MSI K8N Neo4 nForce4 Ultra

[ltwentoncha]

Originally posted by: EvolutionWRC
This is my set up:

Turbo Case X-Dreamer II (black)
Athlon 64 3200+ 90nm
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI
1GB OCZ EL Platinum Rev. 2 PC3200
2xBFG 6800GT OC PCI-E [SLI READY]
Antec NeoPower 480W PSU
Samsung 52X CD-R/RW (black)
120GB Maxtor SATA

The weird thing is SLI will NOT work I have everything connected perfectly, but I cannot enable multi-GPU in the display properties.

To make things even more strange, I changed the selector to non-SLI, plugged in one of my 6800GTs and I get no video. I swapped to my second card, and still no video The only way I can get video is with the selector on SLI, both cards connected, and the bridge on top (but it's not actually running SLI)...or is it?). Then in the properties it says I only have one 6800 series GPU connected (when there should be two) and that it's running at x8 speed. Is it supposed to be detected as 2 different cards?

Is it possible that SLI is enabled, but it doesn't show it in WinXP? The cards power up fine, they have their own power cables, and the fans move/green light is on.

My monitor has been acting very strange, so I'm going to RMA it on Monday. Could it be the cards?

Man.....my DFI SLI will be here on Wednesday, so I might need to RMA the MSI board (I don't want to, but what can I do?)

HELP! :brokenheart:

EvolutionWRC

Anyone try DBS on the Ultra board? It would appear HEXUS has incorrect information regarding this feature since it is unmentioned at the MSI website and the Ultra doesn't come shipped with an SLI bridge.

Thanks.

 

[darkeyed]

I need to take some time to sort things out as I see many people have gone very high with the board. Last night I upped my fsb to 235 and I got a few memory errors with memtest. So I rebooted and was chenging my memory timmings. I was at 2-2-3-8 1T and changed to 2-3-3-8 1t and still had a few then went to 2-3-3-10 1t and then my machine would not post. At that point it was late so I just went to bed. I have been working lots of hours so I only have a few minutes here or there to play with it.

Do most people isolate each thing to see what each component can do. Like dropping htt to 3x and slowing memory then push to see where CPU fails? Then do the same for htt? then for memory?

Just curious how people tell what is limiting them on overclock.

BTW those over 250 which sata port you using for your hard drive?

I will post some sandra results when I get back up and running again

 

[xjoe]

just try and start ruling things out ... the first thing i would try would be to change the CAS latency to 2.5 and see if you still get the errors. If not, then set it back to 2 and see if memory voltage tweeking fixes it.

Just narrow things down one at a time so you're certain which component is causing the error.

 

[willyg43]

Hey all so how are your gaming/3dmark scores with Overclocks?

At 220x10, HTT 5x, 440mhz mem I boosted my scores heavily in all 3 3dmarks(17k-->21K in 01).

When I OC to 295x9, HTT 3x, mem 500Mhz I only gain avery small margin and gaming doesnt seem any faster.

My bandwidth goes way up since my mem seems to be stable up to nealry 600MHz(havent primed at that high, but comp ran with 3dmark01-03-05 no problems)

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: darkeyed
Do most people isolate each thing to see what each component can do. Like dropping htt to 3x and slowing memory then push to see where CPU fails? Then do the same for htt? then for memory?

Just curious how people tell what is limiting them on overclock.

BTW those over 250 which sata port you using for your hard drive?

I will post some sandra results when I get back up and running again

Zebo made an excellent guide to help narrow down where the bottleneck is in your overclock.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1497607&enterthread=y

I'd try that and see what happens.

 

[HecDTec]

Originally posted by: kindest

Originally posted by: HecDTec
Okay I've just about F*#@ing had it. I've got me one these boards a week ago with a A64 3200+ 939 pin 90nm, (2) 512MB PQI Turbo PC4000 (500Mhz) memory and started it off at 260 Mhz FSB and 4x Hypertransport Multiplier. I can not get Prime 95 Torture Test to run without errors. I've adjusted Cpu & Memory voltage in all configuration, then at default voltage with 250Mhz FSB, 8X CPU Multiplier that way the memory is running in its rated speed of 500 Mhz as well as the cpu rate speed of 2.0 Ghz. What the hell gives.

prime95 has been known to go crazy with a64 boxes. as long as windows is stable and you can run games etc. etc. then dont rely on it.
if you really want to tax the memory do it with a bootdisk running memtest on startup.

You rock Kindest! Thanx for posting your core bios settings. I upped the voltage on the NB (northbridge) to 1.65 as you mentioned. Crashed on Prime95 then upped the mem voltage to 2.8v. Ran Prime95 for 2.5 hours without a hiccup while I was using Firefox, Outlook and Gaim. My settings are as follows:

High Performance Mode - Manual
Aggresive Timing - disabled
Dynamic Overclocking - disabled
Adjust CPU FSB Frequency - 250
HT Frequency - 4x
HT Width - (up arrow) 16 (down arrow) 16
Sata Spread Spectrum - Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum - Disabled
PCIE Clock - 100Mhz
SSE/SSE2 Instructions - Enabled
Cool 'n' quiet - disabled
Adjust CPU Ratio - adjust this to keep you CPU near stock speeds depending on FSB
Adjust CPU VID - Auto
CPU Voltage - Auto
Memory Voltage - 2.80V
NF4 Voltage - 1.65V

So much for PQI memory techs quote about the mobo no able to overclock. I can't go over the 250 FSB though. I will lower the HTT to 3x and see. Thank again Kindest.

 

[xjoe]

Just an update:

My 3000 is running at 268 x 9.0 = 2412 MHz
Memory at 2.5-3-3-10 1T 2.85 volt
nf4 = 1.65v

cpu = auto

Been prime stable for 30 mins now, seems aight to me, upped my 3dmark 2003 from 6763 to 8273.

 

[user1234]

I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that the asus sli board is the better choice. btw, did anyone read the hardocp review ?

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: user1234
I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that the asus sli board is the better choice. btw, did anyone read the hardocp review ?

Yes, I actually read the stupid article, and I just couldn't believe it..... man, what a bunch of retarded morons wrote it. Their results show the msi diamond board beating the asus a8n-sli board by 10% in most of the benchmarks, including 3dmarks, pcmark, gaming, etc. But even die hard MSI fans know that is not the reality.... No other comparative review got the same results, in fact most reviews show the a8n-sli beating the k8n-diamond by a small margin. If you read to the end of the article, they say that based on comments they realize they probably had dynamic overclocking turned on in the k8n-diamond board, which means that the results are worthless.

HardOCP, HardOCP.com site owners, I have a message for you: you are complete MORONS. All your performance tests are always done badly, comparing apples to oranges, making errors in the results, choosing questionable testing methodologies, and using comparisons which are meaningless. And usually it's very badly documented what you do exactly. I don't even want to dare speculate on your sub standard measurement tools. Suffice to say I'd trust what my little sister says about performance than anything you come up with. Face it: your are incompetent morons, and your website should be shutdown, as you're zero nobodies that enjoy banning users from your stupid forums, which nobody cares about, you pathetic jerks.

 

[dsm8709]

Darkeyed, just curious how the modstream 520 is working for you on this board. I'm contemplating going with it for the Neo4 Ultra. However, if I opt for the SLI version I'm considering the powerstream 520. I've heard the powerstream is a better psu, but to be honest (as stupid as this sounds) I don't like the green light from the powerstream model. I much prefer the blue glow of the modstream. Have you heard of anyone using the modstream with the SLI version of the board? Most folks that have an OCZ psu and the msi neo4 tend to go with the powerstream so I'm confused as hell.

 

[dfinder]

Same here...

 

[dfinder]

nice collections

 

[darkeyed]

I really like the Modstream power supply. I am not sure about using it for a SLI board. It powers my system just fine and seem stable. I am having troubles overclocking my system but I dont think it has anything to do with the power supply.

 

[Go Go Gadget]

This seems like the place to ask this.


Which is better (each has their own difficulty with problems)

The Chaintech VNF4 or the MSI K8n Neo4?

 

[MTSteel]

Hello,

I see 4 USB connections on the back, do they supply a Dbrakcet with more USB connections?? I see in pictures a DBracket is supplied, but they do not show if it is USB (I would think it is, but want to be sure)

THX

 

[petben]

My D Bracket had the 2 additional usb ports.

 

[xjoe]

Originally posted by: petben
My D Bracket had the 2 additional usb ports.

as does mine, there is also another header port on the motherboard if your case came with usb connections built in. right now i have a total of 8 usb ports ... kinda overkill, but ehh, whatever.

 

[diabloII]

are of all the msi neo4 plat board reported to have noisy stock fans? also, if i OC from 200 to 220 would i have to up the voltage? would something like an antec truepower 380 work with this mobo (it's a 20pin)

 

[s8v4o]

Originally posted by: diabloII
are of all the msi neo4 plat board reported to have noisy stock fans? also, if i OC from 200 to 220 would i have to up the voltage? would something like an antec truepower 380 work with this mobo (it's a 20pin)

I don't even hear the chipset fan at all. Granted that's having 4 80mm case fans. It is probably quiet enough unless you are putting it in an ultra quiet HTPC, even then it's still pretty quiet.
You should be able to do 220X10 for 2.2 Ghz no problem. Probably even at stock voltages. My 3200+ winnie only starts needing more voltage at around 2350 Mhz.
As far as your PSU goes. That one could work with a single video card *MAYBE* but I wouldn't recommend it for SLI. It also depends on how much stuff you have in your case (Like how many HD's, Roms, Mem, PCI cards, etc). But if you want my opinion get a 500W and up power supply so you know it's not a limiting factor. Good luck.

 

[kuchdawg]

Can you run this board and a 6600 GT (namely MSI) with a 350 watt power suply?

 

[imported_Tungsten]

Running the Neo4 Platinum with a passive 6600GT, 3 hard drives, 1 dvd burner, 120mm fan, 92mm zalman fan, on an Antec TruePower 380W

 

[kuchdawg]

would a power suply like this work? POWER SUPLY LINKLINK

 

[kuchdawg]

Here i'll answer my own question, it works (NO SOUND)

 

[imported_Kensai]

These are nice boards, get em.

 

[dewa0019]

For those of you with this question before, the Zalman 7000B fits. I emailed Zalman and they sent me new brass standoffs that work with the existing backplate on the MSI board.