MSI K8N Neo now available

[jkresh]

just set mine up with a 3200dtr and slk948 with vantec tornado (on a rheostat), had some trouble getting both sticks of corsair 3200xl working but they are now (at 2700 speed though), and if i change the multiplier in the bios it wont boot, but using clockgen in windows works fine. Temps are 39 cpu, 38 system, at load, at 2ghz, with the vantec running at 2500rpm, so once it has run for a few days i shouldnt have much of a problem jumping that up a bit.

 

[FiberoN]

Originally posted by: operator

Originally posted by: DemiSheep
"anyone here use the retail hs for the A64? does that also require messing with the motherboard like taking off the backplate and stuff?

I am thining of using the reatil heatisnk until the SP-98 comes out for it."



I used the retail fan and heatsink. You dont have to modify anything if you're using the retail fan.. Just install it and you're done. I had no problems.

I am not overclocking the system though....

How noisy/quiet is the retail fan? Compared to say venus 12 or any other coolers?

The retail fan was quiet when I put it on. Then I put on a Venus12 and I have it all 5500 rpm ( fastest) and it is pretty loud. Specs say at about 50 dba I think.

had some trouble getting both sticks of corsair 3200xl working but they are now (at 2700 speed though

for the ram, you have to put the sticks in the correct slots showed in the manual to get 3200 speeds. I have them in slots 1 and 3 and it runs at 3200 speeds.

 

[tr1kstanc3]

I just noticed that my internal network upload speeds on a 10/100 lan are incredibly slow... in the 1-3meg/s range whereas my downloads on my lan are in the 9-10meg/s range. Anybody else experiencing this problem? Firewall is disabled and XP is patched up to date. I hope my K8N gigabit ethernet is not broken =|

 

[Jaxidian]

My K8N is supposed to come in tomorrow although other parts won't make it until Tuesday. I'll try to answer some of these questions once I get my rig up and running...

 

[jkresh]

hoping a bios update comes soon, as it is giving me problems running at stock speed with ram in anything but the first slot. So if no bios update comes this week, or if it comes and still doesnt work, i may rma it and get the asus, assuming it actualy works wiht mobiles.

 

[Jaxidian]

Over here they had a good discussion going on with people and problems they were having. It's definitely worth reading.

It turns out that people who use 2 sticks of RAM should use DDR slots 1 and 3 (not sure why but supposedly the manual says something about it). For anybody who is having problems with your K8N, give that thread a read over at AMDForums.

 

[jkresh]

Problem is i cant get 1 stick to work by itself in 2 or 3, just boots at 4x mutliplier and if i try to change it crashes. While slot 1 works fine, with 3 different chips, at different speeds. So either its a bios issue with my mobile, or its an issue with the board.

 

[Jaxidian]

Well then, if you only have 1 stick of RAM, then use slot 1!

If you need more than 2 sticks to work, then make sure you try slot 1 and 3.

 

[jkresh]

have 2, will try 1,3 again, but it seems unlikely that 1,3 will work, if 3 doesnt work buy itself.

 

[FiberoN]

1 and 3 will work with two sticks of double bank ram. That's how I have it. Just READ THE MANUAL.

 

[jkresh]

1,3 might work, with a desktop proc, but with my dtr, i cant use anything but 1, doesnt matter what timihngs. And as I said, just trying 2 or 3 buy themselves doesnt work, locks at at anything higher then a mutliplier of 4. I think either the board is fried, or they dont realy support dtr processors properly.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: jkresh
1,3 might work, with a desktop proc, but with my dtr, i cant use anything but 1, doesnt matter what timihngs. And as I said, just trying 2 or 3 buy themselves doesnt work, locks at at anything higher then a mutliplier of 4. I think either the board is fried, or they dont realy support dtr processors properly.

I just got my K8N and other stuff and have it up and running. Here's my [abbreviated] setup:

? MSI K8N
? 3200+ DTR
? 1GB (2x512) Mushkin 2-2-2 3200 (BH-6 chips)

The first arrangement I tried was using slot 1 and 3. Everything worked fine first boot (well, except for some random powering off which I think is BIOS-related as I've not updated it yet and it only happens at certain predictable times with certain settings in the BIOS).

See if you can find your chips anywhere in the test-guide booklet thing that came with the manual. It tells you what slots to use with certain chips. But for the most part, everybody says to use 1 and 3.

Also, what BIOS are you using? That may have a bit to do with it (and don't blindly update your BIOS, make sure you read up on what you're updating to or you'll have a board that may not support your DTR!).

 

[jkresh]

using retail bios, as I know 1.2b45 doesnt like dtrs. What are you getting as your voltage and mutliplier on boot, both in the bios settings and using corecenter? Also manual says uses 1,3. One problem may be that one of the chips is close to 2 years old, while the other is new, so it may be even though they show the same model number that htey have different chips underneath.

 

[Jaxidian]

I just sent you a PM. Basically, max voltages that aren't red and flashing. I was having stability (and posting) problems until I upped my CPU voltage to something like 1.6v or so.

 

[jkresh]

I will try upping the voltage in the bios, but pretty sure that even when it was set to 1.6 it booted at 1.1 or 1.2, which is still way to low.

 

[Ackmed]

Just ordered mine from ZZF, for $129.99 with two day free shipping. I checked yesterday, and it was $134.. little cheaper, and just $1.99 more than Newegg. Newegg charges me tax though, at almost 10%, it doesnt make any sense to buy from them anymore for me.

Ive had this Chaintech VNF-250 for a few weeks, and am pretty happy with it, but when I built this system, I really wanted the K8N Neo, but it wasnt out yet. Looking forward to see how far I can push this 3400+ with it, I am at almost 2.6gig on the VNF currently. I cant seem to go farther than 220 FSB @1:1 with any stability, I hope I can with the K8N.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
I cant seem to go farther than 220 FSB @1:1 with any stability, I hope I can with the K8N.

Don't go 1:1 ratio then! Two reasons:

1) Speed ratio isn't going to affect your RAM's efficiency with A64. Speed resulting from the ratio will, but actual speed won't.
2) You're not really 1:1. When you say 1:1, you mean FSB and RAM speed. What really matters with this is Memory Controller Frequency (which in your case is 2.6GHz) and RAM speed. Your Memory Controller is NOT running at your FSB speed!

 

[Ackmed]

I know, I went 5:4, but 1:1 does offer a little better performance. Not much, but every little bit counts. From my limited testing running at the same Mhz, the 1:1 was a tad faster.

 

[Rent]

I just got done with getting my system up and running on this board...

So far it runs pretty quick... however I'm extremely freaked by the OC & Raid stability. I never had any issues with my K8T Neo when I overclocked with my R0 Raptor array, but with this board, I've already corrupted 2 installs of windows (luckily before I did any major installing). This wasn't even with any major jumps in clockspeed, I just set the bus to 210 and it errored on startup.

Also, when I was building it last night, it was picky as hell about my HS/F - Thermaltake Silent Boost K8. It wouldn't boot until remounted it. This was also not a problem on my K8T Neo.

Otherwise, its a nice board.

 

[jkresh]

switch sata to ports 3,4 instead of 1,2 that should solve your raid issues

 

[Rent]

Originally posted by: jkresh
switch sata to ports 3,4 instead of 1,2 that should solve your raid issues

Why? Also, if I do this, will it pick up my array automatically or am I going to have to create it again?

 

[imported_operator]

Vendors in the toronto area have no idea what i'm talkina about when I ask them if the k8n neo is available yet. This sucks :/

 

[jkresh]

not sure why, but significantly better success with overclocking is reported on ports 3,4 instead of 1,2. I beleive your array should not need to be recreated, it should just work.

 

[Ackmed]

Got mine in today, and already installed. Working great so far, just trying to install the 1.25 beta bios. Winflash doesnt seem to want to pick up the file, but its not names with the .bin extension either for some reason.

 

[Rent]

Originally posted by: jkresh
not sure why, but significantly better success with overclocking is reported on ports 3,4 instead of 1,2. I beleive your array should not need to be recreated, it should just work.

Thanks for the advice. I put them on 3&4 and setup everything accordingly. They were picked up by the raid controller just fine. That was a load off my mind.

As for overclocking, I'm sitting right now @ 11.0x215 (2365mhz) - I don't know how much more room I have to go, I already had to bump up the voltage to run 3d apps. I'll mess with it more tomorrow.