MSI K8N NEO Platinum

[michaelkahl]

I just got my MSI board today and will be installing it tonight to see how it does. The Athlon 64 3200+ I have is a CO stepping. Does anyone know how well they do??? I'm hoping for at least 2.2GHz??? I'll get everything setup and running stable before I start diving into the OC...I need to do my homework and read on OC'n these little guys. It should far well with my X800PRO!

 

[Section8]

I have heard great things about that MOBO.

 

[Busty St. Clair]

i have heard great things about the mobo but i think the C0's don't do that well but 2.2ghz is possible. the CG's do a lot better from what i heard.

 

[Jhatfie]

My CO does 2.5ghz. What is the stepping of yours? Mine is a CAAOC 0402. I think that you should get at least 2.2-2.3ghz, more if you got a better newer one. The MSI is a great board although I've read that a handful of people have been having some problems with getting the HTT over 240.

 

[CandymanCan]

Sorry to burst youre bubbles about the board guys but it was good when they were first released reviews seemed good also. but have you noticed everyone or most people on the forum who have the board are having quility issues, some are on thier 2nd and 3rd board now because of defects.

Also the MSI forum is packed with tons of problems. I hope u dont have problems like people are with this board so best of luck. Oh and to answer ur question the CO is the revision not the stepping. The stepping is the thing like CAABC OR CBASC ect. Just like the AXP'S.

The CO revision is the older one and they most seem to get 2.2-2.3ghz, while the CG are getting 2.4-2.6ghz. Most of them anyway

 

[Busty St. Clair]

hmm thats odd a few people on these forums have the msi k8n neo platinum and they seem to like it.

 

[michaelkahl]

well I'll get it all setup later tonight I'm late to work because I got off work late??? hmm??? anyway I got the cpu in and the hsf mounted and I got the ram installed. Just need to finish hooking it up then I'll install the OS and see what happens If it doesn't overclock that well I'll live, it's definately a step or two up and gives great performance.

 

[WhatTheSchmidt]

Sorry to burst youre bubbles about the board guys but it was good when they were first released reviews seemed good also. but have you noticed everyone or most people on the forum who have the board are having quility issues, some are on thier 2nd and 3rd board now because of defects.

Also the MSI forum is packed with tons of problems. I hope u dont have problems like people are with this board so best of luck. Oh and to answer ur question the CO is the revision not the stepping. The stepping is the thing like CAABC OR CBASC ect. Just like the AXP'S.

The CO revision is the older one and they most seem to get 2.2-2.3ghz, while the CG are getting 2.4-2.6ghz. Most of them anyway

you are making it sound worse than it really is....the main issue is just with the bios, and on here there are issues using DTR/mobile chips..but it works pretty damn well. Of course the people in the MSI forum have probs, thats WHY they are THERE lol. For most people it's flawless....I can't wait for a new bios though so I can hopefully overclock from the bios.

 

[hooah]

you are making it sound worse than it really is....the main issue is just with the bios, and on here there are issues using DTR/mobile chips..but it works pretty damn well. Of course the people in the MSI forum have probs, thats WHY they are THERE lol. For most people it's flawless....I can't wait for a new bios though so I can hopefully overclock from the bios.

I'm sorry, I agree with candymancan. I had two defaulty MSI K8N Neo boards and the damn second one caught on fire! (AMD MSI MB section) Now i'm going to EPOX (should arrive Monday)

but that dosen't mean yours may not be good...try it out, who knows, maybe it will be a kickass overclocker. I just can't recommend this board when anyone asks about it because of the problems i've seen with it. Good luck, let us know how it works out

 

[oc_byagi]

we already had this discussion countless times. I've owned MSI K8N, and it crashed every single time I attempted to install FarCry. Temp reading on Newcastle was something like 65c. You have to RESET THE CMOS when you overclocked beyond the limit!!!!!! (WORST PART, putting the jumper back and forth EVERYTIME YOU OVERCLOCK). Now I'm back with AXP setup and I'm nice and peaceful. Sorry if I dissapointed some, but there seems to be TONS OF problems on this board, though few seems to run it fine. It's all luck and draw.

 

[Jess1313]

I will have to agree, I hated mine so bad I took it out of the case. But personally I think that if it had the right VMODS it could take off real good. If you work with it you can probably get what your trying 4.

It is real picky with ram, & other settings but I finally got mine to 250 HTT but it took alot off learning.

By the time you get it going you will probably settle 4 less than you started out with.

Acouple off things I can tell you though.

Use 3 & 4 sata connectors, go 3x on LDT, max the voltage out on everything(except AGP), use the first & third ram slots, use single sided ram, forget BH5 or BH6 unless you VMOD, & if you cant get it to do much get the latest beta bios. I have it here if you cant find it. Also it will not install raid if you use W2k unless you have the one with SP4 built in. If there is a way to add SP4 when loading I dont know it but there may be away.

Also the first few settings about agressive timings & performance CPU, may be called something differant but leave them dissabled. Good Luck & if we can help just post.

 

[michaelkahl]

I'm installing windows...so far so good...i have three sticks of ram totaling 1gb all running at pc3200 specs like it's supposed to. I'll let you guys know as soon as I get it all installed

 

[michaelkahl]

Results are in...NO FIRES...at this time...hopefully never...I just got done running 3dmark2k1 and got a score of 23422 and on 3dmark03 I got a score of 11572!!! Not to bad and the only thing overclocked or tweaked is the video card and it's running 540 core and 580 mem!!! Far Cry runs wonderfully of course Definately a nice board and so far I've had nothing but a good experience. I just hope and pray that it stays that way. I'll run prime95 tonight to ensure it's all stable.

 

[CandymanCan]

Run Memtest86, i found that prime95 doesnt do a good job checking for chipset and memory stability on my board so i run memtest86 and prime95.

 

[Jess1313]

That sound cool, what clocks are you runnign the board at.

 

[michaelkahl]

everything except the video card is stock...i need to really know my p's and q's about A64 oc'ing before I jump in...so any advice would be helpful if you could please?

 

[michaelkahl]

is there a way to check to ensure that my pci and agp speeds are locked?

 

[Gautam]

They are locked on that board. Read this, hopefully it will help you.

 

[NiTrO bOiE]

Yep, they are locked. Just make sure you set your FSB to 201 or higher to lock the PCI, AGP is locked no matter what FSB. You DO NOT have to set AGP to 68.

 

[michaelkahl]

I got the CPU stable (so far further testing is required) @ 2.2GHz with 1.65v and the AMD retail HSF...I got 3dmark2k1 to get a stable run through at 2.25 but then it crashed in 3dmark03. Here are my scores.
3dmark2003: 11,777
3dmark2k1: 25,079
Sisoft: CPU 9365
3486/4483
Multi 21036
22620
This isn't to bad considering i have cheap ram and the retail hsf...my temps are 36c idle and 44c load. That's all I'v seen so far this morning. I'll do more testing to ensure stability though but it all looks good