The OFFICIAL MSI K8N Neo2-939 tips and tricks guide thread

[Minnyboy]

I don't have a booster so is there anyway i can get more than 3.3v to the ram with a mod? Also, where is everyone getting the 1.3b6 bios i can't find it anywhere atm. Let me know if i should be doing something else cause i'm at a loss right now Thanks in advance.

Need DDR Booster or Vdimm mod mate... There should a a thread for the Vdimm mod somewhere here. I use the DDR Booster, saves a lot of trouble.

Here's the link for ppl who don't wanna search the first page of this thread.

K8N Neo2 1.36b Bios.

Gotta get rid of my 130nm 3500+ & get meself a 3200+ 90nm... CPU isn't stable past 11x230. Lowering multi to 10.5x242 ain't stable either even though is ends up being the speed... Lowering HTT don't help either...

Best I could get my 2x512MB XMS3500 was 242MHz@2-2-2-6-7-16-1T... That's running OCZ memtest86 for over 11 hours...I'm not even going to bother with 2T...

Cheers,
Minnyboy

edit: CPU VID is Vcore under a different name...

As for HTT: I ripped this straight from sierra_bound...

Since many people are switching to A64 for the first time, I thought I'd provide a little primer. I posted some of this information in the Asus A8V thread, and thought I'd give a little broader explanation here.

Technically speaking, there is no FSB on A64 systems. FSB is a bus that allows the CPU to communicate with system memory. A64 systems use a different type of connection called HyperTransport. It's a point-to-point link. The term HTT is used to described the connection speed. This is roughly equivalent to FSB but not the same thing.

The general formula for determining optimal HyperTransport speed is HTT (FSB) X HT multiplier. The multipliers are sometimes listed in the BIOS as frequencies that are multiples of 200MHz. 1000MHz = 5x, 800MHz = 4X, etc.

The HyperTransport speed should not exceed the motherboard's specs. The Asus A8V, for example, has a maximum HyperTransport speed of 1000MHz. So using the formula, if you have HTT at 250, the HT multiplier should be set no higher than 800MHz (4X). 250 X 4 = 1000.

More information about HyperTransport can be found here (http://www.hypertransport.org/faqs.html#b) and here (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...2_2353,00.html)

[PnoT]

Need DDR Booster or Vdimm mod mate... There should a a thread for the Vdimm mod somewhere here. I use the DDR Booster, saves a lot of trouble.

Found the thread and i'm going to attempt the mods tonight. I can't afford a booster atm due to buying a new system and a mod'd promy from chilly1..

Here's the link for ppl who don't wanna search the first page of this thread.

I found the 1.36 but ppl kept saying it was 1.3b6 which got me mixed up.

edit: CPU VID is Vcore under a different name...

Dunno why that threw me off duh

As for HTT: I ripped this straight from sierra_bound...

Very informative and helpful response i REALLY appreciate it.
I've been reading for the last 3 nights on the board and it's quirks so tonight i'm going to see what i can really do with it. I'm 2.65ghz on my 3200+ right now, on air, stable but i definately want more.

[The Virus]

Well,
BH-5 seems to work just FINE
here's sPi stable @ 310HTT, 248fsb, 2-2-2-5 @ 5:4 @ 3.4V
I "broke" Sandra.....

Charlie, how do you set 5:4 ratio in bios??? I looked everywhere and i cant find it. God , im so confused . Plus, why is the 5th pci slot colored in orange?? What does it mean?

[zakelwe]

Can someone tell me where to measure VTT on the board ? For the 754 it was above the memory slots but on the 939 there is just one measuring point for VDIMM between the slots and the edge of the board ( the black/white circle obviously ! )

I keep dropping out to desktop in dragothic and wonder if this is because on my board VTT does not track VDIMM at 1/2 ratio for some reason.

Regards

Andy

[arj]

The ratio is in the Cell Menu>DRAM Configuration>Max Memclock
The ratios are 100, 133, 166, and 200

As for your second question, the manual says that "The orange PCI slot (PCI5) also works as a communication slot, which allows you to insert the communication card". Whatever that is! LOL

[The Virus]

I'm so pissed off right now. I can't even do 12x217fsb with 4xhtt which is 2.6ghz ,stock fx55 speeds and my htt is below 1000. My ram is even rated at 217fsb and passes memtest everytime so i know its not the ram. I'm starting to believe this mobo doesn't have working PCI when comes to SATA drives. I do have an ide hd in my closet so ill give it a try tomorrow.

[d]g[ts]

Two SATA ports are locked, and two are not. forget which two are since i dont use them. but the answer to which are locked is somewhere in these forums

[arj]

Which SATA port are you using? Use SATA port 3 and 4 only because 1 and 2 can't be locked.

[The Virus]

Which SATA port are you using? Use SATA port 3 and 4 only because 1 and 2 can't be locked.

Im using 3/4 closest to the cpu. In bios i have everything disabled for 1/2 ports and everything enabled for 3/4. This sucks, i had better success with ABit nf7-s which did 220fsb 1:1. Why aren't the 1/2 ports locked anyway?? WTF ? why do all chipmakes advertise that their boards have pci/agp locks but when they come out they dont. I dunno, im pretty sure it has to do with sata, ill try my ide tomorrow.

[mike.elmes]

Just wondering ....how many different revisions are there on this board. I have one, and it's a rev. 1.0
I am planning on using a PCI raid card, and a ram booster. Must have added dim voltage for the EB.

[Sucka]

Will the MSI Update program work with the 1.36/37 BIOS, cause i don't have a floppy atm, and if so, could you give a breif discription of how to do it, thanks, this is my first ever AMD system.

[The Virus]

Will the MSI Update program work with the 1.36/37 BIOS, cause i don't have a floppy atm, and if so, could you give a breif discription of how to do it, thanks, this is my first ever AMD system.

Yes, read here. It's really easy,


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=44481

[Sucka]

Yes, read here. It's really easy,


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=44481

Thanks.

Can anyone comment on the on-board sound for this Motherboard? I would have to pull my card from another computer unless the on-board is decent enough.

[Sucka]

Another thing i want to figure out, how come i get that flash menu saying something about Nvidia IDE RAID, even though i have RAID disabled in the BIOS, what am i missing here? I really don't want to see that thing popup each reboot when i'm not even using RAID.

[Vranichou]

OK, I found the Neo 2, the 3500+ Winchester, now all I need is the RAM. What's the best way to go? Patriot PC3200 XBLK or PC4200 ELK? The ELK timings are 3-4-4-8 at 2.6 VDimm. I got nothing against OCing the 3200 to 260+ MHZ, but if I'm gonna be running the same timings as the 4200 at a 3.0 VDimm, why bother?

-=Vran=-

[CodeRed]

Dunno why everyone says this MSI board sucks

mine seems to work OK


or this way too (for same pifast score)


thats a 97 MHz improvement over my giga board
just lost a bit on the mem clocks (6 MHz), but I'll fix that soon

[charlie]

Codered,
Good to see you check out this thread!
Yeah, mines working well, too. I'm running 305HTT @ 250mHz.... I was wondering what the best A64 tweaker settings were, and now I know, lol...

[CodeRed]

Codered,
Good to see you check out this thread!
Yeah, mines working well, too. I'm running 305HTT @ 250mHz.... I was wondering what the best A64 tweaker settings were, and now I know, lol...

yeah those settings are best for pifast and superpi
they are also very good for 3dmark, but not sure if they are the best yet.

[Poki]

Thanks.

Can anyone comment on the on-board sound for this Motherboard? I would have to pull my card from another computer unless the on-board is decent enough.

It's not that bad but i did switch back to my old audigy card to take some load of the cpu in games. Using any EQ you can get decent quality out if it, but it doesn't do 64 sounds which i must have for gaming or i have real problems.

[Sucka]

Ok, i've got my system all setup now, and something just doesn't seem right with it, so any help would be nice. Keep in mind, this is my first AMD build, so not only am i a noob, but i'm working with something i know very little about.

Hardware:
FX-55 (using stock FX-53 heatsink, waiting on XP-90)
MSI Neo2 1.36Beta
2x512 Gskill TCCD
6800 GT OC by BFG
Antec True Power 550
WD 74GB Raptor
Onboard Sound and LAN (non MAC one?)

My main BIOS settings are AGP 1.65v with 128mb aperture. RAM volts are default, CPU voltage is default with "vid" default as well, no % increase or whatever that is, something i still don't understand to begin with. ATI/Nvidia in special menu is disabled, RAID disabled, SATA 1-2 disabled, MAC LAN Disabled, HTT is at 3x, FSB is at 260, multi is at 10, AGP is at 67, spread spectrum disabled..i think that's most of it, at least all i can think of without rebooting right now. My memory timings are 2.5-3-3-7-1T. I haven't attempted to overclock, A) I don't have a clue what i'm doing, and B) i am waiting to burn in and get my new heatsink.

Now here's my problem. My 6800 GT OC card has a default clock of 370/1.0. I had been running it in my Intel rig at 420/1.10 for about a weeks time, no problems at all. If i even overclock it by 1MHz on this new AMD, i get artifacting like crazy, and benchmarks take on this crazy look. Aquamark will freeze, and have weird lags in it, plus weird artifacts i can't even describe. 3DMark 03 will have weird artifacting as well i can't describe, and even if the bench runs all the way through, it still is about 10K points less in aqua, and 3K less in Mark 03, now if someone can explain this to me, you get a cookie. Bassically i can't overclock this graphics card at all anymore, and my Intel rig spanks it in benches because of this.

Another thing i dislike about this board is the fact that everytime i reboot, i get the Nvidia IDE RAID pop up screen that sits on "detecting array..." for about 3-5 seconds, even though i have RAID disabled within my BIOS, not a big problem, but VERY annoying never-the-less, little help on getting rid of that would be cool too. Overall it's a nice CPU, it does beat out my intel at default clocks in CPU dependent benches, but as for this motherboard, i am not a fan so far, keeping in mind this is my first ever AMD and have nothing to comapare it to..lol

If you can suggest anything about my weird gfx problem that would be cool. Thanks.

[Poki]

Does Prime95 run without errors on it? Run the ram at 2.7v instead of default is one suggestion.
BTW, that is one kickass system you have there... When you get it ironed out you'll be sooo happy!

[Sucka]

Does Prime95 run without errors on it? Run the ram at 2.7v instead of default is one suggestion.
BTW, that is one kickass system you have there... When you get it ironed out you'll be sooo happy!

I don't think that's it though, cause everything is works great on the settings i have posted above, it's when i throw in gfx overclocking that the thing really drags. I will try that though, thanks for the input.

And i was hoping to really like this setup, but so far i miss my intel just for the fact that i know what i'm doing on the Intel platform, it's far better in multitasking, and i can overclock the graphics which is the most important part to me, being that i am a gamer. We'll see how it is once i get some better cooling, and overclock the CPU some. I just haven't been impressed with it yet, and that RAID popup screen is driving me nuts.....lol

[Blue078]

Hardware:
FX-55 (using stock FX-53 heatsink, waiting on XP-90)
MSI Neo2 1.36Beta
2x512 Gskill TCCD
6800 GT OC by BFG
Antec True Power 550
WD 74GB Raptor
Onboard Sound and LAN (non MAC one?)

My main BIOS settings are AGP 1.65v with 128mb aperture. RAM volts are default, CPU voltage is default with "vid" default as well, no % increase or whatever that is, something i still don't understand to begin with. ATI/Nvidia in special menu is disabled, RAID disabled, SATA 1-2 disabled, MAC LAN Disabled, HTT is at 3x, FSB is at 260, multi is at 10, AGP is at 67, spread spectrum disabled..i think that's most of it, at least all i can think of without rebooting right now. My memory timings are 2.5-3-3-7-1T. I haven't attempted to overclock,

Dissable Fast Writes in BIOS is a must for the NV card.
I couldnt even get my GT stable at default clocks with FW enabled.

Next thing for system stability and OCing, make sure you dissable the setting in Cell Menu called "Agressive Timing"

[Sucka]

Dissable Fast Writes in BIOS is a must for the NV card.
I couldnt even get my GT stable at default clocks with FW enabled.

Next thing for system stability and OCing, make sure you dissable the setting in Cell Menu called "Agressive Timing"

Thanks for the tip. I honestly don't really know what that does though, but i'll try it....lol

And Agressive Timing is disabled.

Seems my memory will overclock, but the core just will not go up without some sort of weirdness involved. Never have i seen overclocking decrease scores....new one on me anyhoo.

[Poki]

I'm starting to wonder if your videocard is too hot and thermal throttling is kicking in. I haven't had a card that had that kind of thermal control but it sure sounds like that's what's happening.
Pop the side panel off and blow a fan in there is you think it may be an issue.