MSI K8N NEO4 Platinum issues

[firewall]

I am looking towards building an AMD Athlon 64 system.

The motherboard I have selected is MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (nForce4 Ultra). I have been hearing these rumors about the reliability, BIOS, OC and stability issues regarding the MSI mobos based on nForce 4 chipsets.

Also, Anandtech gave an award to the SLI version of the same board. Apart from SLI, does the performance differs very much across the SLI and Ultra Version Anandtech didn't recommend the Platinum board for non-SLI AMD board and I was curious if this was a reflection of its price or actual performance.

Any comments or suggestions on this (apart from other mobo suggestions)?

Anyones actual experiences with this board?

Are there any particular models which have these bugs?

I am not interested in the SLI boards since I have no use for them.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Bushman5]

Thats a Great Choice. So Is the DFI. I have a K8n Neo2 Nforce 3 Ultra and i luv it. Some people have had problems but Msi but i havent.

 

[firewall]

Well, I know that it's a great board.

I have been using Intel Desktop Boards (810e) till now and it is stable like a rock and very tolerant to rough usage and handling.

I want the same qualities in my next mobo and want an opinion on this board.

 

[pulsedrive]

depends on what you mean by "rough" usage, I mean none of these are going to withstand abuse, no MB will. But considering mine had to be taken in and out about 5 times during the initial build, because of some screw problems with the risers, I would say it is pretty tolerant about wear and tear. Also I have had zero problems with it so far, been running it for about a month, you can see the specs in my sig. I don't OC so I can't vouch for that, but from all I have heard the MSI Neo4, is a good solid OC, nothing like the DFI, but then nothing else is right now.

 

[firewall]

Rough usage for me is light shocks, taking the mobo in and out of the casing, fiddling around with the RAM sticks without damaging the slots, tweaking around with the mobo and the like.

I am a bit hesitant about this due to the F version of the chipset (non-ultra) which has had many problems reported.

I will OC but very less, just small boosts here and there. I expect it to last atleast 3-5 years.

Are there any BIOS quirks?

 

[Ike0069]

I know the board had problems OC'ing past 219 HTT (FSB), but that has been fixed. It does have other problems, but IMO really no more than the other NF4 boards.
One nice thing about MSI is they have a users forum that can be really helpful as does DFI.
I would check out the user forum before you make a purchase.

 

[firewall]

Links, please???

 

[firewall]

I am really interested in the mobo owners to tell if and what problems they faced. Also, if they have been resolved yet.

 

[pcfountain]

I have the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum non-SLI and I am very happy with it. Some observations:

- USB 2.0 was not active at first, I had to go in and let WinXP install the driver automatically, since the driver off the MSI CD did not work. Neither did the MSI LiveUpdate feature.
- The LiveUpdate feature is crap. It's confusing and the translation from Taiwanese or whatever language is terrible. So updating to the latest BIOS/Drivers can be a little frustrating but I suppose a lot of mobo's are like this.
- I am having trouble getting my A64 3000+ Venice up to 2.4 Ghz stable. This is probably due to my own inexperience, rather than an actual problem with the board. From reading here and on HardOCP this board is an overclocking champ.
- If you do plan to fiddle with overclocking, here is a tip: If the board won't post, hold down the Insert key on your keyboard while pressing the reset button. This will boot at default settings and allow you back into the BIOS to make changes. Also much more convenient than opening the case and pressing the button on the board.

 

[HobbitsHD]

Not sure about the Platinum but here is my brief take on my MSI K8N Neo4 F (non Ultra).
I have used the Live Update and as far as I know it did work, BUT I had to download/update the version from the website. I have been messing with it lately and I still have some issues:
1. I still can not get the HTT/FSB past 215 or so ( I have tried 220 with no luck, so I assume the above post about 219 is accurate;
2. My CPU Multiplier only goes to 9, even in the manual it says that it should be 12, it might be that the manual is written for both the Ultra/non Ultra.

 

[firewall]

- USB 2.0 was not active at first, I had to go in and let WinXP install the driver automatically, since the driver off the MSI CD did not work.

Is this a BIOS issue? I read that USB Device booting was allowed on this board.

Neither did the MSI LiveUpdate feature.

Aren't the drivers, updates, etc available from the MSI website? IMO, it's easier to download updates instead of using these Live Update utilities.

- I am having trouble getting my A64 3000+ Venice up to 2.4 Ghz stable. This is probably due to my own inexperience, rather than an actual problem with the board. From reading here and on HardOCP this board is an overclocking champ.

I will probably be using the 3200+ with Kingston ValueRam since the HyperX isn't available here and if it is, the price is simply insane. Even this board is costing me around $190-$200 here.

- If you do plan to fiddle with overclocking, here is a tip: If the board won't post, hold down the Insert key on your keyboard while pressing the reset button. This will boot at default settings and allow you back into the BIOS to make changes. Also much more convenient than opening the case and pressing the button on the board.

I will do minor overclocking only. Most probably MSI Nvidia 6600GT gfx card and the processor(minor).

Thanks for that reply!

 

[Gigantopithecus]

I have one and, so far, have had zero problems with it. I went through two s939 mobos before I settled on this one: an Asus A8V Deluxe & an Abit AV8. Compared to those two, OC'ing on the MSI board is a breeze, the MSI mobo monitoring software (Digicell) is superior to the Abit u-guru and Asus software. (You can oc on the fly right from XP up to 11% - this feature actually works with MSI unlike Abit, which never worked at even minor OCs.) It seems very sturdy physically, and I've already pulled it/put it back in multiple times as I upgrade the other hardware. Bottom line: it's nice.

8 sata ports is nice: I plan on upgrading my two optical drives to a combo sata CDr/DVDr burner soon, so I'll have an IDE-free system.

 

[firewall]

8 sata ports is nice: I plan on upgrading my two optical drives to a combo sata CDr/DVDr burner soon, so I'll have an IDE-free system.

Hmm..... Does the IDE acts as a botleneck for the SATA because of which you wish to get rid of the IDE drive? I have two IDE HDs currently and I will probably run atleast one of them with a Seagate or WD 120GB SATA drive. Will this affect my systems performance?

 

[Painman]

Neo4 Plat was my initial NF4 board, I still have it and need to get off my duff and sell it before it's worth nothing... but I've had it in and out of a couple cases several times, swapped CPUs in and out of it as well as RAM sticks... it's been handy to have around for testing stuff and it's held up just fine. It's not quite the OC champ that the DFI is, but it's still pretty good at it. It's more easygoing with different types of RAM than the DFI. I'd call it a sturdy, reliable board.

 

[pulsedrive]

Originally posted by: asadasif

Hmm..... Does the IDE acts as a botleneck for the SATA because of which you wish to get rid of the IDE drive? I have two IDE HDs currently and I will probably run atleast one of them with a Seagate or WD 120GB SATA drive. Will this affect my systems performance?

Sata is still IDE, it is just not PATA which is what the older style hard drive are, they are all still IDE. And as far as the performace loss, doubtful, since SATA drives still only spin at 7200 RPM mostly. Even the raptors dont' give that much of a performance boost, especially when you consider how much heat the put off.

 

[case]

:disgust: I have had lots of problems with the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum and i wholeheartedly suggest you go elsewhere. my biggest problem is random reboots about every 4 days for reasons that have eluded me for more than 3 months. all the parts listed in my sig below are new and i have updated the drivers to everything and the bios to the latest 1.5 version, and still no go. when it restarts it no longer can 'see' the ide drives (CD-RW, DVDR, PATA hard drive), and will only come back to life if i hard reboot. my working theory here is that something blows up, causes the reboot, and upon reboot the bios doesn't reload into RAM as the bios sees the corrupted one that's there and thinks it doesn't need to reload. another symptom is that occasionally i'll hear a click from the box (like a small solenoid), and the machine freezes for a few seconds and then works fine. it has only crashed twice in my presense, so i have an annoying lack of data on the problem, but from all the work i've done i can tell you it just shouldn't be happening. my other 3 machines all work great and are stable.

problem two is that it restarts itself after i power it down... i don't get this one at all.

the MSI 6600gt i have (which i bought from the same mfg as my mobo to hopefully insure compatiblity) ships with drivers that if combined with directX 9.0c and the game XIII (which is bundeled with the card) actually crashes to the desktop if you try to play it... this one blew me away... the software that the firm ships with its own card crashes. nice testing there i'd say. these are my three major issues.

problems that i've read of but not experienced: is that the nvidia ethernet port is reported to be quite buggy as if that isn't enough the the nvidia firewall is full of system bugs as well. consequently i have the nvidia enet port disabled in the bios and use the marvell enet port.

i have overclocked nothing and run everything at its stock speeds and specs. i have no interest in oc'ing. i place too high a premium on reliability.

in short, i hate this mobo, and my sence is that it's a bios or nvidia chipset driver problem, but i don't have a firm answer as to what's wrong. all i know is i went to a lot of trouble to buy higher end stuff to insure reliability, and all i've got is a headache.

 

[firewall]

Have you checked for the MSBlaster worm? It causes PCs to reboot frequently. Another reason can be the power supply you are using. It might be of a lesser wattage than is required.

Have you contacted MSI on the remaining issues or where you bought your hardware?

 

[case]

haven't checked for the worm. will do that.

power supply is antec neopower 480W so should be more than enough. twin 12v rails, active power factor correction. spent $130 on it just to avoid these problems. learned the power supply lesson a while ago.

haven't contacted MSI or NewEgg. there is enough written about these problems that my guess is it's a problem with the board's manufacture and design. perhaps i will try that. will post a reply if i do.

thanks for the reply. c

EDIT: and it doesn't crash often, more of the once every few days variety so i didn't think it was a worm. the os and firewall and virus software is all up to date. i'm anal about that stuff.