MSI K8N Neo4 nForce4 Ultra Socket 939

[TAL0N]

Thanks to the OP and all who contributed to this thread and Dynamyck for tirelessly investigating the 1T problem with this board and the new 4000+ and for hosting the ISO with the MSI 1C &1D and modded BIOS.

I've read this whole thread over and will likely re-read it again while waiting for my board to get here. I managed to snag one yesterday when it briefly showed In Stock (almost gone) at geeks, surprisingly within 6 hours it showed as having been shipped and listed a tracking number.

@glassvial Did you have any trouble initially booting the board using the new 4000+ with the default BIOS? I thought I read that someone had a problem with the combination.

 

[glassvial]

Originally posted by: TAL0N
@glassvial Did you have any trouble initially booting the board using the new 4000+ with the default BIOS? I thought I read that someone had a problem with the combination.

Nope, no problem at all. It posted with the Fujitsu/Seimens logo bios, then I enabled the floppy drive and flashed up the bios from a boot floppy to the stock/MSI 1D, then again to the modified 1C. That 1T/2T setting wasn't showing up until I flashed to the modified 1C.

 

[hewho]

Out of the box, my board will not post with my 4000+ SD E6 .
Flashed to MSI 1D bios and all is well, got the 1T/2T ram setting too.

I believe the 4000s that posted with stock bios has E4 stepping.
Maybe it is true that E4s are not SD cores .
That may also explain why the E4s do not have 1T/2T ram setting with stock bios.

Thanks
JT

 

[glassvial]

Nope, my 4000's are E6 steppings and posted with the original OEM bios. Perhaps luck of the draw. Says this on the top of my 2 CPU's I ordered from the 'egg: ADA4000DKA5CF. That means they're E6's.

 

[TAL0N]

I sure hope its not "luck of the draw" or Im screwed.

Did some googling to try find out the differences in the modified 1C BIOS's in that ISO pack. Didn't find what I was looking for, does anyone here know?

But found the Rebel Haven forums which have a ton of BIOS's and alot good info regarding the best memory, overclocking and even volt mods for the KN8 Neo4 Ultras.

 

[Boobers]

Well...I downloaded the BIOS Boot-CD .iso and burned it...but the MSI 1D BIOS won't flash. The flash program just sits there with the message "Please Input File Name!" flashing down below.

I was able to flash the MSI 1C BIOS...

Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[cheetoden]

Originally posted by: Boobers
Well...I downloaded the BIOS Boot-CD .iso and burned it...but the MSI 1D BIOS won't flash. The flash program just sits there with the message "Please Input File Name!" flashing down below.

I was able to flash the MSI 1C BIOS...

Has this happened to anyone else?

No, but I like the 1C bios better anyway.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: cheetoden
No, but I like the 1C bios better anyway.

Could someone post the build date for the 1C BIOS. Usually this will display along with the OEM sign-on, version, or ID string.

Evertek Distribution, Geeks' sister company, showed over 1800 of these boards in stock at one point (several weeks ago). They're out, too. DAMN! I got two boards a couple weeks ago, but was going to get a couple more. Oh well...on to finding the next killer deal.

 

[Boobers]

Build date for 1C is 050806

 

[mothership]

Great thread! I will be putting together my system with the geeks board and a 4000+ this weekend. I plan on using MSI's live update to flash the bios. I'm hoping I can get 3ghz out of the 4000+.

system specs:

athlon 4000+
Corsair 2x1gb xms ram
Thermaltake toughpower 700w psu
Thermaltake Big Typhoon
Nvidia 7600 gts
Western Digital 250gb sata II HD
windows xp mce

 

[glassvial]

Someone posted earlier in this thread about some issues with the onboard audio. I just had some issues myself (not the same issues, but a major problem nonetheless.) What was happening was after exiting WinDVD (playing a DVD, any DVD) the system would hard lockup, only to be brought back by hitting reset or powering down. At first I thought it could be the video or any number of other things, but I stuck in an old PCI video card and the problem disappeared, so the onboard audio was definitely the culprit. The root of the issue ended up being the latest audio drivers from Realtek (A3.98 as of this post). I uninstalled them, and fortunately, A3.97 is available on their ftp sites, so I used it, problem solved.

Also on the second board I got, I thought the onboard lan was bad, I couldn't connect to save my life. I ended up resetting the bios with the button and that problem went away as well. If anyone knows how to run a loopback test with an NVidia onboard network, please let me know. VIA has one for their onboard lan chipsets, it appears NVidia does not (and no, the Marvell diags do NOT work, I tried.) In fact the Marvell nic drivers do not seem to work, period!

 

[oslama]

fyi. Microcenter is clearing out the Platinums at their b&m for $55. The sales guy even offered 20% off if purchased w/ CPU (also 20% off) and ram also (20%)

 

[zephyrprime]

Originally posted by: oslama
fyi. Microcenter is clearing out the Platinums at their b&m for $55. The sales guy even offered 20% off if purchased w/ CPU (also 20% off) and ram also (20%)

That's an awesome deal. Too bad I already purchased from compgeeks a while ago.

 

[Modular]

Well I got this bad boy up and running last night. Flashed to .1D BIOS and running well. I haven't had a chance to start OC'ing yet, but I'll likely mess with it in the next few days after I test the system for stability at stock settings.

One thing I noticed is that the NF4 fan was soooo rediculously loud. It was making this rattling noise for about the first hour of use. Since then it has stopped rattling and is much quieter, but that was an annoying 60 minutes.

Oh, and before you ask; yes, the fan is still spinning. I'm not sure why it was making that noise, but it's still running and that's all that matters.

Has anyone replaced theirs with a small copper VGA cooler or anything like that?

 

[Towermax]

Originally posted by: Modular
Oh, and before you ask; yes, the fan is still spinning. I'm not sure why it was making that noise, but it's still running and that's all that matters.

Has anyone replaced theirs with a small copper VGA cooler or anything like that?

I replaced mine during the initial build--always do since I don't trust or like those noisy little fans. I used a Zalman NB47J passive heatsink that I had on hand and Arctic Ceramique. Had to clip a few fins off the Zalman to clear the long ATI vid card.

Reported temps are better than with the original little howler, but the case has very good airflow.

 

[kenton]

All the chipset HSF really did was cool down the motor that ran that tiny fan.

 

[Bozo Galora]

FWIW
I have been going about trying to update a 3 year old PC that belongs to a friends daughter for as little money as possible
So I got the (now) $51 Atlon 64 3400 Venice from newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103023

and we will use her current ram/case/HDD/opticals and some cheap nvidia PCI-E vidcard

So, I just bought a Neo 4-F from Directron for $69, and it shows in their ad image as the Rev 1.0 PCB layout.
http://www.directron.com/k8nneo4f.html
But they sent out the red board (new in box with sealed wrap/all stuff) that has only one 1X PCIe slot and the PCB 3.0 revision that says Neo 4H on mobo. I am quite pleased about that.

However they put the board in a FedEx box that was just slightly bigger and it got crushed on one corner - looks O.K. but we will see.

 

[glassvial]

Originally posted by: TowermaxI replaced mine during the initial build--always do since I don't trust or like those noisy little fans. I used a Zalman NB47J passive heatsink that I had on hand and Arctic Ceramique. Had to clip a few fins off the Zalman to clear the long ATI vid card.

Reported temps are better than with the original little howler, but the case has very good airflow.

My little fans haven't been that noisy, but the location of the NB is definitely a concern with long video cards. I'm guessing the Zalman ZM-NBF47 won't work too well

 

[Towermax]

Originally posted by: glassvial
My little fans haven't been that noisy, but the location of the NB is definitely a concern with long video cards. I'm guessing the Zalman ZM-NBF47 won't work too well

Agreed. The NBF47 has a square, smaller base than the rectangular NB47J. With the rectangular base you have some leeway in mounting the heatsink--maybe a half-inch. I moved it down as far as possible, and still had to clip some fins. You don't have that option with the NBF47.

 

[Toad21]

I ordered this board, and it arrived with some FUJITSU bios installed, and then wouldnt post after about 3 reboots. WTF..
RMA to MSI, and they will not cover it becuase it was not a US market board. WTF..


Returning to Geeks. DONT GET THIS BOARD>

Consider yourself warned.

Heat=Toad

-Todd

 

[glassvial]

Originally posted by: Toad21
I ordered this board, and it arrived with some FUJITSU bios installed, and then wouldnt post after about 3 reboots. WTF..
RMA to MSI, and they will not cover it becuase it was not a US market board. WTF..


Returning to Geeks. DONT GET THIS BOARD>

Consider yourself warned.

Heat=Toad

-Todd

I am
Sofa King
Wee Todd Did

Did you bother to read ANY of this thread, or did you just come in here to bitch and moan?

 

[Toad21]

What are you talking about? Try to speak coherently please.

I wanted to flash the bios, but it died before I had a chance to.


You have some recommendations?


And yes I read this post, but its hard to scan through 44 pages.... Any advice?

 

[thinlizzie]

I'm having the same issue with the Fujitsu screen. I see a flash in my future since I can't even get this board to post with my new 8800gtx.

I put an ancient voodoo3 PCI vid card in it and at least it posts. Once it hits the XP splash screen I get a quick BSOD, and then a restart.

If a flash doesn't work I guess I'll just trash it and buy something else. I hate how much time I waste trying to get stuff like this to work. My time is worth more than the paltry $40 I put into this board or even the few bucks I saved.

Frustrated is all. I have about $1,000 worth of stuff I'd like to play with here and over a cheapo board I've ground to a halt. DFI maybe??

 

[Towermax]

Originally posted by: thinlizzie
I'm having the same issue with the Fujitsu screen. I see a flash in my future since I can't even get this board to post with my new 8800gtx.

Download and flash the latest BIOS--1.D, I think it is--from MSI using the Geeks link. That should do the trick . . .

 

[glassvial]

Originally posted by: Toad21
What are you talking about? Try to speak coherently please.

I wanted to flash the bios, but it died before I had a chance to.

You have some recommendations?

And yes I read this post, but its hard to scan through 44 pages.... Any advice?

Wow you're more Wee Todd Did than I thought

Two words: print view. That goes for you as well, thinlizzie. You can read this entire thread in about 20 mins if you PAY ATTENTION and stop being LAZY.

I read this entire thread 2-3x (thanks to print view), and I'm quite glad I did. I have one of my 2 boards up and running great on modified bios 1.c/Athlon 4000+. Waiting on a video card for the second board.