Hey Sunburn,

Finally got this board working fine! It was not a hardware failure after all.

I was having my 74Gb Raptor connected to SATA1 and the 300Gb Maxtor DiamondMax connected to SATA2 and i had both SATA1/2 and SATA2/3 DMA transfer disabled in BIOS (which is the default).

After reading in this forum that enabling SATA DMA transfer could solve the issue, I turned SATA1/2 DMA transfer on, but the problem continued. I then decided to switch the 300Gb Maxtor to SATA 3 connector on the motherboard and everything now works perfectly! SATA3/4 DMA transfer is still disabled, I haven't tried enabling it yet. (I do have tried to switch the 300Gb drive to SATA 3 before without enabling DMA transfer on either SATA1/2 or SATA3/4 and it did not work...)

Check if this works for you and please let me know, I'm curious. This motherboard is finally working perfectly and very stable. I've run Prime95 torture test for the whole night without any errors. Haven't tried overcloking yet.

 

[imported_FRO]

Hey guys.. I have had my K8N for the last couple days, I am very happy with it and my computer overall. However I am having a problem with the onboard NICs. I can not get the computer (winXP SP2) to pull a DHCP address from my D-Link router. My old computer will release and renew IP's from the router all day long, so I know the router is fine. In windows both the adapters appear to be working fine. If I manually give either of the NICs a manual IP in the DHCP range I can ping the other computer, but just not the gateway. When I can release the IP on the NIC and try to renew, it times out and gives me a 169.xxx address.

I don't remember off the top of my head what version bios it is, but I have loaded all the drivers that came on the cd with the motherboard. I am sure it is something really stupid, but it is really driving me nuts. I don't want to, but I am about to go buy a seperate NIC and call it done.

 

[MoosKnuk]

edit: doh

 

[TourGuide]

Originally posted by: FRO
Hey guys.. I have had my K8N for the last couple days, I am very happy with it and my computer overall. However I am having a problem with the onboard NICs. I can not get the computer (winXP SP2) to pull a DHCP address from my D-Link router. My old computer will release and renew IP's from the router all day long, so I know the router is fine. In windows both the adapters appear to be working fine. If I manually give either of the NICs a manual IP in the DHCP range I can ping the other computer, but just not the gateway. When I can release the IP on the NIC and try to renew, it times out and gives me a 169.xxx address.

I don't remember off the top of my head what version bios it is, but I have loaded all the drivers that came on the cd with the motherboard. I am sure it is something really stupid, but it is really driving me nuts. I don't want to, but I am about to go buy a seperate NIC and call it done.

What I noticed about the onboard nic (either one for that matter) is that they take some time when first installed to refresh and pull the DHCP info off the routers. Mine took probably 15 minutes or so the first time. Now it's fine without hesitation.