$550 later neo plat=crap

[Filter]

Originally posted by Radical_53
Problem with 225 is that you're using SATA Raid. Put your two discs from 1+2 to 3+4 (above AGP), and you'll be at 230.

You can get higher, but not with a Raid array. All NF250 with native SATA do have this problem.

i've only been using 1 raptor to try and figure this out. if you been following my other thread in teh overclocking section. i dont know why they moved this to amd section when it deals with overclocking. but anyways i've been only using 1 sata port and i've tried it in all 4 ports.

[mesyn191]

It depends, some people have been able to get the K8N to work better using SATA ports 3 and 4 while others haven't. Personally it didn't do crap for me.

As to your friend's experience with the K8N I would say that his is a corner case, a handful of other people have been able to get overclocks like his but _only_ a handful. Most users in general don't get past 225 (or even less) or have problems like I did, if you don't believe me then I suggest you go to MSI's forums and take a look for your self as there are a LOT of people having problems with the K8N Neo.

My experience with the 8KDA3+ on the other hand has been a breeze, it booted perfectly the first time I set it up and installing windows was never quicker (hot damn these A64's are fast as hell even at stock!!). Overclocking was the only thing that could be said to be disappointing on this board as I can't get over 240Mhz Mem/HTT with 1GB of RAM without it being stable, but that beats the crap out of the K8N...

FYI I'm using 2x36GB Raptors in RAID 0 and the thing runs fine and always has since I booted it up the first time, so its not the Raptors (or SATA) that are causing Filter's problems....

[Demogorg]

hopefully the dfi will get bigger, i can run 250 1:1 or 260 5/6

the latest bios (1.33 or 1.31 both good) go really well now

you should give him a try. But i suppose i wil get the dfi too if there is no soultion upcomming (i need 3ghz to get my penis long enough )

[Radical_53]

@infinite: Not true? So what's it all about then?

@mesyn: Well, personally I haven't seen anyone before who had more than 225 or 230 with a SATA Raid.

To me, it seemed to be the chipset as it where the same scores at 225 or 230 on the Asus K8N-E too.

[neon26]

I had a hell of a time getting this board to live up to the reviews. It seems like even though the memory controller is on the die of the processor this board is very picky about memory. I had bad luck with OCZ pc3500 EL(2x256 and also 1x512) and also with Mushkin special 222 2x256(refurb from newegg and not tested good on any other boards). pc4000 Vitesta 2x256 worked very well and 2x512mb pc4000 Crucial Ballistix seems to work pretty well also. Currently I am happy with the ballistix in mem slots 1+ 2 and running 9.5x245 1:1 with 2.5,2,2,5 timings. Getting this board to run correctly was a major hassle/money pit and I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a new s754 board.

[HKPolice]

Originally posted by neon26
I had a hell of a time getting this board to live up to the reviews. It seems like even though the memory controller is on the die of the processor this board is very picky about memory. I had bad luck with OCZ pc3500 EL(2x256 and also 1x512) and also with Mushkin special 222 2x256(refurb from newegg and not tested good on any other boards). pc4000 Vitesta 2x256 worked very well and 2x512mb pc4000 Crucial Ballistix seems to work pretty well also. Currently I am happy with the ballistix in mem slots 1+ 2 and running 9.5x245 1:1 with 2.5,2,2,5 timings. Getting this board to run correctly was a major hassle/money pit and I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a new s754 board.

What voltage you using and chips are on the Ballistix PC4000?

[WesM63]

Filter please tell me you've tried diffrent dividers.

[Filter]

Originally posted by WesM63
Filter please tell me you've tried diffrent dividers.

oh yeah i've tried everything possible.

like i said once i get the dfi i'm taking the GF dad shotgun to this board.

[Demogorg]

maybe can do something for this board a new bios of a proffesional (not like the newbs at msi) can do some things to optimize it

for now you can say the board cannot handle 2 dimms

with 1 dimm many people can get 300 fsb (some even 1:1 with 1t) so .... its important to know if it is only the bios or the whole hardware

[Walrusbonzo]

I've tried a ot with this board too.... Every bios setting imaginable, tried different RAM, one Stick and two sticks, all RAM slots, 4 different PSUs, all 4 SATA ports for my 120GB Maxtor DM+9......

Just can't get it stable any higher than 225MHz~230MHz

[boshi]

I got two DOA K8N neo boards, then got an 8KDA3J, and its 3d and prime stable at 330HTT, with no mods or anything.

MSI = lose.

[Filter]

like been posted i've tire 1 dimm 2 dimm 4 different type of memors cant get past 225fsb

[matt simis]

I assume you are talking about 1:1 Speed here? I have it at 290MHz 3x HT with Memory at 193Mhz (ie DRR266 setting), which is obviously quite slow memory wise. The board will not boot at 1x or 2x HTT and setting the CPU voltage too high causes the PC to power off shortly after boot.

The (1x 1GB) stick of ram works upto 220MHz in the Shuttle AN50R. Ive also tried 2x Winbond BH5 sticks (2x 512MB) with little difference. I then picked up some Twinmos DDR4300 (DDR533) for a good price. However, at virtually any speed the machine again turns itself off when using them under load.

I have a Mach II cooler for the CPU, no mods yet. I suspect the chipset heatsink sucks..



Matt

[neon26]

Originally posted by HKPolice
What voltage you using and chips are on the Ballistix PC4000?

Voltage on the cpu is 1.75 and 2.85 for the mem. One odd thing I noticed using Athlon64 tweaker is that when using mem slots 1+3 a64 tweaker shows slots 0,1, and 2 enabled. When using slots 1+2 a64 tweaker shows only slots 1 and 2 enabled. Not sure what that would mean for memory overclockability/stability but I sure have had much better luck with slots 1+2. And of coarse single sided(like vitesta pc4000) has no trouble with overclocking or stability. All my issues are trying to get a decent OC at 1:1 with two double sided memory sticks. As for the chips on the Ballistix I'm not sure(haven't taken off the cool orange heatspreaders). I believe that the brand would probably be Micron chips though(shocked?).

@walrus and filter What sort of cooling do you have on the chipset? I would definetely at least use some good quality thermal paste and remove the MSI logo plate(mine rattled in a very annoying way) from the stock unit and mount a fan blowing at it.

[Trixxy]

Filter, dunno if you've tried this, but if you have an old ide drive lying about give it a try.
The highest I can go with sata drives is about 225 - 230htt (raid or single, tried all 4 ports). With an ide drive it's stable at 280+htt, so I'll be getting the DFI as soon as I see some sata results.

[HKPolice]

Wow, 245Mhz 2.5-2-2-5 with ONLY 2.85v?!?? Thats crazy, for 2x 512MB sticks. Single sided tho?? hmm..

I know they're micron chips, but we need to know if they're -5BC or -5BG or maybe -4ns??

Are you SURE you're running at 245Mhz?? I remember that running with *.5 multipliers = lower mem divider. IE 9.5x multiplier = cpu/10 mem divider....

Originally posted by neon26
Voltage on the cpu is 1.75 and 2.85 for the mem. One odd thing I noticed using Athlon64 tweaker is that when using mem slots 1+3 a64 tweaker shows slots 0,1, and 2 enabled. When using slots 1+2 a64 tweaker shows only slots 1 and 2 enabled. Not sure what that would mean for memory overclockability/stability but I sure have had much better luck with slots 1+2. And of coarse single sided(like vitesta pc4000) has no trouble with overclocking or stability. All my issues are trying to get a decent OC at 1:1 with two double sided memory sticks. As for the chips on the Ballistix I'm not sure(haven't taken off the cool orange heatspreaders). I believe that the brand would probably be Micron chips though(shocked?).

@walrus and filter What sort of cooling do you have on the chipset? I would definetely at least use some good quality thermal paste and remove the MSI logo plate(mine rattled in a very annoying way) from the stock unit and mount a fan blowing at it.

[tennvols_69]

im running my neo-fsr at 330htt x 7 with 3x ht multi rams at ddr266 setting putting ram speed at 440 on my ocz 3700eb stock voltage all the way around

[jhatfie]

Originally posted by Radical_53
Problem with 225 is that you're using SATA Raid. Put your two discs from 1+2 to 3+4 (above AGP), and you'll be at 230.

You can get higher, but not with a Raid array. All NF250 with native SATA do have this problem.

I was just wondering about this today. Why you ask?

I was testing my new 3200+ and VNF3-250 with my ti4200 and a single Hitachi SATA drive with the OEM cooler on the cpu while waiting for my 9800 Pro and second Hitachi drive to arrive. Had no problems getting over 340 HTT and hitting 2.61ghz on 1.65v (1.68v in bios).

Now with everything together, VNF3-250, 2x80GB Hitachi SATA's Raid0, Sapphire 9800 Pro, Fully Watercooled (Whitewater, Hydor L30, Dtek Pro-Core), Zalman passive cooler on northbridge, OCZ Powerstream 520W, OCZ PC3500EB that does up to 275 on my other VNF3. And I now have trouble getting to 2.5ghz on 1.7v and my HTT tops out at about 280-285 now with all the setting the same as before.

[tennvols_69]

maybe the waterblock isnt seated correctly. also it might be your sata you got nay other sata raid ports you can try.

[jhatfie]

Originally posted by tennvols_69
maybe the waterblock isnt seated correctly. also it might be your sata you got nay other sata raid ports you can try.

I tried remounting the block twice. My temps are 10-15C better than with the OEM cooler at the same voltage. The VNF3 only has the two SATA ports sadly. I could try using each drive individually, but there have been no crashes or harddrive errors under normal operation so far. Hitachi HD tests all pass fine.

[neon26]

Originally posted by HKPolice
Wow, 245Mhz 2.5-2-2-5 with ONLY 2.85v?!?? Thats crazy, for 2x 512MB sticks. Single sided tho?? hmm..

I know they're micron chips, but we need to know if they're -5BC or -5BG or maybe -4ns??

Are you SURE you're running at 245Mhz?? I remember that running with *.5 multipliers = lower mem divider. IE 9.5x multiplier = cpu/10 mem divider....

Yeah, the divider would actually make more sense because it can't go past 9x237 with the same timings and voltages. Check out this sandra that I took earlier today though. The divider should only work on .5 multis, right? This was only with a multi of 4 and the mem bandwidth is much lower than I get at 9x245, but with no .5 multi how would the divisor be calculated? In bios the memory is set to a 1 to 1 ratio. There must be some sort of divisor working though as I doubt my memory is this good. I was also able to get cpu-z shots of 4x310 btw.