MSI K8N Neo4 nForce4 Ultra Socket 939

[foxt]

Originally posted by: GeezerMan
My Opteron 165 will easily do 2.6GHz on this board, Ultra 2GB Ram, Ultra X-Finity 500 watt PS. It will do better than 2.6GHZ if I had better cooling. Read the entire thread. Many of us are overclocking the Opteron 165 on this board.

Yes, have read entire thread - at least twice In fact, this thread is the reason I jumped on this board, seeing that people were having success with pushing the opty 165.

I'm not able to post my 165 with anything other than stock setting, and since I knew folks here had better results I was looking for help. I've done the usual things, played with dram clock, ht multi, core voltage, mem timings, etc. Still no dice. So I swapped in a venice 3000+ and was able to go to 2250mhz right off the bat. Which tells me that either my cpu is bad, or this board is sensitive to the psu. I have only been able to easily try maybe 4 cheap psu's, have to pull a quality one out of a different rig and I was wondering if anyone had similar issues with psu quality?

I actually have two of these boards, and get same results on both, so it has to be something I am doing wrong. Given a couple of the obscure terms in the bios (ex: aggressive timing?) I was wondering if there was a subtle setting I missed? The fact that I could oc the venice tells me otherwise, and makes me think my issue is either the cpu, or if I am lucky maybe it's just a sensitivity to dual core and psu quality ...

I've also noticed that, with stock settings and 1D bios, sometimes cpu-z reports an htt of 800mhz, sometimes it reports 1000mhz. The bios is always set to cpu freq of 200mhz and an ht multi of 5, so it should always report 1000mhz. This happens with both boards. So something is flaky in my setup, and I'm afraid its the cpu. Before I get crazy, I'll swap psu's for something more stable, and see what that does. In the meantime, can I impose on someone for a sanity check on detailed bios settings?

 

[GeezerMan]

What's the 165 stepping you have?

 

[foxt]

It's supposed to be pretty good: CCBBE 0610DPMW

 

[GeezerMan]

Yep, that should be good. Not a guarantee, but should be good. Probably not the board, since both do the same thing. I doubt if it is a subtle setting. I changed very few to get my overclock.

 

[foxt]

Thanks for the reply. With you, and others, as a proof point, and knowing that both of my boards have the same symptoms, I'm with you, I doubt it's the board. On the other hand, I've used this same cpu/mem/psu to test out a K8NGM2-FID, and that oc'd just fine, which is why I was wondering if this mb was overly sensitive to psu quality.

I'll try pulling one of my OCZ psu's tonight and try that with the opty. While I'm at it, and because I'm curious, I just might also put the cpu back in a proven rig to verify that it's still ok. That weird thing with cpuz sometime reporting htt as 800mhz, sometime 1000mhz with same stock settings (on both boards) has me stumped. I was hoping someone with more experience out there would tell me "oh yeah, that's a sure sign of ...."

 

[samito87]

hi all,

just here to post my results for my opty 165 and this mb. I'm currently running at 2.6 using Wintec 512mg ddr400 memory and a cheap 400w psu. My ending bios setting are: mem clock of 166mhz with cas# lat of 3, CPU FSB of 289 with HT Freq of 3x. Since i'm using a 7300gt i made sure the pcie clock was set at 100mhz in the bios as well. After a 12 hour prime run i can say that this budget system is solid, it has not giving me one single problem. Even the bios updating was easy after winxp was installed. Hope that helps.

 

[tbogstad]

txmicro is selling the same board with a sempron 3400+ and heatsink for $120.00

http://www.txmicro.com/index.html

 

[foxt]

samito87: thx for the report, especially the "cheap psu" part. I've been thinking that my cheap psu is the root cause of instability I am seeing at anything over stock on an opty 165, but your results may mean otherwise. I just verified that my 165 easily hits at least 2250mhz in a different board with the same mem and psu that I'm trying to run in this board. The only other thing that's different in this rig vs. the one where I've run these same components (besides the mb) is the hdd (I doubt that's causing my issues) and a pcie video card (other board has onboard video). I doubt that's it, but I'll try swapping it for something else. I'm going back to basics on this one ...

 

[samito87]

Just another note, my 'set up' didn't like the mem clock of 133. at the first few attempts at ocing my opty it just didn't hit the mhz it should have with setting the mem clock at 133mhz. As soon as i started messing with a 166mhz mem. clock this baby took off, and i finally settled at the the settings in my previous post. I'm also just using an old 40gig wd hd, a 4x i/o magic dvd burner, on board audio. it connects nicely to my NAS with the built in Nic. the opty 165 is a BBCCE. all voltage setting are default too.

 

[foxt]

Well, I pulled a medium-quality (coolermaster extreme power 600W) out of a different rig and tried it here. A little better - now I can *sometimes* post with above-stock settings, but nothing reliable. I'm also getting "keyboard errors" every once in a while. I have a usb keyboard, will switch that to see if it makes any difference ...

 

[GeezerMan]

Have you tried clearing the CMOS and reloading the bios?

 

[Pens1566]

Anyone running an Opty 148 in this board?

 

[foxt]

Originally posted by: GeezerMan
Have you tried clearing the CMOS and reloading the bios?

To quote someone from earlier in the thread, my finger has a blister on it from hitting the little cmos reset button.

Yeah, I have been wondering about the bios flash. I did it via liveupdate in windows, and maybe it was flaky for some reason. But on both boards? Seemed like lots of folks did it that way with no problem, but it's worth a shot. Maybe I'll flash via cd too, just for grins. Nothing else seems to be getting me anywhere.

I also recall somewhere earlier in the thread that there is a modded early version of a bios out there, I might give that a try. I keep going back to that odd behavior with cpuz showing an htt of 800 mhz sometimes, and 1000 mhz sometimes, always with the same default bios settings. A new thing is that sometimes after a boot into windows at default settings, I can't get the system to restart via windows, I have to actually poweroff. I thought I had a stable stock system, but with so much swapping over the last few days I may need to go back and prime it to make sure ....

 

[foxt]

Reflashed bios from DOS this time, no difference, still can't do anything other than run at stock settings. I let the system prime for a while just to verify that its stable at stock, and it is. I need to dig up some different ram next.

I've noticed that my USB mouse is flaky, anyone have problems with USB (rear ports)?

 

[Cogswell]

I bought two of these boards and I experienced the same troubles foxt is reporting while trying to O/C both an a64 3700 San Diego and an opti 165. Either would boot pretty reliably at standard speeds, but not much faster. I solved the problem by switching to a bigger power supply. Both boards and cpu's responded well to the bigger supply.
My original supply was a Seasonic 380w supply and voltages all looked good, both via cmos and in CPU Z. I took advantage of the recent Antec rebate deal on a Truepower 550. Problems gone! Stable as a rock with the 165 at the settings posted by Abem3 in this thread. I can achieve Kenton's settings if I boost the voltage a little. Runs cool and quiet at Abem3's settings.
Next is a bigger supply for the 3700!

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread! It's helped me succeed in setting up my boards.

Hope this helps!

 

[craftech]

Originally posted by: tbogstad
txmicro is selling the same board with a sempron 3400+ and heatsink for $120.00

http://www.txmicro.com/index.html

That combo is at $110 now.
http://www.txmicro.com/index.html

I am curious:

What do you guys think of that deal?

John

EDIT: Not sure about the company though?

Resellerratings quote:

The company sent 2 new dead computer power supplies, and quotes their "policy" that they arent responsible for shipping costs when they send out dead components, they claim its the customers responsibility to take care of the shipping costs to return defective merchandise, these guys suck real bad, I wont EVER buy from them again.

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/TxMicro

Overall, not a BAD rating though.

 

[GeezerMan]

I would get the board at Geeks, and perhaps a 3800+ Venice core 2.4GHz at the Egg. The 2.2GHz Venice is not bad either.

 

[foxt]

Originally posted by: Cogswell
I bought two of these boards and I experienced the same troubles foxt is reporting while trying to O/C both an a64 3700 San Diego and an opti 165. Either would boot pretty reliably at standard speeds, but not much faster. I solved the problem by switching to a bigger power supply. Both boards and cpu's responded well to the bigger supply.

Thanks craftech. That does help. I have been swapping psu's thinking that was my problem, but haven't seen much improvement. Some folks have reported success with cheap 400w psu's, but maybe you're confirming that it's a case of YMMV when it comes to psu's and this board.

I'll try my best psu (painful to pull cause it's nicely nestled inside it's rig right now, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do!). It'll be ironic if this good deal for a budget build sometimes requires a high-performance psu for a decent overclock ....

 

[craftech]

Originally posted by: foxt

Originally posted by: Cogswell
I bought two of these boards and I experienced the same troubles foxt is reporting while trying to O/C both an a64 3700 San Diego and an opti 165. Either would boot pretty reliably at standard speeds, but not much faster. I solved the problem by switching to a bigger power supply. Both boards and cpu's responded well to the bigger supply.

Thanks craftech. That does help. I have been swapping psu's thinking that was my problem, but haven't seen much improvement. Some folks have reported success with cheap 400w psu's, but maybe you're confirming that it's a case of YMMV when it comes to psu's and this board.

I'll try my best psu (painful to pull cause it's nicely nestled inside it's rig right now, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do!). It'll be ironic if this good deal for a budget build sometimes requires a high-performance psu for a decent overclock ....

You mean Cogswell, not Craftech.

John

 

[tbogstad]

i have ordered from TX micro about a dozen time, always been very happy with the service.

about 4 years ago, i got 2 x 21" Nokia 445Xpro monitors for $400.00 shipped for both of them.

both are still running today.

there great for old hard to find parts sometimes.

the deal is $120.00 + $9.45 shipping for me.

the $109.99 price is if you buy 3 or more of them.

 

[kenton]

Hello. Hope everyone is doing well. Since I ditched this board last month.... this is what I've been up to:

http://www.kenton.org/3500.JPG

I feel like a 12 year old driving a Ferrari. I haven't been this excited about a computer I've owned/built....ever!

If you have the money... I really recommend one of these killer processors. I thought the Opty 165 was HOT....

Specs:
E6400 @ 3.5GHz Prime stable 24hr
ASUS P5B Deluxe (i965 Express)
2x1GB G.Skill PC2-6400 "HZ" Micron D9GMH @ 875MHz 4-4-4-12
Raptor 150GB / Seagate 320GB
Samsung and Lite-On Serial ATA DVDRWs (NO IDE FOR ME!!!!)
X1950XT (stock clocks, ROFL no need to overclock when everything plays 1600x1200 full blast)
Auzen X-Plosion DTS
Corsair HX620 watt wrapped in a heavily dremeled Antec 900 case (must...hide...wires!)

 

[Modular]

Why did you ditch this board? I'm planning on ordering tonight. It does dual channel on the ram right? Not like the 754's...

 

[kenton]

Oh, I just wasn't happy with total performance. I spent about $600 into a machine that was (in reality) barely faster than my 754 box. I did have a heavily overclocked Venice 754 and a heavily overclocked X850XT too, but...

Anyways I wanted something super super powerful, that would last me a couple of years with only minor upgrades (RAM to 4GB and DirectX10 eventually)


Great board. Took my Opty 165 all the way to 2.7GHz Prime 24hr stable. Steal for $40.

 

[Modular]

Thanks for the clarification. I'm not going to be OC'ing this board. It's only for a HTPC, so a 3000+ or 3200+ should do just fine.



Edit: Can anyone recommend a quiet, but efficient Socket 939 cooler? I'd be willing to spend about 20-30 for it, so long as it's quiet.

 

[GeezerMan]

Originally posted by: Modular
Why did you ditch this board? I'm planning on ordering tonight. It does dual channel on the ram right? Not like the 754's...

I'm pretty sure all socket 939 boards support dual channel