AMD 64 3500+ 939 with MSI NEO2, need upgrade advice

[VadRad]

Hi guys. I am looking to upgrade any day now and I need a little advice. I was going to pick up a 939 3500+ and get a MSI NEO 2 board. What do you guys think about this setup for overclokcing, and which revision of processor should I be looking for? Thanks a lot.

 

[glugglug]

It's exactly what I'm getting. Should arrive next week.

 

[VadRad]

I know you guys know your hardware, so give me some advice please. Thx guys!

 

[cowdog]

Sounds like a good setup. I am hesitant about MSI boards for overclocking, but that's only a perception as I have not owned an MSI board. The MSI Neo2 939 board is not yet out for retail, so your best feedback are reviews like the one here at AT. AT certainly like that board! And the 3500+ 939 A64 is fairly new as well. I've seen posts from people getting fairly good overclocks with the 3500+. Pumping that up to 3800+ speeds should be likely. What memory will you use? The OCZ 3500EB or 3700EB memory seems like a winner for A64 overclocking.

I will have my first 939 A64 later this week, an FX-53 with an Asus A8V Deluxe. That will be a workstation for work, so I went for stock brute force over overclocking. I have a Socket 754 A64 home system currently. If I were looking to buy a home system, I would go Socket 939, but I would wait for the DFI 939 board and maybe one or two more to have a better range of options. The 3500+ would be my 939 overclocking choice as well. The MSI 939 board is tempting, and I look forward to hearing from realworld users once they start moving through the resellers.

 

[JBT]

I would steer clear of MSI motherboards personally. I owned one once and didn't like it at all. Lots of bugs and its OCability died in less than a year.

 

[EazyVG]

I have bought the A64 3500+ S939 and am waiting for the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum mobo. That with couple of Patriot 512MB DDR500 will make a powerful rig. I can't wait to get my MSI board and set up my system.

It is strange that EPOX hasn't anounced their version of S939 nforce3 board. I would have preffered the EPOX, as I have always used their boards for my AMD systems.

But riight know the best board is from MSI. So I will go for MSI, though it will be my first MSI board ever. Once the nforce4 is out, i will switch to EPOX, if they will have one.

And I am hoping to get nice overclock from my system.

 

[RadioHead84]

is the Gigabyte one worth the price?

 

[Yanagi]

Make sure you buy some good cooling and overclock that baby! If going socket 939 that would be my choice of CPU. I would wait for the DFI mobo as ive heard very very good things about it.

What video card are you gonna couple that system with?

 

[cowdog]

Somewhere I read a post from EpoxTech that an Epox 939 board is coming. It will be a 9 something, something, something, ... I too like Epox boards. They seem to release bios updates regularly, and I appreciate their active participation in online forums (EpoxTech).

 

[Chunkee]

Originally posted by: RadioHead84
is the Gigabyte one worth the price?

high $$$$

 

[VadRad]

Hi Guys. I am going to run corsair twinx 3200 cl2 1GB ram. Video card will probably be one of the limiting factors, a 9700 pro. I dont really care to upgrade the video card since I does a fine job and the new x line is too expensive. I am worried about MSI quality, I have not head anything stellar about them. I was going to go asus, but their boards are no good for overclocking, they are just stable factory settings boards. I am still not sure what to do regarding the motherboad. BTW, k8n neo2 is out and can be purchased on the net. A site called zimzoomfly.com carries them, but they are out of stock currently. Anyways, do you have any suggestions on what CPU revision I should be looking for. THX.

 

[imported_Aelius]

I'm in the same boat.

Currently I'm waiting to hear back from MSI, Thermalright and Sidewinder to see if the Thermalright XP-120 cooler will fit on the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum board.

Sidewinder is going to provide me an exact metric measurement of the cooler sometime tomorrow.

I still haven't heard back yet from MSI and Thermalright.

Assuming everything is going to fit I will buy that motherboard. I'm also a little worried about the quality of the MSI board. Their last one sucked. Lots of problems with RAM compatibility, but that was mostly an issue with virtually all socket 754 boards. Socket 939 is far nicer to RAM.

 

[Battleangel3222]

any update? im very interested in the xp-120 combined with it too!

 

[Sheriff]

Originally posted by: EazyVG
I have bought the A64 3500+ S939 and am waiting for the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum mobo. That with couple of Patriot 512MB DDR500 will make a powerful rig. I can't wait to get my MSI board and set up my system.

It is strange that EPOX hasn't anounced their version of S939 nforce3 board. I would have preffered the EPOX, as I have always used their boards for my AMD systems.

But riight know the best board is from MSI. So I will go for MSI, though it will be my first MSI board ever. Once the nforce4 is out, i will switch to EPOX, if they will have one.

And I am hoping to get nice overclock from my system.

>>ULTRA SPEED ULTRA PERFORMANCE

EPOX INTRODUCES NVIDIA NFORCETM3 ULTRA MOTHERBOARD, EP-9NDA3+, SUPPORTING 2GHZ HYPER TRANSPORT


[August 6th, 2004, Taipei] - EPoX, the world's foremost manufacturer of NVIDIA motherboards announced the release of its new AMD Athlon 64 939-based motherboard, EP-9NDA3+. Incorporating NVIDIA nForceTM3 Ultra, EP-9NDA3+ is fully-loaded with the most cutting edge technology that delivers high performance, innovative features and storage capabilities for high-end PCs.


EP-9NDA3+ supports 2GHz Hyper Transport technology providing up to 8.0GB/s of system bandwidth, improving multitasking performance. It also features four memory DIMM sockets that can accommodate ultra-fast DDR memory (6.4GB/s of memory bandwidth) modules and dual-channel memory architecture that maximizes the amount of data that can be shuttled between the processor and memory, eliminating an all-too-common obstacle to attaining top system speed.


Utilizing the NVIDIA nForceTM3 Ultra, EP-9NDA3+ offers the industry's only native Gigabit Ethernet networking solution, providing over 200% more networking bandwidth when compared to older PCI-based Gigabit Ethernet solutions, while using 20% less CPU overhead in the process. EP-9NDA3+ also provides hardware-optimized Firewall solution, effectively protecting personal PC from network level hacking attacks and other common security risks without sacrificing a lot of networking performance. This solution provides many anti-hacking features, including logging capability, domain name filtering, and remote manageability for experienced users and IT professionals. EP-9NDA3+ also supports AMD Cool-n-Quiet technology for energy savings and quieter operation.


EP-9NDA3+ also provides Advanced RAID and Storage capabilities. It provides two P-ATA ports compliant with the ATA-133 specification, as well as four S-ATA ports delivering 150Mbps throughputs. Moreover, the new board offers comprehensive and easy-to-use RAID capabilities, with support for RAID 0, 1, 0+1.


The mighty motherboard also provides one AGP 8x slot and five PCI slots. Moreover, it comes with two 1394 ports on-board, as well as 8-channel audio. The EP-9NDA3+ does not stop even there. It also provides EPoX's exclusive PowerBIOS overclocking technology, which allows a full range of overclocking settings to be made from the BIOS.

Key Specifications
NVIDIA nForce3 Ultra

Support Socket 939 based Athlon 64/Athlon 64 FX up to 3600+

2GHz Hyper Transport

4 DDR DIMMs for DDR-266/333/400 with dual channel architecture

1 AGP 8X; 8 USB 2.0 ports; 5 PCI slots; 2 1394 ports

8CH Audio; SPDIF Coaxial & Optical output

2 PATA ports compliant with ATA-133;

4 SATA ports with 150MBps with RAID 0, 1, 1+0 support

Gigabit LAN (With Firewall function)

Smart Fan, Cool n' Quiet, Auto Jack Sensing, Magic Health, Power BIOS, Magic Screen, Magic Flash, USDM, P80P

 

[EazyVG]

Sheriff

I already have read about it on Epox site, as i check their site for product updates.

I have replaced my Patriot RAM modules with OCZ EL PC4000. This RAM module will be able to handle higher speeds on nForce3 mobo at sync modes with S939.

The Epox board will be available around mid-September. I am hoping to get MSI before that and once the nForce4 sulitions will be available, I will jump back to Epox board.

 

[imported_Aelius]

Originally posted by: Battleangel3222
any update? im very interested in the xp-120 combined with it too!

I got the XP-120 with an Enermax 120mm SpeedDial fan. 95CFM @ 30dBA. Highest CFM to dBA ratio of any fan.

No other updates until the MSI board comes out since I can't install it and test it.

 

[Impostor]

I just built a similar setup, AMD64 3500 (939) & MSI K8N Neo 2-platnium, I went with the new Thermalright SP-90 heatsink & 92mm Panaflo. Cooling is 38 at idle 52 load, works great

I couldnt imagine using the SP-120 on the MSI board, the SP-90 is half the size and it allready covers most of the Dimm slots making it a bit difficult to change ram, and there isnt too much clearance left between the heatsink and mb transistors.

The SP-90 would be my recommendation, and the MSI boards are great, use to have an older XP system paired with a MSI delta board, what a workhorse, never had any probs of any kind thing ran almost all night & day as well,

so when I decided to upgrade MSI was first on my list, The Gigabyte board looked good to, but I didnt like the high price, I put the difference into a EVGA 6800gt.