MSI K7N2G-ILSR Nforce2 Mobo

[irish80122]

No, I agree with you, I just heard that there is a price drop on it so I was curious on what you thought about it. Also, I know that it runs at 333 instead of 266, so I am not sure how that would affect it. If anything, I think it may make the overclock weaker, but I could be wrong. What do you think?

 

[irish80122]

Another question, what exactly does the rank and the stars over by our name mean? I haven't been able to figure that one out yet. How do you improve them, just by being active? Thanks

 

[Monaco]

You get more stars depending on how many posts you've made, you get one every couple hundred posts. Once you hit 100 posts, your rank turns to Member and you can go into the classifieds and buy and sell stuff. Not too big of a deal.

I didn't know the Bartons got cheaper, maybe I should take a look! I don't think that they make much sense for AMD to sell but don't get me wrong I still totally want one

I bet they'll OC pretty poorly. Hardocp.com has a review of I think 3 different Bartons and got different results on all 3, none of them great. I think Barton is gonna be better for upgradeing a slower system that you don't want to get rid of yet.

 

[irish80122]

I finally contacted MSI about my onboard video and now it is fixed... It ends up that I had to take out my middle simm on the board, but hey, now the video works. I am a bit low on ram now, I am not sure if I need to get more or not though. What do you think? I have 384 because 128 of it is going towards video. Let me know what you think, because I can pick up a 512 simm if needed.

 

[Monaco]

hmmm that is good to know! Very weird tho. I'll have to keep that in mind for when I use the onboard vid. I definately would never have figured that out on my own

Personally if I have over 128 than I am usually happy. 256 is my normal amount, that gets the job done just fine for me. In my ILSR I have 512, the first time I've had that much, and I don't really think I even use it all. Nothing I do really takes up that much memory I guess. I'm glad to have that much tho; one less thing to worry about.

At work I mess with Photoshop a lot, on really large images, I would love to have more RAM in that machine. But 256 gets the job done good enough on there too.

Hey why not get the 512, and sell the rest? Make some of your money back that way, at least

BTW I only use Win9x and W2K. I hear XP needs more RAM to really be happy, so that may change things.

 

[Niels W K]

I just got my MSI K7N2-6570 no nonsense board, sofar I love it, the NForce chipset is great, I also bought Samsung PC2700 512mb ram.
I replaced my very stable Gigabyte 7A-dxr mobo.

 

[Monaco]

Welcome to the forums, Niels W K!

Glad to hear you're having more luck then we are with this board I've heard more than a few times that the basic version is really good; apparently having all those added features can screw things up in the ISLR. Ah, how I wish I had saved the money and gotten the regular board!

 

[irish80122]

Have no worries, just give it some time. Once a few new drivers come out as well as a few more bios updates, I think it will be much better. I am still holding on to that last stick of memory just in case.

 

[Monaco]

I sure hope so man. Now it seems that with the 1.20 BIOS I can only get to 1800mhz, I hit almost 2ghz with the last one I hope they come out with a new one soon!

 

[Niels W K]

Thanks
Well I did not had any use of FireWire and builtin graphics, I am using a Radeon graphicscard...hehe the irony of it is fun really
I am getting a cooler for the Northbridge though...that one gets hot when overclocked...

 

[Duke3d87]

What is the highest FSB you have gotten using the MSI K7N2G-ILR and are you using the stock chipset cooler?

 

[Niels W K]

I got 200/400 it ran but not all that stable without a Northbridgefancooler, so I am getting one of those soon.
But for normal use(no games) it went away happily with that.

 

[Monaco]

Mine's made it to 202mhz so far... it's very stable doing Windows stuff until I run a benchmark, or play a 3D game, and then it crashes very quickly. This is with stock cooler, voltages, everything.

Ran @ 200mhz for a full day doing web surfing, etc, and then died immediately when I tried to run a 3DMark.

 

[Duke3d87]

died as in fried or died as in crashed? Are you using the defult northbridge cooler? Because i herd that the nForce2 Gives off alot of heat.

 

[Monaco]

sorry I meant died as in crashed

still have the stock NB cooler on there. It doesn't really get too hot- I'm not using the onboard vid; that may be why.

 

[irish80122]

Past 200???

Monaco (or anyone else) under the most current Bios revision can you go past 200? My mobo won't let me go, once I hit 200 it goes back to 100. I am just wondering if you have found this as well because I know you were talking about going over 200. Please help, I am stuck at 2.2 with my 2500+ Barton until I get it above!!! Thanks

 

[Monaco]

no, I can't! I can't get past 200, I can't even get it to 190. With the 1.1 BIOS, it ran @ 190 and higher with ease. Highest I can get to stably now is 180, anything more and she won't boot at all.

I also think the 1.2 BIOS breaks the vcore adjustment- no matter what I do, my vcore is between 1.58 and 1.6v. Need to do more tests, to be sure tho.

 

[irish80122]

I really hope that MSI gives some new updates for the Bios because so far this board hasn't thrilled me. This chipset has so many options, yet they really are handcuffing us. I emailed them asking about why it couldn't go over 400, and also if it was possible in a future bios to put in the insert key feature. I got the answer that 400 was as high as it will go (which isn't true, it is as high as they will let it go through) and they told me that their current bios couldn't deal with the insert key feature (no duh). Not helpful at all, so I gave up. I am just praying now, but if there is a really good OCing motherboard, I may jump ship, though I really don't want to since I just got this board. I just hope MSI realizes why people buy this board and they let us do what we do best. Until then, I will be OCing with the side of my case open just in case I have to get down there and do the dumb jumpers. UGH!!!

 

[Monaco]

dude I agree 100% with everything you said. If they give us a good BIOS, maybe all will be well. But I think I see the Asus NF2 mobo in my future, instead of this junker.

 

[irish80122]

dude I agree 100% with everything you said. If they give us a good BIOS, maybe all will be well. But I think I see the Asus NF2 mobo in my future, instead of this junker.

I know, I am trying not to think that way, I really want to be positive and have this work perfectly, but I don't know, I may have to make a change even though I don't want to spend the money. At least I have gotten my 2500+ up to 11*200. I wish it would let me go farter than 200, I could do so much more!