MSI K8N Neo4 nForce4 Ultra Socket 939

[GeezerMan]

How about moving this to the motherboard forum?

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: GeezerMan
How about moving this to the motherboard forum?

Good idea....it no longer belongs in the Hot Deals Forum since the deal most likely will not come back.

 

[BobF]

OK! I bought a "non-geeks" K8N motherboard and the following CPU:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Toledo 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - OEM


Thanks for all the great information in this thread!

Bob

 

[GuildBoss]

Anybody else getting EventID 51 errors in "System" events? It says "An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation." A quick look at EventID.net suggests it may be a bad nForce SATA driver....

 

[jsxlynn]

One thing I don't like about the board is that if you use ddr400 memory you are limited to only two of the four slots. If for instance you wanted four 512 modules and they were ddr400 you cannot use four. However if you have ddr333 you can as it allows four slots to be used in that case.

 

[BobF]

Originally posted by: jsxlynn
One thing I don't like about the board is that if you use ddr400 memory you are limited to only two of the four slots. If for instance you wanted four 512 modules and they were ddr400 you cannot use four. However if you have ddr333 you can as it allows four slots to be used in that case.

Thanks for that caution! I nearly bought some DDR400 ram without checking to see what's compatible with the K8N. I figured that I could use any type of DDR400.

Looking at the "Recommended Memory Combination List" at MSI.com it looks like you can use DDR400 in all four slots as long as it's "Single Sided":

K8N Recommended Memory Combination List

What is single sided memory and how do you identify it when you're buying RAM?

Bob

 

[StormRider]

I think you can still use double sided ddr400 memory but it will only run at ddr333 speeds.

It's kind of hard to buy single sided memory because most stores don't say whether it is single or double sided.

 

[mangust]

Originally posted by: jsxlynn
One thing I don't like about the board is that if you use ddr400 memory you are limited to only two of the four slots. If for instance you wanted four 512 modules and they were ddr400 you cannot use four. However if you have ddr333 you can as it allows four slots to be used in that case.

In my understanding this limitation has more to do with the memory controller on a CPU rather than a motherboard. With the later steppings of the CPU there is a good chance of attaining DDR400 with all four slots populated. Would be interesting to hear from other users on their experiences.

 

[BobF]

Originally posted by: mangust

Originally posted by: jsxlynn
One thing I don't like about the board is that if you use ddr400 memory you are limited to only two of the four slots. If for instance you wanted four 512 modules and they were ddr400 you cannot use four. However if you have ddr333 you can as it allows four slots to be used in that case.

In my understanding this limitation has more to do with the memory controller on a CPU rather than a motherboard. With the later steppings of the CPU there is a good chance of attaining DDR400 with all four slots populated. Would be interesting to hear from other users on their experiences.

Yes, I would also like to read of other K8N owner's experiences with different RAM combinations. I was was going to install a single 1 GB stick and two 256 MB sticks of DDR400/PC3200 since I already have those on the shelf. But now I'll have to make sure that's OK. And at some point I'll want to increase the memory.

Also, is there a good thread in the Motherboard forum, or elsewhere, where I can learn more about the K8N?

Bob

 

[LordGestle]

My understanding, as others have already expressed, is that this is based on the memory controller on the CPU. I had a AN8-SLI, similar chipset, and I ran 4*512MB at DDR400. Anything>Venice will run at 400DDR. <Venice was DDR333. Venice came around the 3000+ series.
BTW, shouldn't this thread be moved or relocated to motherboards as the chance of these returning to stock are slim and none?

 

[BobF]

Originally posted by: LordGestle
My understanding, as others have already expressed, is that this is based on the memory controller on the CPU. I had a AN8-SLI, similar chipset, and I ran 4*512MB at DDR400. Anything>Venice will run at 400DDR. <Venice was DDR333. Venice came around the 3000+ series.
BTW, shouldn't this thread be moved or relocated to motherboards as the chance of these returning to stock are slim and none?

Thanks for the helpful information. I'll be installing a 3800+ x2 in my K8N. Does anyone know if that CPU would allow DDR400 memory to run at DDR400?


Bob

 

[cruzer]

I'm thinking of retiring this board to an UnRaid server, has anyone done this yet?

 

[Cogswell]

Wow! This thread still ain't dead! I've been running this board, with an A64 3800 and 1gig RAM, as an UnRaid Server since early May of this year without a hitch. I'm using all four on-board SATA connectors plus two more on a cheap Rosewill PCIE SATA combo card from Newegg. Works a treat.

 

[Zap]

Heh, I still have one of these boards in a low end rig (3400+, GF6200 GPU, 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD). I'm actually going to give it away to a needy friend.

 

[imported_maildude]

I built two machines with this board and they are both still going strong. No problems with either one and since my grandson uses one of them that's saying a lot....lol. I use the other one as my daily machine.

 

[GeezerMan]

I gave mine to my good buddy's son. I put a 3200+ CPU in it and a basic video card. Still running OK
I still have a soft spot for the socket 939, so I kept my DFI Expert with a 3800+ X2 as a HTPC

 

[cubeless]

still running strong with a 3800x2@2.5/2gb/8800gts640 it's a contender...

 

[NasdaqTrader889]

This thread reminded me that I have this board in my closet. I bought it from the geeks just for the Opteron 165 or 144 that I was going to build. Not going to sell mine though. Sooner or later I will get around to building that S939 PC.

 

[Modular]

I still have mine. I migrated it from my HTPC to my main gaming rig a month ago. Running it with the following specs:

A64 3400+ 2.2Ghz @ 2.5
2GB Corsair Value Ram
Antec Earthwatts 430
MSI HD4850
2x 100GB Seagate SATA drives

It's running like a champ, but I'd really love to have a dual core CPU in it. Anyone got one for sale? PM me!

 

[Lurker1]

It's an awesome board with a 3800 X2. It's going to become my HTPC system here shortly, as it's nice and quiet.

 

[freshspace]

Originally posted by: Zap
Heh, I still have one of these boards in a low end rig (3400+, GF6200 GPU, 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD). I'm actually going to give it away to a needy friend.

I think what you are doing is awesome! I, too, have done it in the past. For many ATers, we have too many parts that no longer serves our purpose. The technology changes, ATers post incredible deals, we buy more, etc. However, the computer that some of us feel obsolete is still a great machine for a lot of the folks out there, especially kids for their computer-based homework! Good job, ZAP, and we should encourage others to do the same.

 

[freshspace]

Originally posted by: GeezerMan
I gave mine to my good buddy's son. I put a 3200+ CPU in it and a basic video card. Still running OK
I still have a soft spot for the socket 939, so I kept my DFI Expert with a 3800+ X2 as a HTPC

Oops, good job to you, too, GeezerMan!

 

[MAG1969]

Its and old rig but still a good one... Still running with an Opteron 185.

Plenty fast enough for me since I dont game much anymore.

 

[Mattster]

I built one of my rigs last year with this board. It sat around until March when I finally moved all of my stuff over to it from my last rig. I paired it with an x2 4400+ and it screams. 2 gigs of G.Skill RAM as well and its a night and day difference between this machine and my last one.

Still a great board. If I could still get them and processors to match, I would build a couple of more for my wife and her business.......

 

[Lurker1]

Just go for the new Phenom/MSI combo for ~$200. Paired with 4GB of RAM around $60 AR, that would be a smoking deal. I did the Q6600, 4GB RAM , and an Abit AB9 Pro for <$320 about 6 months ago (RAM was $75 AR then). Quad core is definitely where it's at, if you use applications that are multi-threaded.

As a side note, running XP on this quad core system finally showed me the minimum requirements for XP: it is a quad core system. It's the first time I've had a responsive system and was able to reliably kill explorer when it went off into la la land sucking up 100% of 1 core's time (The situation where you usually, if you're lucky, can barely get task manager up to reboot the system or attempt to kill explorer and restart it.)