K8N Neo4 Platinum as HTPC mobo questions

I've been looking at building a Home Theater PC (HTPC) for a little while now and have been investigating various parts, including possible motherboards. The MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum is a key canidate and I was wondering if I could get some advice from people who actually use the board as to whether it would be suitable. Here is the basic run down of what I need:
1) I have read that there are potential issues with the AMD 90nm cores. It seems a lot of people in the forum are running them though. Has the problem been cleared up with the latest BIOS? (I am looking at using at least a 3500+ Venice core, but might try to go a little higher).
2) The board has a cooling fan on it, How loud is it? (The goal is to try and make the system as silent as possible without going over budget)
3) Front side Firewire connector - it seems like its located between two PCI slots. Has this posed a problem?
4) The PCI slot "reserved" as a comm slot - is it usable for other PCI devices? (One reason this board is on the short list is that it has 4 PCI slots. I plan on putting in at least 3 tuner cards, possibly 4 or using the 4th for a sound card or some other device. Thus, having this slot available as a general purpose PCI is important. Some retailers claim it is 'reserved' others don't.)
Any other recommendations would also be appreciated. Especially as concerns silencing and processor choice.
-Watson

Quote from: watson on 08-March-06, 00:54:50
1) I have read that there are potential issues with the AMD 90nm cores. It seems a lot of people in the forum are running them though. Has the problem been cleared up with the latest BIOS? (I am looking at using at least a 3500+ Venice core, but might try to go a little higher).
There were, make sure u get a E4 revision or higher. 99,9% of CPU's shipped today will have that.
Quote from: watson on 08-March-06, 00:54:50
2) The board has a cooling fan on it, How loud is it? (The goal is to try and make the system as silent as possible without going over budget)
Very, I have the same fan. I run it at 5v, than it's OK, u can get an adapter in most PC shops. Getting a passive haetsink is also a possibility, but that will void your warrenty.
Quote from: watson on 08-March-06, 00:54:50
3) Front side Firewire connector - it seems like its located between two PCI slots. Has this posed a problem?
Dunno, Don't see why, make sure u get a HTPC with a front bracket with a FW port.
Quote from: watson on 08-March-06, 00:54:50
4) The PCI slot "reserved" as a comm slot - is it usable for other PCI devices? (One reason this board is on the short list is that it has 4 PCI slots. I plan on putting in at least 3 tuner cards, possibly 4 or using the 4th for a sound card or some other device. Thus, having this slot available as a general purpose PCI is important. Some retailers claim it is 'reserved' others don't.)
Hmm, my gues is that that would be a problem.
Quote from: watson on 08-March-06, 00:54:50
Any other recommendations would also be appreciated. Especially as concerns silencing and processor choice.
See if this will fit in ur HTPC (the 80mil one)
http://www.coolermaster-europe.com/index.php?LT=english&Language_s=2&url_place=product&p_serial=RL-MUA-E8U1%20/%20EBU1&other_title=+RL-MUA-E8U1%20%2F%20EBU1+AQUAGATE%20Mini%20R80%20%2F%20R120
Underclocking and undervolting will also help keeping the CPU cool = less need for noisy fans.
Be weary of components causing heat. Samsung HDD's are the coolest, use as many as the onboard stuff as possible, etc..
Stick to 1 casefan and put it on the NB-FAN, so Corecenter or Speedfan can manage the fan speed. Recomended brands are Papst, Panaflo and Vantec Stealth.
4GB limit is due to having a 32bit OS. With 32bits u can only adress a max of 3GB. It might work using XP 64-bit, but I don't see why a anyone would need it.

Similar Messages

IDE cables bundled with K8N Neo4 Platinum--80 wire or 40 wire?

Is the rounded IDE cable that comes with the K8N Neo4 Platinum (non-SLI) mobo an 80 wire or 40 wire cable? How can one tell?
I think I may be having some UDMA issues with my second hard drive (120GB Barracuda 7200.7 IDE). I installed XP on my SATA drive with no other drives connected and then added this IDE drive.
The rest of my setup is in my sig.
Thanks!
Bruce

OK. I checked my device manager for the info on my IDE drive. I looked at the properties of NVIDIA nForce4 Parallel ATA Controller.
Primary Channel:
HD Model # is ST3120026A. The drive set up as Ultra DMA 5 - Ultra 100. Checked boxes are "Let BIOS select transfer mode, Enable read caching, and Enable write caching. I did a speed test from Windows and it shows Theoretical limit of 100, Burst speed of 86.3 and Sustained speed of 58.1.
Secondary Channel:
DVD: _NEC DVD_RW ND-3540A. Transfer mode is Ultra DMA2 - Ultra 33. This is using a flat ribbon cable from an older computer. The only box checked is "Let BIOS select transfer mode".
Do these both look OK or do I need to change something?
Then I looked at the properties of NVIDIA nForce4 ADMA Controller and found:
My SATA drive (my boot drive) is HD model # ST3160812AS. Transfer mode is PIO Mode. Boxes checked are "Enable read caching, Enable write caching, and Enable command queuing. There is a yellow triangle that says "Transfer mode downgraded". I can't do a speed test.
What do I need to do to operate in Serial ATA Generation 2 - 3G? This is how this drive is supposed to operate.
Thanks!
Bruce

HELP ! CPU question on MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI Motherboard

Hello i've a simple Question : Does A64 3400+ S939 works on this board ?

Hi douglasp,
Things haven't changed since K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI + athlon 64 3400+ ????
There is no AMD64 3400 939 CPU - see AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor Model Numbers and Feature Comparison
754 CPu are single channel compatable withK8N Neo Platinum
939 CPu are Dual channel. compatable with K8N Neo4 Platinum
as someone said in previous thread it's probably a misprint.

PSU Dead and MOBO K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI Too, what can i do???

Yerterday i was sleeping and suddenly the PSU (Rosewill RP550) Blow away, I Inmediatly check the PSU and guess what? Fried!!! Then i went to sleep again to check the other components in the mourning. The next Mourning i took my old PSU and put an 20 to 24 pin adapter, placed it in the mobo and doesn´t work, next i put a friend PSU with 24 pin connector and nothing, next i test 2 or 3 PSUs more and nothing. After all this tests i started thinking that the mobo was having electrical issues. I went to a friend house and tested the processor ( AMD 3000+ CBBID 0505) and the Memory (OCZ Rev2 1GB), they worked. I couldn´t test the Video Card (MSI 6600GT 128MB) because i dont have any other mobo to check it.
Its Important to tell you guys that when i try to plug the PSU power conector to the MOBO the Fans and network led start for 1 second, then turn off, i try to start the computer and nothing happend. All this with the four PSUs.
A friend of mine which is a computers Technician told me that took off the MOBO batery, CPU and Memory and put Aluminiun foil all over and around the mobo to eliminate any static on it. What do yo think about this??
Please if you have any suggestion, i´ll be happy.
BTW: Which are the procedures to RMA both componnets ? I bough the mobo and PSU and the others components on www.newegg.com on May 09 2005.
Thanks for all.

Got my Newegg RMA board back (K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI) today! I mailed it to them Friday, they got it Monday and a replacement back to me today. Excellent turnaround
The board looks like it was refurbished because the anti-static bag was a bit wrinkled and had pinholes all over one section where the board couldn't have caused it. Also, it had bios 3.0 on it! The rest of the stuff in the board looks new but it didn't come with the USB 2.0 bracket which the first board I got did. Live and learn.
I flashed it to 3.2 and all appears to be working. Not gonna try 3.3. I read somewhere that there may be a beta 3.5 bios out somewhere. Maybe I'll wait till that one goes final.
Haven't had any experience with MSI support as far as RMA's but if this replacement board craps out I'll try them next.

Single Channel Dual Channel Question, K8N Neo4 Platinum

Just putting together a machine for the Daughter. Using MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum board 7125-010, MSI NX6600GT PCIE 128 Video card with AMD64 3700 CPU SD and a 1 GB stick of Crucial dual sided memory, CT12864Z40B, DDR 400 3200. The rest of my parts arrived and just got it all together and booted into the Bios. The boot screen tells me the memory is DDR Single Cannel, 64 bit running at 3-3-8-3 and 2T timings. I have been into the Bios setup, but had let the memory boot at Auto settings. Is what I am seeing on this screen OK because there is only one stick of memory installed? Or am I just confused as normal? I was thinking it should read Dual Channel, but I am hoping that is just my backwards thinking at times. I wish all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks in advance for the guidance.
Pop's

JayBee; Thank you very much for the quick response. The Daughter decided to go with the 1GB stick to begin with so as to possibly add another 1GB stick later. I don't think she will need it myself, judging by her computer use. She does no gaming or multi-tasking, so there probably will be no need to add more memory in the future. I was just wondering if there is any noticable performance hit by using a single stick vs a pair of matched 512's?? I used the same MB as in my sig, but noticed the new one has an upgraded BIOS. I hope it is an improvement, because I have yet had no problems with my machine which has the V1.6 BIOS. This new one which is about 2 months newer than mine has a BIOS V1.A in the bios screen. At bootup it is identified as ( 6A61FM49C-OO ) what ever that means. I read the forum daily and have noticed you are very active and consice in helping folks out. I very much appreciate your time and effort that you give freely. Hope you have a very safe and happy holiday season and SANTA is very good to you. I think we as a group need to get SANTA up to speed on gift giving in the computer upgrade department.
Regards; Pop's

K8N Neo4 Platinum (MS-7125) Mic Jack question

I have a microphone i would like to use with my K8N Neo4 Platinum (MS-7125) and I was just wondering if the mic jack was powered or not because the microphone will not work.

hey, i tired that before did'nt work but now it did. But there still is a problem with the mic, the recorded volume is way too low, even with mic boost on.

K8N Neo4 Platinum questions

K8N Neo4 Platinum
WinXP SP-2
SATA RAID setup
When I installed my HDDs I mistakenly connected them to the SiL3114 SATA ports (SATA 5, 6, 7). I did not realize until later that the NVidia SATA ports offer better data transfer rates. I was initially upset but, based on posts in this forum, I did some research and found that the Seagate Barracuda drives I am using only support a data transfer rate of 150 mbps anyway. Now I am thinking that the way I set it up is a good thing - if I need to add HDD in the future I can add drives that support 300 mbps transfer rates. Is this correct?
Device Drivers
Device Manager indicates that I have driver errors associated with the "NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator", "PCI Memory Controller", and "SM Bus Controller" devices. I haven't had any problems with my system or any of the programs I have run to date - but the unresolved device drivers make me nervous - like they are system problems waiting to be encountered.
Again, based on posts in this forum, I attempted to reload the drivers using the CD that came with the motherboard - but that didn't resolved the problem. I also attempted to 'reinstall' the device drivers from within Device Manager. It found the drivers but displayed an "access denied" message when it attempted to install them (the account I'm using does have administrator access). Any ideas? Is it possible that I have something set incorrectly in the BIOS?
Thanks!

imjb,
If you have a water pump that puts out 66gph, and you use a hose that has a max of 33gph, you will move 33gph of water. You take a hose the has a max of 66gph, you will move 66gph of water. You take a hose the has a max of 100gph, you will move 66gph of water. You take a hose the has a max of 133gph, you will move 66gph of water. You take a hose the has a max of 150gph, you will move 66gph of water. You take a hose the has a max of 300gph, you will move 66gph of water.
You get my drift?
Take Care,
Richard

New K8N Neo4 Platinum build. Help, Nforce4 driver question?

I am building a new K8N Neo4 Platinum system (see my sig). I wanted to get the latest Nforce4 drivers, before installing XP. I noticed on the Nvidia website a 5.10 Unified Driver download and a 6.66 AMD download. Which should I use? It looks like the versions in the 5.10 Unified Driver are actually older than what is in the Nforce4 drivers, from the MSI site. If I use the 6.66 AMD drivers, should I make a SATA Raid Driver floppy, from them, to use during the XP install? Any advice is appreciated.

just do it from a floppy, LiveUpdate is crap
and yes you HAVE to F6 these drivers on Windows install if you plan on using SATA or you cannot boot from SATA
unfied drivers are NOT FOR NFORCE 4. You MUST use the NF4-specific 6.66 (or earlier)
Unified Drivers are specific only to nForce 1/2/3. AMD and Intel each have specific and unique driver sets for nForce4.
download 6.66, extract and explore the folder
go to IDE->Win2K->SATARAID and copy everything in this folder to a floppy
make two floppies just to be safe
you cannot use CD, you MUST use floppy because Windows will look in a: only
as soon as Windows install starts you will see a screen that says "Press F6 to install third party SCSI or RAID driver"... hit F6 and insert floppy and after a few minutes, you will get a screen that says"
"Press S to install other drivers..."
press S
next screen comes up, first select and install "nVidida Raid class driver (required)" -->hit enter
back to "Press S to install other drivers..." screen
press S again
screen wil come up again, this time choose and install ""nVidia nforce storage controller(required)"
one more time back to "press S to instal other drivers...", this time just hit ENTER
now you're good to go

K8N Neo4 Platinum LAN Question?

I am thinking about using a K8N Neo4 Platinum in a new system build, but MSI has me confused. Their website states the board and two (2) RJ45 Lan ports. However, I downloaded and read through the manual, and it only shows one (1). Anyone on the forum know which is true?

Quote
Their global site mentions only one LAN for the Platinium. So if you wait for two and you get only one they'll say it was..."optional".
When I look at the global site, it states: "Supports Dual Lan Jacks" & list 2 different chips.
Quote
Mine has two. (Just arrived today.)
Where did you buy your board?
Does your manual match your board or show just one jack?
Thanks for the response.

K8N Neo4 Platinum question

Hi.
Does the K8N Neo4 Platinum support SATA2 3gb/s ?
According to a online computer store it supports "SATA-II". Is that the same as SATA2 3gb/s ?
edit: Im planning to use a SATA2 hard drive in my new computer, to be exact its Hitachi Deskstar T7K250.

The only thing you have to do is enable the hitachi to function at sata2. My 80gb's came with the default set at sata1. I wrote about this a while back here:
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=82070.0

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI sound needs -5V; newest Antec 550W has no -5V rail

I came within a whisker of ordering a non-returnable 3700 Venice, MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI mobo and an upgraded Power Supply, Antec's newest 550W PS the TP2-550 EPS12V ($117). This has dual 2x24pin 12V 19A rails and is touted as the new V2.0 EPS12V/ATX12v compatible power supply for high performance SLI systems. By accident I came across a page at MSI for this mobo
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mai...ail.php?UID=641
At the end is this warning: MSI Reminds You...
• For this model, you must use a Power Supply which has a -5V pin supply. Also, the users manual which I downloaded on Pg 2-10 says the same thing
The above Antec PS specs do not show a -5V rail, nor does an Enermax 600W I looked at. The V2.0 specs for ATX12v which added 2x24pin 12V rails dropped -5V rail from the spec and it appears MSI is not conforming to the spec (See Antec response at end) None of the web sites selling these PS & mobos contain any warning. I vaguely recall from a forum a while back it may have something to do with the Soundblaster system in the mobo.
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=22551 (click specifications)
Isn't this a major showstopper which is going to cause a lot of grief for those of us upgrading to SLI systems using this mobo and upgrading our PS to the newest & best power design? We won't know the PS won't work until we build the system.
Regards, Ron
Antec reply to me:
>>>>Thanks for the link. Since MSI's website does state the motherboard needs the -5v, the True550EPS12V will not work with this motherboard. The Standard (http://enhanceusa.com/documents/atx12v_v2.01.pdf) has removed the use for the -5v rail and it is no longer needed. MSI has not manufactured that motherboard to the Standard. Finding an ATX12V v2.0 power supply with the -5v might be hard to find. You should contact MSI for a compatibility list of power supplys that were tested to work with the K8N SLI Platinum.

Quote from: ccve3 on 21-May-05, 07:27:40
Wow!! syar2003 thanks for that post. I've spend an hour going through it & fasteddies links. Now I are a power expert. The dual rail argument is enough for me to go back to the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI with one of the single rail PS -5V units listed by fasteddie. The only question left now refers to computerpro3 recommendation on ultra power supplies for SLI
>>I quite simply wouldn't dream of putting anything else in my machine. Keep in mind, this section is for 2x 6800 models, not the 6600's which most any good psu will handle (like Antec Neopower, ocz 520, etc). . Pc Power and Cooling 510 Deluxe SLI edition (refer to list)
2. Zippy/Emacs 550-700w models
3. OCZ 600w (personally I would get the pcp&c for the price, but it's been proven here, so I'll be fair...).
These are really high end, expensive and only 3-4 choices. Since I'm getting one 6800GT and eventually another & possibly eventually a 4800 X2, I was hoping the OCZ 520W would do it but computerpro3 says Powermaster 520 isn't good enough for SLI. I found that there is an OCZ 600W ATX12 dual rail which surprisingly has a -5V rail needed for K8N Neo4 SLI Soundblaster. Will this meet computerpro3's preference for a high end PS for SLI systems even though I'm losing the 1 rail advantage. Maybe the 600 Watts just overwhelms the 1 rail/2 rail question.
Thanks again for the teriffic help
Regards, Ron
Wondering what you settled on. I got the Antec TP550 and it's flawless on the board. I even have the older 20pin model which works perfectly (including sound). If you really wanted what I would consider to be a top dog (pcpower and cooling), and find the -5v rail missing, all you have to do is place a phone order and request they add a -5v rail. It's a minimal cost and a total solution for having everything. Just my $0.02

X2 3800+ (E6) support for the K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI

Hi everyone:
I have decided to purchase the K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI (MS-7100-020) and I ready placed the order. However, I wonder if it supports the AMD X2 3800+ (E6 Version) CPU? The reason I asked the question because I found the following table from the Taiwan MSI web site which shows that X2 3800+ E6 is undertesting.
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_cpu_support_detail.php?UID=641&kind=1
Thank you for any replies.

Mine worked, ran for 2 weeks already at stock, tried & ran to 2.2GHz on stock HSF with no problem.
Using X2 3800+ E6, MSI K8N PLI Platinum mobo, 3.7 bios & Inno3D 7800GTX single latest nvidia 78 drivers, 2x512MB DDR400 CL2.5 Kingston Ram, Hitachi T7K250 Sata 250GB HDD, NEC ND-3530A Benq 1640, , Silverstone Zeus 650W PSU
At first I have this concern too, but tried it anyway.
See my screenshots for your info.

K8N Neo4 Platinum, how to move MBR to sata (make it drive #1)?

I am not sure I am phrasing the question correctly, so bear with me. I have a K8N Neo4 platinum with the SiI3114 controller and sata ports 4-8 (I believe its what they are calling PCB 1.x) with bios v1.D. I moved the board to another box and installed winXP on it. I was running it with IDE hard drives. Everything was working great but the OS was running really slow so I bought a SATA 300 mb/s drive and pluged it into SATA1 (I read about using ports 3 and 4 for raid but I do not want to use the NVraid at all, it is disabled). Then I proceeded to reinstall win XP. In the setup, I deleted the original C partiton and created one on the sata drive and rebooted so that there would be no "C" drive confusion by the winxp setup (have had that problem before and this keeps it from happening). Went through the setup and the sata was correctly reported as "C". Told windows to install itself there but it told me that it needed to write to MBR on the old c drive but that, since I had deleted the partiton, it couldn't and had to format it. So I knew that something was wrong.
So I rebooted and disabled the ide bus that contained the old IDE drive and just left the CD ide bus enabled. WinXP installed fine with no complaints. Then it rebooted and I re-enabled the ide bus in the bios. It wouldn't boot into the partiton I just installed winxp on! To get it to boot, I had to use F11 (the bios boot menu) and select the sata drive. Went through the whole setup winXP thing and rebooted. Same problem, it wouldn't boot the sata drive. :(
As long as that ide bus with the old ide drive is enabled, it won't boot the sata drive! I have rearranged the boot order on the bios every way possible. I opened up the box and moved that ide chain with the old ide drive to the ide2 port and put the dvd drive on ide1. I made the old drive slave and the prior slave master. That didn't fix it either. How do I tell this motherboard that the 1st drive is the sata drive? How do I tell it the MBR should be there not on the old ide drive? How do I fix this? Thanks!

Thank you for your replies! Hans, thank you I will give it a go again doing full formats all the way. I usually use the full format when installing winXP but I did things in a different order than you instructed so I will definately try it.
Aicjofs, thank you, There are 3 hard drives in this system currently. There is the ide hard drive that used to be the "c" drive (a western digital 160gb ata133 7200rpm 8mb cache) and a second ide hard drive that is an extended partition with 1 logical drive with data on it (western digital 300gb ata133 7200rpm 8mb cache). Then there is a sata hard drive in sata1 port with 2 partitions one primary and one extended. The extended partion does have data on it as I moved stuff there after I got winXP up the 2nd time (western digital 250gb sata II 7200rpm 16mg cache). Right now, I have the ide drive with data on it as ide2 master and the old "c" drive as ide2 slave and it is unformatted and contains no partion information (I deleted the partition after I installed the SATA drive and installed winXP). XP won't boot. What happens is that, if I take the winxp cd out, it gives me a "no system" error. If I leave the WinXP cd in it boots that disk. However, if I use "f11" and choose to boot the sata drive, winxp comes up just fine. If I disable the ide bus with the two ide hard drives, it boots winxp just fine.
Edit: bios is v1.D. It feels like this mobo is telling windows setup that the master ide drive is the first disk and to ignore everything else. It feels like if I can just tell the mobo that the sata drive is the first disk then everything will work . It is late night where I am now, and I've been fighting with this since the afternoon so I might have to goto sleep but I will be back at it tomorrow and will go though what Hans instructed. If anyone has any otehr ideas, I'd really appreciate that as well.

Problem replacing K8n Neo4 Platinum

Hello everybody, this is my first post here, I am a new member from Italy.
I have this problem:
I own a K8n Neo4 Platinum and when I changed the VGA from Nvidia 6600 GT to 8600 GTS the Mobo doesn't post anymore.. The usb diagnostig bracket says it's a memory problem but when I've put my memory banks on a different PC, they work just fine.
I think the problem was caused by the little space that I had between the VGA and the chipset cooler (Zalman passive);when I installed the VGA I damaged the chipset. Taking a closer look at it I noticed that 1 edge is damaged. I also substituted the Power suplly but the result is always the same.
So I decided to replace the mobo but I don't want to reinstall windows. Finding my same mobo is impossible here in Europe. I only found the K8n Neo4-F.
My question is the following :
-Does this Mobo use the same drivers that were installed on my HD? (latest driver downloaded from Nvidia version 6.86)
-Will I have problems with Windows ?

Massi186,
Moan Guide
Richard

Difference between K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI and K8N-SLI Platinum

Hey guys.... I have one question and i hope you can help me.
I'm about to get an MSI SLI Platinum motherboard, but it seems that there are two versions, the K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI and the K8N-SLI Platinum.
What is the real difference between them? As i can see in the manual, the Neo4 version has the additional SATA2 and Gbit LAN controller.
Anyone: Does your K8N-SLI board have 4 or 6 SATA2 ports? and 1 or 2 LANs?
At this picture http://www.midtdata.dk/asp/index.asp?varernr=K8N-SLI-PLAT&goto=productinfo&mainfunc=link I can see that there are 6 blue SATA connectors (lower right corner), and 2 LAN ports left to the LPT port... But the description says 4 SATA and 1 LAN, and so says the manual.
To all owners of this mobo: Does this picture look like your K8N-SLI Platinum or does it look like your K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI ?

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?board=36.0
d/l a raid manual and all should be clear

K8N Neo4 Platinum as HTPC mobo questions

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