jmke

Is the latest MSI motherboard for Socket 939 capable of delivering blistering fast performance when combined with your expensive CPU? We take a closer look at the Neo2 Platinum edition, and see how much performance increase we get from upping the HTT speed

http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=228

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Sidney

In short, is this a keeper or just so so?

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lazyman

Opteron 165 (2) @2.85 1.42 vcore AMD Stock HSF + Chill Vent II

JNav89GT

good board, will get even better with bios update to fix OCZ eb ram issue.

agent #2

I have a 9800 pro + vga silencer. Will the northbridge fan block my card + cooler then?

JNav89GT

won't block install but removal will be tricky as stated in review

jikdoc

great review, you hit on all the points i thought of while fiddling around with my new k8n neo2.

the agp lock tab issue is especially relevant, my heart was pounding when i had my screwdriver pointed at the mobo trying to release it, praying i wouldn't scratch it.

this is my 1st build, and i'm happy with it to an extent. i have noticed a problem overclocking and i'm not sure if it's cuz this is my 1st attempt or if it's an actual hardware issue.

i have ocz 3700eb 2x512 and can only bench prime95 stably up to 220. after disabling, sata 1/2 i could boot into windows at 10x255, bench with 3dmark05, sandra and superpi but would always fail with prime 95. i also noticed that i could never really get my a64 3800+ to get much above 2.5ghz regardless of the multiplier, i.e. 10x255, 11x230, 12x208.

to sum up, did i get a dud cpu that won't get above 2.5 or is it an issue with the mobo and ocz ram.

i ran memtest with low cpu multipliers to try to single out cpu vs ram, but never really had the patience to wait longer than 15 minutes per setting.

JNav89GT

well I didn't have any luck with my EB in this board. My OCZ gold 3700 rev3 did much better. My G. Skill is even better(wait for review). I think your 3800+ should oc much better. What cooling and powersupply do you have. Your ram shouldn't lower your oc at lower HTT speeds.

edit: nm I see zalman. I'd want to know how your contact w/your cpu + Heatsink. What vcore. I'd pump 1.7-1.75 into it aircooled.

Temps on the board are wacked. pm me and I'll give you beta bios that might fix EB ram issue.

jikdoc

i used AS5 for the zalman and the cpu and my psu is ocz520. i went up to 1.65 on the vcore trying to get stable benches without any luck.

i'll try increasing the vcore, the temps are wacked but i find using speedfan gives me results that are more in line with the bios temps.

i read on the ocz support forum that they will swap eb for another memory that'll work on the k8n neo2. is that how you got your rev3? would you recommend 3200 rev2 or 3700 rev3? it's a shame since i paid a pretty penny for the 3700eb.

JNav89GT

erm, I'm not sure which one of those two I'd go. I have an article coming out soon I think that I co-wrote with Liquid3d that compared each of those. In the MSI in fact. I think the newer 3200EL rev2 is probably better overall than the gold 3700rev3. However, my rev3 3700 is solid up to about 260-265 and I really like it. the 3200EL i tested needed looser timings, but some newer stuff I see people getting on forums is really impressive tolerateing 2.5 3:3:7 up to 270-275.

You might be better off selling the 3700eb and just buying outright some 3200 or 3700gold

jikdoc

i caved in and ordered the rev2's, i'll compare the two and let you know. on further review, i think my eb's work fine with the neo2. i'm hitting fsb 250 at 3-3-2-8 and getting around 7.1k sandra buff. my cpu max oc is about 2.5ghz on air with a zalman which sounds about normal. i'm gonna try to hit 275x9 with the rev2's and see how that works.