MSI K8N Neo4 nForce4 Ultra

[CoolWind]

Coolwind says: regarding the metal bracket - I was not comfortable applying so much force to the mobo to take it off, so I just left it on and tried mounting the HSF to it. It's more substantial than the bracket Zalman provides, and the HSF lined up just fine with the top of the CPU using the existing bracket. So far, the PC hasn't exploded and the HSF hasn't fallen off, so I guess I'm OK. At least I HOPE so...

Oh, and I'm getting incredibly low CPU temps - like I haven't gone above 95 degrees fahrenheit yet. Of course, the system temp is pretty low too (about 70deg F) - the only thing that gets hot is the BFG - was up to 150F after 45mins of HL2.

 

[CoolWind]

The OCZ PS works great with this mobo - just plug the full 24-pin connector into the main power, and the 4-pin P4 connector to the CPU power.

See here: http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6364

 

[juysocal]

Thanks again.

 

[Tripp17]

So far i can "only" get 245 fsb with my memory at 1T in a 1:1 ratio on my Asus A8N-SLI......can anyone who has this board beat that or no? I was hoping that people would be getting great overclocks, but so far nothing has impressed me yet at all. I really wanna buy this board too, so come people. Its this or the Abit Fatil1ty nforce4 board.

 

[darkeyed]

I have my board but I am waiting for the rest of my stuff to put it together. I am hopping to build it this weekend.

 

[kindest]

Originally posted by: Tripp17
So far i can "only" get 245 fsb with my memory at 1T in a 1:1 ratio on my Asus A8N-SLI......can anyone who has this board beat that or no? I was hoping that people would be getting great overclocks, but so far nothing has impressed me yet at all. I really wanna buy this board too, so come people. Its this or the Abit Fatil1ty nforce4 board.

what timing are you using

 

[neptune2000]

I just received my mobo/cpu/memory today; I'm going to try and put it together tonight (Neo4 Platinum, Athlon 64 3000+, 2x512GB Corsair Value Select 2.5 CAS, Leadtek 6600GT TDH). I have a question that no one has mentioned. On the back of the mobo box, it states that the mobo has Active MOS 2, and the picture supports this. However, the mobo does not have the heatsink, and the quick start guide doesn't show it either. Is this a packaging error on the box, or the mobo itself? I'm guessing the former, but I'm thinking that maybe it was not included on the first boards to ship.

Help?

 

[Jeraden]

Hmm... mine is missing the Active MOS 2 also. Is it a big deal?

If you look at the MSI site, they don't mention it either, so I'm guessing they just did the box then changed the specs later or something.
http://www.msicomputer.com/pro...Neo4_Platinum&class=mb

 

[neptune2000]

The newegg and msi photos of the Diamond SLI show the heatsink. I wonder if MSI decided (post-box-production) to remove it from the Platinum as a way to further distinguish the two boards.

Originally posted by: Jeraden
Hmm... mine is missing the Active MOS 2 also. Is it a big deal?

If you look at the MSI site, they don't mention it either, so I'm guessing they just did the box then changed the specs later or something.
http://www.msicomputer.com/pro...Neo4_Platinum&class=mb

 

[gobucks]

hey, sirallen, where have you heard raptors and DM10s don't work on the Asus? I was just curious, cause I had problems with my DM10 on the A8N-SLI, but then the problems carried over to my new Chaintech VNF4/Ultra, so i think it may have been the drive itself. I have talked to people running several of them with no problems, so it's either an issue with the entire chipset or it's just problems with the drives themselves.

Oh, and BTW, after getting an updated bios that doesn't suck, i can now recommend the Chaintech VNF4/Ultra as a quality board. I have been getting good overclocks, good stability, and the features work well. And the price is certainly one of the best around. Just wanted to throw an alternative out there for everybody looking for a new NF4 board.

 

[jose]

SirAllen, you may want to double check if the raid5 that the SI chip is a hardware based controller and not a software implementation before you trust it w/ your data.

If it's that important then you may want to look at a mobo that support 64bit controllers. ie. Xeons or Opetrons.

Iwill & Tyan both will have NF4 Opteron based solutions soon..

Regards,
Jose

 

[SirAllen]

gobucks, I heard it here on this forum, there are at least a few threads floating around where people were saying that their drives would drop with the A8N, specifically the DiamondMax and raptors. They'd have to do a hard reset and then it was still iffy if they'd come back. I did not want to hear about it happening on another brand board, it could be chipset related and that would really suck.

jose, supposedly the Neo 4 platinum has the SI 3214-2 chip which supports RAID-5 natively, so I'd hope that it's a hardware implementation. But I am not sure, would love to hear from somebody who has actually tried it and can verify that that is the chip used on the board.

 

[Interitus]

Can anybody with one of these and a 6600GT tell me if it would be at all possible to use a Zalman NB47J passive chipset cooler alongside of the card if I used a ZM80D VGA cooler?

Thanks!

 

[amol]

i just purchased the ultra off of monarch computer for $155.50 total

i'll post results when the full system is built

all i need is ram and video card

 

[YtseFlyer]

Originally posted by: juysocal

To all: which psu are you using with this mobo?

Thanks

joey

Seasonic SS-460....VERY good PSU; so quiet I can't hear it at all above the case fans...probably going to switch those out to something quieter.

This is a great board. My first AMD system--crossing over from the dark side.

 

[YtseFlyer]

Originally posted by: CoolWind

So far, my only issue with this board is that the space between the PCI-Ex16 slot and the first regular PCI slot is very narrow, so if you wanted to insert another PCI card in, you'd need to use PCI 2, 3 or even 4 in order to leave enough space to allow adequate airflow to a cooling-hungry vid card like my BFG 6800GT . I just wouldn't want to cram something right up against it. For now, the system stays nice and cool, but I think that would change if I stuck an Audigy 2ZS card right next the the BFG.

Has anybody else using this mobo got a couple or more PCI slots filled? What's your experience with cooling the vidcard in that situation?

On a positive note, the Zalman 7000 HSF fits just fine, leaving just enough space even for ram with heat spreaders.

I skipped a PCI slot from the Vidcard just for the reason you mentioned; my Audigy 2ZS is in PCI 2-- Click on Large Picture

Just running a 6600GT, but it's nice and cool. I haven't OC'd yet, but I'm looking forward to the results!

 

[darkeyed]

I will get all my parts by friday so I plan on taking saturday as build day.

I am using the OCZ 520 modstream PSU.

I might do some overclocking on sunday but not much. As this is a machine I want to learn a lot about overclocking on I will take my time and play with different settings and do lots of testing. In the past I have pushed things a small amount but if the machine was stable in windows I called it quits.

 

[imported_Tungsten]

I'd like to know if a NB47J will fit this board with just a regular 6600GT. The chipset is very close to the PCI-E x16 slot and it appears that the NB47J would be right up alongside the graphics card's PCB. On all the 6600GTs there appears to be a single small capacitor that may interfere without modifying the NB47J.

 

[neptune2000]

I started to build my system last night. After a mighty struggle with the stock heatsink/fan and a couple of other goofs, I got it powered up. Unfortunately, my XP installation on my PATA drive gave a quick blue screen and then rebooted the machine. I'm guessing it can't handle all the hardware diffs; I'm going to reinstall Windows tonight. But hey it sure was fast! Unfortunately I wasn't able to test the heatsink/fan at load w/o the drive, but it did seem really quiet.

As for the PCI 1 slot, it's definitely lost with my 6600GT next to it. I used it to put in the extra USB thingy with the diagnostic LEDs. What do you all think? Do you use that? It seems like it's only useful if there's a problem, in which case one could just pop it in and reboot.

 

[Grunt03]

I'm doing the same thing, my MB and processor should be here this friday.

 

[carljanderson]

me three...

Power SUpply and Memory arrived today
I expect the mobo to be delivered tomorrow, and the CPU Friday..

Since I wont be home until Thursday night, all is well. Saturday is scheduled Build with the son day..

 

[friedrice]

I just got my board up and running yesterday. 0 Problems, and I love the software that comes with it. Everything was easy to install, plenty of room for a larger heatsink. I havn't tried overclocking, but it comes with some software to help with that. Also the MSI board has some auto-clocking software, somewhat simlier to what I beleive ATI's XT series does.

Floppies are included for installing SATA. Just remember the top 4 are nVidia SATA, bottom 4 are Silicon's. I've been playing Sims 2 and Deus Ex 2, and have had 0 problems. O, and one more thing... MAKE SURE YOU GET A BTX POWER SUPPLY... Although, you can still use a regular ATX board, it works with both.

 

[Jim Bancroft]

So far, so good on my Neo4 (no overclocking) after three days. I've got to download some new drivers from Leadtek and MSI however; my 3dmark03 score was ~7700, which could use some improvement. Or maybe not-- I have an A64 3000, Leadtek 6600GT and 512 MB of Crucial "value" DDR400 ram. No bleeding edge here.

On the other hand things are nice and cool, but can anyone else say if their chipset fan sounds somewhat loud too? Mine is louder than my AMD fan-- not sure if that's normal or not. It's not terrible but a little surprising the smallest fan would make the biggest racket. I wonder if there are any chipset heatsinks I can use instead of this thing...

 

[CoolWind]

What version BIOS are people running?

I got version 1.0 on mine which shows a date of 1/12/2005. The current version MSI's support page shows is 1.1, dated 1/13/2005. The MSI description of the update is wonderfully vivid (NOT): "Improve system working efficiency." What the heck is that supposed to mean? Has anybody flashed to this BIOS and noticed any difference at all?

I'm not into flashing BIOS just for the heck of it - only to fix a problem or gain a real improvement. Right now, ain't nuthin broke on my machine, so I'm not inclined to fix it unless this new v1.1 makes a real improvement.

 

[Jeraden]

Just set mine up tonight, no problems at all. Will try overclocking some other day.
Mine came with bios 1.1.
My 300gb ncq drive works fine (well, I didn't try turning on NCQ) but no problems with it recognizing it.
Zalman 7700 fits fine, can still use all DIMMS.
Chipset fan isn't silent but I don't think its really overly noisy, though I guess it could be quieter.