*** Official MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (nForce4 Ultra chipset) Thread ***

[AnandTech Moderator]

This thread is intende to make finding information about the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (nForce4 Ultra chipset) motherboards easier for all forum members, please post and discuss your issues, problems, experiences, rants, raves and FAQs here.

Please let us know if you think this thread should also include the K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI (nForce4 SLI chipset) board. We would allow our members to make this decision, but no flaming, please. Just let us know if there are any problems with including the SLI version of this board in this thread or if there is enough interest in this board to start a separate thread.

Thanks.

Mod

 

[guynexdoor]

ordered an msi nf4 mobo last week, and then i canceled the order.
i'm building around an a64 300 skt 939

i canceled cause recently i've seen that there are cheaper mobos out there. i was paying 154 for the msi.

i wanted to get asus, but they don't have nf4 ultra mobo.

i mean, should I have just stuck with my MSI nf4? I want to stick to nf54 b/c I read that a64 works really well with the nvidia chipset, and I don't know much about the A8 chips.
what do yout guys thinki

i just want to get the most for my money, and this is my first PC. i mean, what do people feel about the msi nf4

also, I read this page, and it ranks asus to be very good, but it's not nf4
http://www.motherboards.org/ranking/motherboards/AMD939/

should I just get a cheaper nf4 mobo? cause I heard that gigabyte is cheaper rpice, but not sure about quality. I DO NOT PLAN ON OVERCLOCKING, so that might help in the decision.

Thanks.

 

[PascalT]

Don't go cheap on your motherboard. I'd stick with MSI, they aren't that expensive compared to others like ASUS, and personally I trust MSI to make quality products. Especially after their nf3 board's success.

 

[guynexdoor]

alright, thanks.

 

[xjoe]

This thread has a lot of useful info for anyone looking to purchase it.

My personal experience is great with this board, not one single problem.

 

[manisero]

the integrated sound isnt working on my MSI neo4, only the front speakers though, my rear speakers, front center, and subwoofer all work oddly. I think i may have ESD'ed the thing that controls the front speakers somehow. Would this warrant an RMA, or should I just buy a new sound card? Everything else is working fine.

 

[darkeyed]

I have one and so far it has been great. Working through over clocking it now.

Currently at:
Currently cpu is at 10x230 1.41V
Memory is at 1:1 at 2-2-3-8 1T V2.80
HTT at 4X

 

[Painman]

ZZF shipped today(yesterday?), so I should see my board on Wed. or so. I'm looking at my 3200+ right now, CBBHD 0450TPGW. Another forumer here named Ka0t1x seems to have a chip out of this same batch running @ 2750 prime stable on acceptable voltage so that's a good sign... we'll see.

The rest of my plans for this build:

ATi built X850XT PE (definite - on order @ Chumbo)
2x 120 GB Barracudas in RAID 0 (debating)
OCZ 520W PowerStream (debating, flip-flopping between this and Enermax 550)
2x 512 MB Crucial Ballistix PC3200 (heavily debating - I want this build to be strong but I know A64 is very flexible RAM-wise)

Crap I already have and will reuse:

19" Samsung 900p CRT
XP-90 with 92mm Panaflo H1A
Audigy 2
PCI Winmodem (In case DSL craps out... which it very rarely has done)
Plextor PX-712A 12x DVD burner
Creative 16X DVD-ROM
Antec SX835 case minus its included PSU
3.5" floppy drive

Constructive criticism welcome, ridicule unavoidable

 

[Bossybum]

Im having trouble booting my computer.

The below config doesnt allow the MB to go post, within reasonable time. It hangs during drive scan, and again while activating the Nforce4 Raid.

The problem leaves me unable to detect my harddrives in bios. - If i try to detect manually on the SATA ports. The Bios crashes... :-(

Have you guys experiences anything similar ?????

Im currently running of a 80Gb Seagate Baracude IV, on ATA133.... :-(

Im assuming this could be a BIOS issue..... when does MSI intend to update ??


UPDATE:

Found a beta bios on http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/111
Check it out....

 

[Houndstooth]

Opinions Wanted:
For one who never intends to use dual video cards with the SLI chipset, would it make sense to purchase the Plantinum/SLI instead of just the Plantinum?

 

[GregRad]

I have the MSI SLI board and am having an issue I cannot figure out and am probably just not aware enough anymore of the little nuances of the chipsets.
I have 4 sticks of ddr...2 are ddr 333, 2 are ddr 400. Both are pairs and all are 512 meg. So, I put all four in and the most I can get is 1.5gig, instead of the 4X512=2gig I was expecting.
I have moved memory chips around and sometimes it only reports 1 gig even-this happens when I put the same chips in the same color DIMM slot. Make sense?
Anyone else have this issue? All 4 sticks are good, I am pretty sure all 4 dimms slots are good and the manual states not to use purple slots before green, so I am hesitant to use one stick at a time to test each slot.
Thoughts?
Cheers
Greg

 

[byMaX]

How high are you going with MSI Neo4 Diamond (SLI) board? Anyone who can go at 275, 1T 1:1?

 

[willyg43]

stupid quick reply heh,

I have my sys running stable at 220x10 1:1 memory
Heres a question for you all, I was able to clock my CPU all the way up to 2.7GHz stable, ferget exact number but HTT was around 300x3. I re-ran benchies from my 220x10 setup and the higher CPU only gets me like 200 pointes in 3dmark01 and 50-100 in 03. So whats the point of bositng cpu if it doesnt change anything and increases your voltages and heat?

thanks

 

[xjoe]

Originally posted by: Houndstooth

Opinions Wanted:
For one who never intends to use dual video cards with the SLI chipset, would it make sense to purchase the Plantinum/SLI instead of just the Plantinum?

absolutely not, unless you have your heart set on the onboard creative sound solution.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: byMaX
How high are you going with MSI Neo4 Diamond (SLI) board? Anyone who can go at 275, 1T 1:1?

This board is amazing, at least in my humble opinion. I decided to find the limits of my mobo and ram last night and I am very impressed. I got the fsb (HTT) up to 360Mhz before it failed to boot and I got my memory to run at 285Mhz 1T 3-3-3-10 timings and 2.80V before it got errors in memtest (280Mhz worked perfectly). I'm using 2x512 sticks of PC3200 Crucial Ballistix. Hopefully my 3000+ can make use of the board's capabilities when I get around to finding its limits.

 

[Jim Bancroft]

I've been running good too, though at stock speeds. Benn up a week and a half now.

Couple of things however-- I've had XP freeze up on me twice while creating mpegs, using Ulead studio to convert them to DVD ISOs. It happened when the SATA drive on the second channel was cranking away with heavy activity. The HDD light on my case stays on, but the machine freezes up. Might not have anything to do with the Neo4 but thought I'd ask if anyone has seen this.

The other gripe is with the chipset fan. Pretty noisy. Can anyone reccomend a replacement fan or heatsink?

 

[Painman]

I got my package today... sifting thru the contents... Dammit, no case badge!

RMA!!! :frown:


Aaaaanyways... I tried to find out about other's NB HSFs in another thread to see if there was a correlation between type and noise, my NB HSF is about 40x40, and it's a grayish silver color. Is this what everyone else has?

I'm gonna see if I can get a little testing done with some spare parts and my P4's PSU and RAM.

 

[xjoe]

Originally posted by: Painman
I got my package today... sifting thru the contents... Dammit, no case badge!

RMA!!! :frown:

Please tell me you're not talking about the stupid lil sticker that comes with some motherboards? ... unless there's another reason, that's rediculous, go to ebay or go get a label from staples and print one.

Edit: is this like the import car scene??? lol, to put all kinds of stickers on their machine to let everyone know how fast it is, hell, i'll sell you an AMD Duron sticker for hella cheap, then nobody will be revving their power supply to you at the next lan party in sheer terror.

 

[Painman]

Originally posted by: xjoe
Please tell me you're not talking about the stupid lil sticker that comes with some motherboards? ... unless there's another reason, that's rediculous, go to ebay or go get a label from staples and print one.

Edit: is this like the import car scene??? lol, to put all kinds of stickers on their machine to let everyone know how fast it is, hell, i'll sell you an AMD Duron sticker for hella cheap, then nobody will be revving their power supply to you at the next lan party in sheer terror.

Hey hey, double check your sarcasm meter before ya go off like that!

In other news, I can't say that my chipset fan is terribly loud. I can hear it right now since the only other sources of noise from that box are the PSU and stock HS fan, but with case fans and a HDD spinning it gets obscured.

Other than that, not much to report. Threw in my chip, some RAM and Ye Olde Riva 128 PCI card, hooked up some drives, got POSTage. Just puttering around looking at the BIOS so far.

 

[amol]

i emailed MSI asking if they would send me a case badge or if they are selling any through any etailers . . .

 

[pickle965]

I just got my Neo4 Ultra rig together 2 days ago. I purchased it @ mwave.com for $140 shipped after a coupon . It has been running fine so far, with some minor quirks. My northbridge/chipset fan is running at a whopping 7300rpm and it's a bit noisy. I also noticed my northbridge/chipset temps aren't coming up in Nvidia nTune or MSI CoreCenter, has anyone else have this problem? I've also had this system boot on its own after shutting down twice now... can't figure that one out.

Rig:
CPU: AMD Athlon64 3000+ Winchester
Mobo: MSI K8N Neo4 Ultra Platinum
RAM: Patriot PDC1G3200LLK 2x512mb @ 2-3-2-5 400fsb
PSU: Enermax EG485AX-VHB(G/W) SFMA
Sound: Creative Audigy2 ZS
Vid: PNY MX420 64mb PCI
HDD: Raptor WD360 36.7GB SATA150 & Seagate 160GB ATA133

 

[taelee1977]

I got my Neo4 mobo last week. The computer has crashed on me a few times... and restarted itself a few times as well. Right now, the only thing I can hear from my computer is my stock CPU fan and NB fan. Any ideas why my computer would restart randomly? I'm thinking its the stock CPU fan and heatsink that came with the CPU. I am in the process of getting a Thermalright xp-120 heatsink w/ 120mm Panaflo fan. I didn't want to bond my brand new CPU to a stock heatsink and fan with arctic silver, so only the thermal grease that came with it is currently applied.

Anyone had any luck replacing the NB fan&heatsink? I'm thinking of giving a Zalmon heatsink a try, but the NB chip so close to my 6600GT vid card. There's like 1-1.5cm of separation between my stock NB heatsink and fan.


My Computer:
CPU: AMD Athlon64 3000+ Winchester
Mobo: MSI K8N Neo4 Ultra Platinum
RAM: Patriot PDC1G3200LLK 2x512MB
PSU: Antec 380W
Video: Leadtek 6600GT 128MB PCIe
HDD: Hitachi 80GB SATA

 

[err]

I bought the Neo4 mobo through zipzoom.

Motherboard was great, stable and BIOS is really good and has lots of tweaks.

This is what I paired the mobo with:

AMD Winchester 3500+
Crucial Ballistix 512MB PC3200 (1 GB)
Leadtek 6600GT

Runs stable, extremely stable on default clock speed. I ran the memory using 1T, 2-2-2-6 default voltage.

My setup will overclock to 2.52 Ghz using 9x280. 1.525 Volt CPU. 1.6 VCORE
2.5-2-2-8 1T memory. Default memory Vcore
HTx3

Can't get it stable enough though. I am currently running Prime95 stable on 2.4 Ghz.

However, like willyg43 said .... 3dmark03 & 3dmark05 does not show much boost. Sandra bench also does not show much boost. I will run my box at its highest stable overclock for a while and when I am done with my overclocking experience with A64, I will clock my box down to its default speed.

Getting back to the thread topic, Neo4 Platinum is a great full featured board.

err

 

[Elfear]

Any of you guys have problems with your monitor shutting off when you restart? Anytime I oc everything will run great, Primes fine, 3DMark01-05 run fine, but when I restart the computer the monitor acts like it isn't getting any signal from the video card. Just wondering if it's the board or some setting with the video cards.

 

[bersl2]

I just bought this board from Newegg. It's down to $145. I couldn't resist.

I'm going to wait a week or two for the CPU, 'cause I've been hearing bad things about the batch that's hitting retail right now. And it's not like I'm in any kind of hurry...