MSI S754 NF3-250 and NF4-4x ATX Mainboards @ Geeks.com

[LurkingInNC]

Forgive my ignorance, but am I correct in interpreting that the MSI K8N Neo V2.0 board can support either IDE or SATA HDs? Just trying to figure out what I could cannibalize from my old system if I got this board and a 3200+ Venice cpu...

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: LurkingInNC
Forgive my ignorance, but am I correct in interpreting that the MSI K8N Neo V2.0 board can support either IDE or SATA HDs? Just trying to figure out what I could cannibalize from my old system if I got this board and a 3200+ Venice cpu...

I'm in a similar situation. I'd need a new CPU, and wonder how that board would play with my BFG geforce 6600 GT OC AGP video card.

I looked at MSI's spec page but am not clear if I can use this with 2 serial connected devices. I program my universal remote with one and the other will be for an IR remote for my PCI HDTV card (MyHD). So, I need two.

Does this have built in fax/modem? Not critical, but it would be nice. TIA. I guess it doesn't have a built in modem and only one serial port. Not having two serial ports is a deal breaker for me.

LurkingInNC, looks to me like it supports 4 IDE and 2 SATA devices. Edit: Maybe 4 IDE devices but Geeks.com says only 2 IDE HD's.

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: LurkingInNC
Forgive my ignorance, but am I correct in interpreting that the MSI K8N Neo V2.0 board can support either IDE or SATA HDs? Just trying to figure out what I could cannibalize from my old system if I got this board and a 3200+ Venice cpu...

Yes from the specs at the Geeks.com website as well as the MSI website, this board does support both IDE and SATA HDs. I don't know why you wouldn't buy the other board lised so that you have the ability to go to a PCI-e card when you want to replace your AGP card (I'm not saying that AGP is bad, just less models to choose from and they seem to be a bit more expensive then comparable PCI-e cards).

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: deadken

Originally posted by: LurkingInNC
Forgive my ignorance, but am I correct in interpreting that the MSI K8N Neo V2.0 board can support either IDE or SATA HDs? Just trying to figure out what I could cannibalize from my old system if I got this board and a 3200+ Venice cpu...

Yes from the specs at the Geeks.com website as well as the MSI website, this board does support both IDE and SATA HDs. I don't know why you wouldn't buy the other board lised so that you have the ability to go to a PCI-e card when you want to replace your AGP card (I'm not saying that AGP is bad, just less models to choose from and they seem to be a bit more expensive then comparable PCI-e cards).

In my case it would be the 5 PCI slots. The other seems to have just 3. I need two PCI slots just for my HDTV card + daughterboard.

 

[tbogstad]

Man, I wish these were Micro ATX format, I have a dead motherboard Emachines 2.6ghz celeron sytem, and i already order the $27.00 sempron 2800+ 754 socket, but these full size boards wont fit in the case, guess I will have to get the $46.13 PC-Chips board from newegg.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: tbogstad
Man, I wish these were Micro ATX format, I have a dead motherboard Emachines 2.6ghz celeron sytem, and i already order the $27.00 sempron 2800+ 754 socket, but these full size boards wont fit in the case, guess I will have to get the $46.13 PC-Chips board from newegg.

Get yourself a nice midtower ATX case. I got one for under $30 at a computer show and I favor it very much over my other (Enlight) case that I ordered online and cost me easily twice as much. Even the power supply is adequate and I continue to use it in my 2nd system. Unless you have a serious space problem...

 

[LurkingInNC]

Originally posted by: deadken

Originally posted by: LurkingInNC
Forgive my ignorance, but am I correct in interpreting that the MSI K8N Neo V2.0 board can support either IDE or SATA HDs? Just trying to figure out what I could cannibalize from my old system if I got this board and a 3200+ Venice cpu...

Yes from the specs at the Geeks.com website as well as the MSI website, this board does support both IDE and SATA HDs. I don't know why you wouldn't buy the other board lised so that you have the ability to go to a PCI-e card when you want to replace your AGP card (I'm not saying that AGP is bad, just less models to choose from and they seem to be a bit more expensive then comparable PCI-e cards).

Was considering the V2.0 because of the AGP vs. PCI-e support. I got the impression from above that an AGP card would suffer some performance loss if used in the Neo3. Or is that just with a very high end AGP card? I'd just be using a Geforce 6200 8xAGP card with 128MB DDR. Don't see much likelihood of upgrading it soon (and probably not unless I felt the need to upgrade to something that used DDR2 memory). Not into heavy gaming or anything else extremely graphically (is that a word, lol?) intensive... Plus $5 cheaper. Out of work & things are pretty tight right now; might not be the smartest thing to consider upgrading right now at all, even though this combo seems like tremendous bang for the buck....

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: LurkingInNCWas considering the V2.0 because of the AGP vs. PCI-e support. I got the impression from above that an AGP card would suffer some performance loss if used in the Neo3. Or is that just with a very high end AGP card? I'd just be using a Geforce 6200 8xAGP card with 128MB DDR. Don't see much likelihood of upgrading it soon (and probably not unless I felt the need to upgrade to something that used DDR2 memory). Not into heavy gaming or anything else extremely graphically (is that a word, lol?) intensive... Plus $5 cheaper. Out of work & things are pretty tight right now; might not be the smartest thing to consider upgrading right now at all, even though this combo seems like tremendous bang for the buck....

Ahhh... I understand a bit better now. Personally, I figured that I would use this board with the 9800SE that is in my family rig for the time being. I didn't realize that there would be a performance hit on this board (I know on some boards it is slower, I just didn't realize that this was one of them). I figure that eventually I will 'upgrade' the Video card on that machine. With PCI-e cards like this GeForce 6200 that can be 'unlocked to a 6600 (or was it a 6600GT) for $25, it would be wise to get have the PCI-e slot around. For a whopping $55 after M.I.R. there is this BFG 6600GT OC.

Hmmm... The possibities are endless...

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: deadken
I hope that either one of these will work. If not, I think I am looking at getting a 6600 GT PCI-e (BFG OC) for $100 less $40 rebate.

See this MSI Radeon X600 PRO 128MB PCI Express for cheap:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=40&threadid=2016538

Does anyone have experience with the MSI K8N Neo3 H (MS-7135) NF4-4x Socket 754 ATX Motherboard and an AGP Video card? Do most cards work in this slot (especially the ones I mentioned above)?

The AGR slot is effectively a PCI slot and only supports 3.3V AGP signaling. Any AGP card you put in there must be 3.3V tolerant/compliant, which excludes a lot of newer GPUs.

 

[Muse]

I'm wondering what would be the nature of any benefits if I upgraded my system with a new motherboard and CPU. Below are my system specs (Beauty in my sig). The Sempron processors don't appear to be all that much if at all faster than my current Athlon 1700+. So, other than support for SATA HD's, what would be my performance boosts, practically speaking? I'm not currently gaming. Yes, the upgrade is cheap (~$100), but is it worth it? Are the Sempron CPU's sufficiently advanced in architecture that this upgrade is worth it?

current system spec:

MSI KT3 Ultra2 MB
AMD Athlon 1700+
2 sticks of 512 MB PC2700 DDR (Samsung)
3 IDE HD's
DVD burner

 

[LurkingInNC]

Originally posted by: Muse
I'm wondering what would be the nature of any benefits if I upgraded my system with a new motherboard and CPU. Below are my system specs (Beauty in my sig). The Sempron processors don't appear to be all that much if at all faster than my current Athlon 1700+. So, other than support for SATA HD's, what would be my performance boosts, practically speaking? I'm not currently gaming. Yes, the upgrade is cheap (~$100), but is it worth it? Are the Sempron CPU's sufficiently advanced in architecture that this upgrade is worth it?

current system spec:

MSI KT3 Ultra2 MB
AMD Athlon 1700+
2 sticks of PC2700 DDR (Samsung)
3 IDE HD's
DVD burner

I'm curious to hear any input as my setup is almost identical (1600+ athlon instead of 1700+). I'm easily running my 1600+ at around 1650 actual using the Fuzzy Logic software that came with the board. Haven't taken time to test it further; might be able to get more, currently experience temps of high 30's to max of high 40's (in the summer when the room may be 15 degrees warmer).

I'm guessing memory might be a factor in assessing possible performance boosts. You might want to provide some additional info for those who have the knowledge to answer your question (unfortunately that doesn't include me, lol).

How much PC2700 RAM have u got? If you've got 2GB you're unlikely to want to buy more near term. If you've got 512MB total and want to add more I'm guessing it would be faster sticks, which your current board can't take advantage of (I believe u can up the voltage on memory with the Ultra 2, but think that's it). Don't know how much of a boost one would get from faster memory speed on a new board. I went from 256MB of 2700 333MHz DDR to 1.5GB of PC3200 400MHz DDR. I know I'm not getting the benefit from the faster memory speed with the board I've got, but I got the new memory for around $55 total after rebates a little while back (btw, I had to take the 256Mb stick of old memory out as it wouldn't play nice with the 2 sticks of new memory on this board; all 3 sticks are economy brands).

Just a thought since your setup is so similar to mine....

 

[LurkingInNC]

In evaluating whether to upgrade, I'm also wondering what a decent cooling device for the new cpu would cost. One couldn't reuse the one currently on the Athlon XP could they?

 

[Muse]

Ach, I just composed a pretty long message and had a dropped connection, so I have to write it all over.

Well, I suppose you also have the MSI KT3 Ultra2. Fuzzy Logic is something I haven't gotten into, but have used the online BIOS and driver features, but not for a while.

Just 2-3 weeks ago I bought a 2nd stick of PC2700 Samsung 512 MB DDR, so I'm now running on 1 GB. I figure this will help eliminate those times when everything slows way down. So far so good. It looked to be a piece of identical Samsung RAM, but the seller made a boo boo and sent me something else. At least it was Samsung PC2700 512 MB. So far, the two sticks seem to work together OK, so I decided not to ask for a refund (the seller offerred).

I'm looking at two Epox MBs:

:EP-8KRAI or AKRAIPro (I don't know what the difference is outside of an extra $6 or so)
:and
:8HDA3+

The first is for sale at the Epox Store, and I'd have to hunt and wait for the 2nd (haunt ebay, I mean). The first uses Socket A and in particular the Athlon XP Socket A CPUs, so I could just upgrade the MB and be done with it. This would give me SATA HD support, as well as built in LAN, so I would have an extra PCI slot. I suppose there are other advantages that I'm not aware of.

The second of those boards uses Socket 754 CPU's, so I'd need another CPU. I don't know if it's worth it. I just don't have a clue on that.

I think both of those boards only have two RAM slots, whereas we currently have 3.

Sounds like you got a nice deal on RAM.

Concerning the CPU cooling, yeah, that's something I hadn't considered either. I have a quiet 80 mm fan on my Athlon's heatsink. Might need a different cooling solution with a socket 754 Sempron.

 

[blckgrffn]

In for 2 of the Nforce4 boards - had a couple S754 that needed new homes with PCIe

Nat

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Muse
I'm wondering what would be the nature of any benefits if I upgraded my system with a new motherboard and CPU. Below are my system specs (Beauty in my sig). The Sempron processors don't appear to be all that much if at all faster than my current Athlon 1700+.

See for yourself:

AMD Sempron: A Fresh Take on Budget Computing
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

AMD Sempron 2600+ for Socket 754
Includes benchmarks for S754 and Socket A Semprons

New Budget Processors Comparison: Intel Celeron D vs. AMD Sempron
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

Socket A/462 Athlon XP 1700+ is roughly equivalent to Socket A/462 Sempron 2200/2300.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: Muse
I'm wondering what would be the nature of any benefits if I upgraded my system with a new motherboard and CPU. Below are my system specs (Beauty in my sig). The Sempron processors don't appear to be all that much if at all faster than my current Athlon 1700+.

See for yourself:

AMD Sempron: A Fresh Take on Budget Computing
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

AMD Sempron 2600+ for Socket 754
Includes benchmarks for S754 and Socket A Semprons

New Budget Processors Comparison: Intel Celeron D vs. AMD Sempron
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

Socket A/462 Athlon XP 1700+ is roughly equivalent to Socket A/462 Sempron 2200/2300.

Thanks.

Maybe I'll buy an Athlon XP 2200+ and maybe a socket A MB that'll run it. I could probably use my current quiet HS/Fan combo (80 mm Vantec Stealth), current 1 GB RAM, move my current main MB into my spare/testing rig. I'd have a faster system (by virtue of the CPU upgrade), have SATA support and one more PCI slot and have USB 2.0 in both PC's, all for probably < $70. An upgrade on the cheap.

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: Muse
I'm wondering what would be the nature of any benefits if I upgraded my system with a new motherboard and CPU. Below are my system specs (Beauty in my sig). The Sempron processors don't appear to be all that much if at all faster than my current Athlon 1700+.

See for yourself:

AMD Sempron: A Fresh Take on Budget Computing
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

AMD Sempron 2600+ for Socket 754
Includes benchmarks for S754 and Socket A Semprons

New Budget Processors Comparison: Intel Celeron D vs. AMD Sempron
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

Socket A/462 Athlon XP 1700+ is roughly equivalent to Socket A/462 Sempron 2200/2300.

Thanks.

Maybe I'll buy an Athlon XP 2200+ and maybe a socket A MB that'll run it. I could probably use my current quiet HS/Fan combo (80 mm Vantec Stealth), current 1 GB RAM, move my current main MB into my spare/testing rig. I'd have a faster system (by virtue of the CPU upgrade), have SATA support and one more PCI slot and have USB 2.0 in both PC's, all for probably < $70. An upgrade on the cheap.

I would strongly, strongly, strongly urge you to go to at least S754 A64. The difference in games is pronounced, and just for desktop use the A64 will be great. I would get the MSI AGP board if you want to reuse RAM and VGA, and then snag a S754 cheap from either somewhere like geeks or the FS/FT forum here. The stock HS, available at geeks for ~$8, is pretty decent and is quiet in its own right.

Go A64 for ~$80-$90 and you won't regret it.

My $.02.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: Muse
I'm wondering what would be the nature of any benefits if I upgraded my system with a new motherboard and CPU. Below are my system specs (Beauty in my sig). The Sempron processors don't appear to be all that much if at all faster than my current Athlon 1700+.

See for yourself:

AMD Sempron: A Fresh Take on Budget Computing
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

AMD Sempron 2600+ for Socket 754
Includes benchmarks for S754 and Socket A Semprons

New Budget Processors Comparison: Intel Celeron D vs. AMD Sempron
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

Socket A/462 Athlon XP 1700+ is roughly equivalent to Socket A/462 Sempron 2200/2300.

Thanks.

Maybe I'll buy an Athlon XP 2200+ and maybe a socket A MB that'll run it. I could probably use my current quiet HS/Fan combo (80 mm Vantec Stealth), current 1 GB RAM, move my current main MB into my spare/testing rig. I'd have a faster system (by virtue of the CPU upgrade), have SATA support and one more PCI slot and have USB 2.0 in both PC's, all for probably < $70. An upgrade on the cheap.

I would strongly, strongly, strongly urge you to go to at least S754 A64. The difference in games is pronounced, and just for desktop use the A64 will be great. I would get the MSI AGP board if you want to reuse RAM and VGA, and then snag a S754 cheap from either somewhere like geeks or the FS/FT forum here. The stock HS, available at geeks for ~$8, is pretty decent and is quiet in its own right.

Go A64 for ~$80-$90 and you won't regret it.

My $.02.

Thanks! Please, could you explain the reasoning? I have a few games but until now haven't gotten into them (Max Payne, Deus Ex, Alice). I do a wide range of things on the PC including HDTV (card). The S754 CPUs, well the clock speed isn't the difference, right? An Athlon XP 2200+ is 1.8 Ghz. So the difference must be the CPU architecture, the instruction sets, stuff like that, I figure. If I get the stock HS, could I put a standard 80 mm case fan on it like I have on my 1700+?

 

[bigsnyder]

Originally posted by: Muse
I'm wondering what would be the nature of any benefits if I upgraded my system with a new motherboard and CPU. Below are my system specs (Beauty in my sig). The Sempron processors don't appear to be all that much if at all faster than my current Athlon 1700+. So, other than support for SATA HD's, what would be my performance boosts, practically speaking? I'm not currently gaming. Yes, the upgrade is cheap (~$100), but is it worth it? Are the Sempron CPU's sufficiently advanced in architecture that this upgrade is worth it?

current system spec:

MSI KT3 Ultra2 MB
AMD Athlon 1700+
2 sticks of 512 MB PC2700 DDR (Samsung)
3 IDE HD's
DVD burner

I would try to get one of the mobile bartons if you want a quick easy upgrade. Most easily
clock to 3200+ model speeds, just on stock air cooling.

 

[tcsenter]

Thanks! Please, could you explain the reasoning?

Because Socket 754 Sempron 3000 ~ 3100 would outperform any of the Socket A processors you've mentioned. Look at the reviews I linked to, particularly the Anandtech review which pits Socket 754 Sempron against XP1700 and XP2400.

With Sempron 754, clock frequency matters most, L2 cache matters least. Actually, this could be said of Socket 754 in general, including Athlon 64. Higher frequency yields the biggest performance gain in most benchmarks.

If you're buying the motherboard from Geeks, this would be your best bet:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512KB CPU (2.0GHz) - $40.00 plus shipping


On the other hand, if you want to go real cheap:

AMD Sempron 3000+ 128KB 64bit (1.8GHz) - $33.00 free ship


And this is your best performer under $50.00:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 512KB (2.2GHz) - $46.00 free ship


Any budget K8 CPU cooler will suffice for the low-end CPU range, like this retail AMD HSF:

AMD Socket AM2/940/939/754 Heat Sink & Fan up to 3800+

 

[LurkingInNC]

Originally posted by: bigsnyder

Originally posted by: Muse
I'm wondering what would be the nature of any benefits if I upgraded my system with a new motherboard and CPU. Below are my system specs (Beauty in my sig). The Sempron processors don't appear to be all that much if at all faster than my current Athlon 1700+. So, other than support for SATA HD's, what would be my performance boosts, practically speaking? I'm not currently gaming. Yes, the upgrade is cheap (~$100), but is it worth it? Are the Sempron CPU's sufficiently advanced in architecture that this upgrade is worth it?

current system spec:

MSI KT3 Ultra2 MB
AMD Athlon 1700+
2 sticks of 512 MB PC2700 DDR (Samsung)
3 IDE HD's
DVD burner

I would try to get one of the mobile bartons if you want a quick easy upgrade. Most easily
clock to 3200+ model speeds, just on stock air cooling.

Welllll, that's what I was originally thinking. But it was after watching used Bartons sell for $45 on up on eBay that this post grabbed my attention. Instead of paying probably $45-50 for a used Barton, seems to make a lot more sense to pick up a new Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2.2GHz 512KB L2 for $46 shipped (Newegg), the V2 board in the OP for $44 shipped, and sounds like you can get a decent cooler/ fan for under $10. So instead of a used Barton for $50 one could get the guts of a much more powerful system for under $100 (& the components would be new). Only problem for me is that even though $100 is extremely cheap for what you'd get, it would still sting a bit right now. On the other hand, I'm almost positive it would last me years before I'd feel the need to upgrade (not a gamer or heavy graphics user).

If Muse doesn't want to go the $100 route, his best bet for a boost might be to load the Fuzzy Logic software that came with his KT3 Ultra2 board & overclock his XP1700+. Couldn't be easier with that software, and like I said, I took my 1600+ from 1400 actual to over 1600 actual without any problems at all. And I haven't even tried to test how high it will comfortably go.

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: Muse
I'm wondering what would be the nature of any benefits if I upgraded my system with a new motherboard and CPU. Below are my system specs (Beauty in my sig). The Sempron processors don't appear to be all that much if at all faster than my current Athlon 1700+.

See for yourself:

AMD Sempron: A Fresh Take on Budget Computing
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

AMD Sempron 2600+ for Socket 754
Includes benchmarks for S754 and Socket A Semprons

New Budget Processors Comparison: Intel Celeron D vs. AMD Sempron
Includes benchmarks for S754 Sempron, Socket A Sempron and Athlon XP

Socket A/462 Athlon XP 1700+ is roughly equivalent to Socket A/462 Sempron 2200/2300.

Thanks.

Maybe I'll buy an Athlon XP 2200+ and maybe a socket A MB that'll run it. I could probably use my current quiet HS/Fan combo (80 mm Vantec Stealth), current 1 GB RAM, move my current main MB into my spare/testing rig. I'd have a faster system (by virtue of the CPU upgrade), have SATA support and one more PCI slot and have USB 2.0 in both PC's, all for probably < $70. An upgrade on the cheap.

I would strongly, strongly, strongly urge you to go to at least S754 A64. The difference in games is pronounced, and just for desktop use the A64 will be great. I would get the MSI AGP board if you want to reuse RAM and VGA, and then snag a S754 cheap from either somewhere like geeks or the FS/FT forum here. The stock HS, available at geeks for ~$8, is pretty decent and is quiet in its own right.

Go A64 for ~$80-$90 and you won't regret it.

My $.02.

Thanks! Please, could you explain the reasoning? I have a few games but until now haven't gotten into them (Max Payne, Deus Ex, Alice). I do a wide range of things on the PC including HDTV (card). The S754 CPUs, well the clock speed isn't the difference, right? An Athlon XP 2200+ is 1.8 Ghz. So the difference must be the CPU architecture, the instruction sets, stuff like that, I figure. If I get the stock HS, could I put a standard 80 mm case fan on it like I have on my 1700+?

The A64/S754 Semprons major advantage is the on die memory controller - it probably boosted performance ~25% clock for clock versus the older AXP. There were some other tweaks, large TLB's, etc. and the addition of the 64 bit standard.

For things like HDTV a dual core would be best, but at least the A64/Sempron (although I would go A64 if you can) is going to be able to handle decoding/encoding much better, as the benchmarks show.

Expect a snappier PC with the S754 vs. the AXP.




*also, the Nforce4 chipset is going to be a lot better than any AXP one feature wise - gigabit ethernet, robust RAID, etc.

 

[LurkingInNC]

Damm, I'm afraid you guys are gonna make me spend $100 I haven't got. But if I do, I'm sure that Athlon 64 3200+ Venice will keep me happy for years.

Ok, at the risk of showing my ignorance, here's how to talk me out of it. If I upgrade my mb & cpu, will I have to do a clean install of WinXpPro? Would like to avoid that for 2 reasons: 1) I can only get dialup where I live, so hate to think about the logistics of getting all the XP upgrades I'd need on top of the original XP and Service Pack 2 CDs I've got. 2) I've got a bunch of free software pgms & games from GOTD I'd like to keep. Would lose them with a clean OS install.

 

[deadken]

Since your system is up and running at the moment, the best way that I know to keep the O/S would be to go into System properties and Device Manager and remove any items that would be from the motherboard (usually on the bottom). Do not restart after disabling or removing each item. Instead, wait until you have taken out all that you can and 'Shut Down' the system.

Then, do your upgrade and when you boot up Windows will find the new hardware and ask for drivers (you might want to have a CD with the latest ones on hand for this part). If you don't remove the hardware before shutdown it seems that WinXP will see conflicts with the old and new hardware and the machine will refuse to boot.

 

[deadken]

Sorry about the double post, but I want to start fresh with this question:

Has anyone had problems with OverClocking the AGR/PCI-e Motherboard from Geeks? Here is why I ask:

I bought a Sempron 3100+ and ECS Nforce3A combo from Outpost.com about a year ago. Like many others with this combo, mine ran stable @ 9x250 (2250) with a %3.4 boost in Vcore. I bought 2 of them, they folded 24/7 for about a year error free.

I decided to change one of the CPU's out for a A64 3200+ (which is running @ 2.6Ghz). Those ECS boards are great, cheap, and stable, but I was worried about how long they would last.

I decided to swap out the motherboard from the other combo with a MSI NF4 Neo 3 that has a AGR (like an AGP) slot as well as a PCI-e slot. The PC that I put it in doesn't do much graphic work at the moment, but I like the idea of having a PCI-e slot since my son is 11 years old and getting interested into Gaming. I had hoped that the NF4 chipset would give me the same stability as the NF3 but have a higher O/C potential. Unfortunately it doesn't like to Overclock at all. I can get up to 211 FSB by using the MSI overclocking software (Core Center) but not up to 222. Since nothing else in this machine has changed, I am at a loss as to why I can even get close to the 250FSB that I know it is capable of. I have updated the BIOS to version 1.7 from the MSI website. I can't even get up to 211FSB when I overclock in BIOS.

I have dropped the memory to 5:6 (running at 172mhz IIRC) and lowered the HTT multiplier to 3X (running at 750 IIRC). I have also raised the Vcore well above what I was running this CPU at in the last Motherboard. I am pretty positive that I bumped up the Chipset Voltage by .1V also. I have to admit that I did not re-install the Windows XP Pro O/S. I did remove most of the hardware from within Device Manager before I swapped out the motherboard. I can't imagine that being the problem given the circumstances, but I figured that I should mention it.