K8N Neo4 Platinum w W2K Server: nForce 4 vs Silicon

Do these controllers (raid enabled) perform well when the OS is W2K server (seagate drives)?
(I ask as the 865 PE Neo2P board with a Promise pci card (FastTrak TS4000) installed frequently generated errors requiring a re-boot of the file server.)

Stick: Was planning on using both controllers - with a pair of mirrored drives on each controller (possibly upgrading to 4 drves on each, striped & mirrored).
Bas: The Promise FastTrak TX4000 in the 865PE Neo2P with W2K server as the OS continually generated crashes/reboots due to the controller drivers (furnish by Promise) which is why I was hoping that these controllers (being integrated) would function smoothly. While I'm not expecting great performance, I am hoping that there are fewer problems than there were with the Promise card (I'm trying to save the cost of going SCSI).

Similar Messages

Nforce 4 ultra k8n neo4 platinum need info

hi people. i need some help
im about to purchase a new mobo with nforce 4 ultra and i like msi k8n neo4 platinum (nforce 4 ultra + dual lan gigabit, 8 sata ports (4 nvidia) etc. i didn't whant sli by now so...
1° do you recommend this mobo?
2° i see lots of bios upgrade in the support page of this mobo, if there something i didn't like is to flash a bios several times, so i must upgrade bios at once with the latest or i must do it one by one?
3° am2 or 939?
4° there some bios or something upgrade to support raid 5?
5° y want to build this:
amd athlon 64 3000+
nforce 4 ultra msi k8n neo 4
1 gb ddr memory (kingston
msi nx7900gt256e or msi nx7600gt256e (depending of my pocket)
did you like it
ok
im actually have
duron 1600 applebred
768mb ddr 400 pc3200 memory
mobo nforce 2 ultra 400 msik7n2delta ilsr
msi geforce fx5700vtd128
thanks guys you are allways helpfull
bye

ivangelion, I have this board and it's a good choice.
So to answer your questions:
1. yes
2. No you can upgrade to newest right away [ver1.D]
3. 939. Most people/ forums are saying to wait awhile on the AM2
4. The Silicone Image RAID supports RAID 5 as it is now on this board.
5. That's a good starting point and you can amp it up from there as $$$ permits.
Good Luck and let us know if you need help along the way.

Lan issues with the K8N NEO4 Platinum NF4U 939 Motherboard

New K8N NEO4 Platinum NF4U 939 Motherboard.
After three or four hours the connection started to get unstable. I am a high end gamer and any net slowdown I see and feel.
Using my "Ping Plotter" program i saw the issue. The first hop to my router was going from 0 to 47ms. On all of the other conputers on this network hop one stays at 0.
In looking at the over all ping to my game server I noted that when hop 0 went to 47 it messed up all of the other hops and made the connection to my game server unstable.
The odd thing is I bypassed the onboard nic's and installed a PCI nic and it did the same thing.
I got with MSI and they had ne updare the NVIDA drivers. This lowered the swing to 0-17. I removed the PCI lan and am now back with the onboard nic. I have replaced the DSL modem, cable and removed the dlink and the issue is still the same.
This is my first computer with XP and at this point I do not know if this is an XP issue or a driver issue.
In installing a pci nic some of the network control is still done on the motherboard so that does not rule out a motherboard/chipset driver issue.
I have set up a web site that shows screen shots of the ping plotter. Please take the time to look at them and tell me what you think.
http://webviper.com/LanIssues.htm
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
WebViper

Hello !!
Please give more information about your system specs.
But i would try the following:
Download the latest nforce and vga drivers from nvidia ( if you are using nv VGA card ? ). Google for "driver cleaner" and download it.
Restart system and press F8 to enter safe mode. Now uninstall all nvidia drivers(chipset & VGA), and run Driver Cleaner after it. Select the nvidia tabs and remove them....
Now reboot, when prompted to install new drivers cancel this process. And start nvidia chipset driver setup, install all drivers but do not install the IDE driver from nvidia, you will be prompted for this.In first attempt you should not install nvidia firewall. Restart and install VGA drivers. Now test again your network connection. I hope it helps....
Greetz

K8N Neo4 Platinum hard disk didn't return after power save mode

I use 6 seagate 300G hard disk on nForce SATA and Sil3114 channel and power option is [turn off hard disks After 20 mins]
on nForce SATA when hard disks turn off they are never return till i restart my PC,
and sil3114 SATA channel [turn off hard disks] option didn't work they are not going to sleep.
(nForce EIDE channel works fine disks go to sleep and wake up well)
anybody have solution for this problem? (it's our new office file server)
(system : K8N Neo4 Platinum AMD64 3000, 1G ram, ATI radeon 7000 PCI, 6 Seagate 300G SATA HDD, 2 WD 250G EIDE HDD, Windows 2003 std edition)
nayuta

Hi Baz, thanks for your reply.
POST still fails when PSU is in combined mode. I don't have a second stick of DDR available right now (am trying to borrow some from a friend) , but i have tried just using one stick (once with each stick in case one was faulty) and still I got the 4 red LEDs on the D-LED panel.
could try the other ram slots on the mobo i guess in case that makes a difference.
regards
Tom

Building system for friend with K8N Neo4 Platinum

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice (ADA3200CGBOX)
CT2KIT12864Z40B (2x1GB)
eVGA 256-P2-N516 (7800GT)
WD2500KS (250GB SATAII HDD)
ATXA9N-SS/500 (Case)
Aspire 120MM
Aspire 80MM
ND-3550A (DVD-RW)
TG-480-U22 (PSU)
Can anyone recommend BIOS and drivers I should preload to a CD? I would rather not install from retail CDs only to download new ones.
Are there any other concerns or things I should know of?
Thanks!

Quote from: Kwea on 10-January-06, 23:21:38
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice (ADA3200CGBOX)
CT2KIT12864Z40B (2x1GB)
eVGA 256-P2-N516 (7800GT)
WD2500KS (250GB SATAII HDD)
ATXA9N-SS/500 (Case)
Aspire 120MM
Aspire 80MM
ND-3550A (DVD-RW)
TG-480-U22 (PSU)
Can anyone recommend BIOS and drivers I should preload to a CD? I would rather not install from retail CDs only to download new ones.
Are there any other concerns or things I should know of?
Thanks!
You can use CD drivers (if needed to get connected to net) and update. because of the item on CD will be out dated
I'am using V1.09 BIOS, Nforce 666, GFX 7772 works good for me

Audigy2 + MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra prob

Hi I have an audigy2 from my old pc and installed it on my new system the motherboard is a MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra after I installed it I began getting 'Machine_check_exception' blue screen of death, I used the creative auto update to update to the latest drivers, now the pc makes a hissing sound and reboots it's self.
Any help would be apprecieated.

hi
i am getting th same thing with my gigabyte nforce 4 board
ga8nxp-sli
could this be an nforce 4 related issue?
i found through a process of elimination that the conflict apears to be with windows audio service
i turn it off and all the problems just go away but i still get no sound (not much help there i am afraid)
regards
andy

K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra and 4 GB SDRAM DDR 400 Problem

I have the K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra and 4 1GB sticks of Corsair ValueSelect DDR 400 (PC 3200), model VS1GB400C3, filling all four slots. The BIOS recognizes about 2.88 GB of total memory. The MSI manual states:
Quote
Due to the South Bridge resource deployment, the system density
will only be detected up to 3+GB (not full 4GB) when each
DIMM is installed with an 1GB memory module.
I'm not sure what this means. Does it mean that I'm "wasting" my SDRAM, that not all of it is used, or does it mean that all of it will be used and the BIOS just reports a smaller number?

Hi.
You seems not familiar with X86....
As you should know, Windows XP and most OS are 32 bits. That mean that every memory pointer is 32 bits, thus allowing to address 4Gb of memory.
BUT
In most OS, there is a difference between the kernel and the user. So, in most OS, the memory is divided in two 2Gb block (no matter how many Gb of Ram you really have!). The first one is for the OS, the 2nd for the user program.
So, If you have for example 3Gb of ram, in the best case, you have 1gb for system and 2Gb for user program.
To allow more Ram to fonction, PAE (Physical Address Extension) was made. Instead of 32, you got 36 bits for you pointers.
But as X86-32 CPUs can't handle more than 32 bits, a reserved area was made within 4Gb to allow Memory to be copied from the area the program want to read.
Exemple:
You got a server with 8Gb of ram. In windows, you only see 3.5+512Mb PAE.
If a program need to address memory in the 7-7.5 Range for example, the chipset copy the data from the 7-7.5 range to the 3.5-4 range in order to allow the CPU to get access: that's VERY slow.
So, in short: You can't have and don't need 4Gb of ram on 32bits OS.
(And there's even more place occupied by every card (AGP, PCI, PCI-e)....)
That's why XP64 is so interresting for programmers who needs lots of ram (Database....). When used with a chipset who know how to deal with lots of ram (I don't know if NForce4 can do it but I doubt it), you can load in memory a 4Gb Database.
But In all case, the bios should say 3.5Gb, not 2 and so on. You must have a problem with one of your stick. My guess is that they are all double sided and that you should slow down the memory to 333MHz.
(Or better: Send back 2x1Gb stick and get 2x512 SINGLE SIDED stick, unless you REALLY NEED 1.5Gb for your system !)

SATA drives not being detected - K8N Neo4 Platinum

I have the same problem, different PSU!
msi k8n neo4 platinum pcb 1.0
3000 64 939
corsair 1gb dual channel ddr400
nvidia 8800gts
antec truepower 550 (19a @ 12v)
used to run 2 ide maxtor 120 and 80
added in a sata dvd writer, worked for 6 months
added in a sata 1TB seagate 7200, sata fails a majority of the time
same symptons now persist as in original post.
:< either bios detects both sata drives, neither, or it crashes. this happens respectively rarely, uncommon, and most common
what ive tried:
updated all mainboard, bios, video drivers to the most up to date (i had to in order for bios to detect the full size of the 1TB)
no ide, same problems
only 1 sata, with and without ide, same problems
the sata only works after a long period of time (or randomly), that i dont use it
(ive had both sata unplugged for 12 hours, booted up this morning with them and it detected, i selected safe mode boot, after making it through a majority of the load, it crashed)
testing a new psu in a day or so, much more powerful. ill give you all my results.

The cables aren't overly bent?
"...worked for 6 months"
"...fails a majority of the time"
Not very relevant, but since i found the FAQs, and there are no less than four FAQs for hard disks http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodfaq&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=&cat3_no=&prod_no=165#menu :
"Silicon Image Si3114R Raid bios doesn't have JBOD setting in it, why?
In the new Silicon Image BIOS, JBOD already been renamed as "Concatenation".
If you want to use single SATA HDD or when tou want use each SATA HDD as IDE mode, you can choose "Concatenation" function in Silicon RAID BIOS."
"I am using a SATA hard drive with NCQ technology on this motherboard and I am experiencing problems. How do I fix it?
The issue depends on the Southbridge chipset. Nvidia is currently working on an updated nForce driver to address the issues with certain hard drives.
You could contact Nvidia support to ask for the new driver if there is one. If there is not any new driver to solve the issue, please disable NCQ on your system." /My fattening. /

LAN issues with the MS-7125 (K8N Neo4 Platinum)

UPDARED BIOS:
MS-7125 (K8N Neo4 Platinum, K8N Neo4-F, K8N Neo4-FI)
One place it said: Online Ver. 3.77.000 One place it said: Online Ver. 1.D0
The system now displaces a new Bios boot screen and the boot up number is now 5.2.16.
XP all up to date and LAN drivers up to date.
I am seeing a saw tooth ping to my WestTel DSL modem. On all of the other PCs here on my LAN the first hop is always 0ms. After updating the mother board bios and turning on the LAN memory I still get 0ms to 7 or 10 ms.
You can see more detals at http://webviper.com/LanIssues.htm
Any Ideas please email me at [email protected]

Sorry the system did not email me.....
I did update the BIOS and I used the liveupdate. I also updated the NVIDA drivers with a link that MSI sent me. This did help things out a lot but the issue is still there. I have updated the web page with more info and pics. I have disabled the Xp firewall and have hooked the pc up to the westtell dsl modem.
After a reboot things run fine for about three hours... Then it starts and get worse as time goes on. It is not a heat issue as my new case has 10 fans and the read out of the CPU is good! 34C
Thanks for the help.... Here is some more data... Do look at http://webviper.com/LanIssues.htm
Regards,
WebViper [email protected]
UPDARED BIOS:
MS-7125 (K8N Neo4 Platinum, K8N Neo4-F, K8N Neo4-FI)
One place it said: Online Ver. 3.77.000 One place it said: Online Ver. 1.D0
The system now displaces a new Bios boot screen and the boot up number is now 5.2.16.
MSI support sent me a link for updated NVIDA drivers and that helped the issue some. I do not have the link to the drivers as my link to the MSI support is not working now. Not sure if they have deleted it or if their system is down.
Lan Cards and drivers:
NVIDA nForce Networking Controller
Driver:4.8.2.0 Date:4/6/2005
Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet
Driver: 8.14.1.3 Date: 9/19/2005
I feel that this is a Driver/XP issue. When i loaded the new NVIDA drivers that MSI sent the first hop went from 0-47 to 0-17.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_winxp32_amd_6.70.html
If only i could get the driver to make it 0 all the time like the other 4 computers that are on the same router.

Memory Controller not available - K8N NEO4 Platinum Ultra

Hi Experts!
I have typical problem in my PC. I need reply only from experts. Newbies please excuse.
My system displays the following info in POST.
VENDOR / DEVICE CLASS DESCRIPTION IRQ
===================================
10DE 005E 0580 Memory Controller NA
If anyone can correctly PIN POINTEDLY identify why this is displayed, it will be much helpful
As such I face no difficulty with my system. But this message very much annoys me.
Thanks.
My PSU Details:
400W. +12V 20Ampere. (This is the maximum I could afford in our indian PC environment.)
AMD 3000+ Winchester 90nm. CPU.
K8N NEO4 Platinum Ultra Mother Board.
512 MB Hynix PC3200 Memory. (2*256)
80GB Western Digital.
Ordinary PCI VGA 2mb card.
Samsung CDROM.

There is no driver for memory controller with A64 (nforce3/4) as stated earlier .
You see this in the memctrl.inf for UDP 5.10 , driver pack for nforce 3 and backwards down to nforce 1 .
Memctrl is only added to the 5.10 package for backward support to nf2 and lower as this is a unified driver package and
the memory controller is at chipset level on the motherboard that resides in the external northbridge on nf2 chipsets and lower .
What you see is just a vendor/machine id description and is just as it should be .
Code: [Select]
; nvmemctl.INF
; Copyright (c) 2001-2002, NVIDIA
; Version 1.00
[Version]
Signature="$WINDOWS NT$"
Class=System
ClassGuid={4D36E97D-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Provider=%NVIDIA%
CatalogFile=nvmemctl.cat
DriverVer = 04/27/2004, 4.4.0
[ControlFlags]
ExcludeFromSelect=*
[Manufacturer]
%NVIDIA_MFG%=NVIDIA_SYS
[SourceDisksFiles]
[NVIDIA_SYS]
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AA.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AA
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AB.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AB
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AC.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AC
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AD.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AD
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EA.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EA
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EA&REV_C1.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EA&REV_C1
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EB.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EB
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EB&REV_C1.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EB&REV_C1
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EB.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EC
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01ED.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01ED
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EE.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EE
%PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EF.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EF
; Do-nothing section used to avoid "Unknown hardware" installation prompts.
[NO_DRV]
Include=machine.inf
Needs=NO_DRV
[NO_DRV.Services]
Include=machine.inf
Needs=NO_DRV.Services
[NO_DRV.HW]
Include=machine.inf
Needs=NO_DRV.HW
[Strings]
SystemClassName = "System devices"
NVIDIA = "NVIDIA"
NVIDIA_MFG = "NVIDIA"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AA.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce 220/230 Memory Controller (DDR)"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AB.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce 415/420/430 Memory Controller (DDR)"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AC.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce 220/230/415/420/430 Memory Controller"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01AD.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce 220/230/415/420/430 Memory Controller"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EA.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce2 Memory Controller"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EA&REV_C1.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce2 400 Memory Controller"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EB.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce2 Memory Controller"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EB&REV_C1.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 Memory Controller"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EC.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce2 Memory Controller"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01ED.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce2 Memory Controller"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EE.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce2 Memory Controller"
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01EF.DeviceDesc="NVIDIA nForce2 Memory Controller"

Slow Boot problem with New K8N Neo4 Platinum HELP

Hello,
I just set up my new rig, the system specs are..
amd64 3500+
K8N Neo4 Platinum PCI-E (non SLI)
2x80gb SATA (insockets 5 and 6) Silicon
2x512 ram generic
BFG 6800 Ultra OC
antec 550 truepower
The entire install went well.. It zipped through windows98... But when it tired to Boot windows98.. it went really really slow.. The animation bar at the bottom was chugging.. like lagging.. and took well over 10 minutes to fully load..
I check RAM was not it.. re-connected.. was not it.. new SATA cables.. no idea any help would do.. getting impatient and tired =O must get it up tonight!

Don't know if you or many people have seen this it's appeared over the last few days K8N Neo4 Platinum - NOTE: NVIDIA nForce 3/4 Series board DO NOT support Windows® 98/ME
There are people running 98 but my own understanding was that 98 could only use a sata drive as a data drive & could not be installed on a sata drive. Where have you installed it ???
see Win 98SE IDE problem.... Has anyone worked it out yet?
luck

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 Bios Update - Best Procedure?

I have built a new system:
K8N Neo4 Platinum Award Bios Version 1.3
ATHLON XP64 X2 4200+ E4 Stepping
2GB Transcend RAM (2x1GB)
EVGA 6600GT 128MB PCI-E
Samsung Spinpoint 200GB SATA on Sata1
Samsung TS-H522U DVD-RW
Floppy
Seventeam ST-550EAG 3.3V= 30A, 5.0V=30A, 12V1= 18A, 12V2= 18A
Windows XP Pro SP2
I'm not overclocking and DOT is disabled. Optimized parameters are loaded.
System is running but my BIOS version does not support dual core. I have installed all NForce 6.66 drivers and VGA drivers, and all Windows updates. What is the best procedure to flash bios, Winflash or MSI floppy method? What version of BIOS should i try, 1.6 or 1.8?
Thanks.

Quote from: hansh on 27-September-05, 16:34:38
Hi, when you ask 10 people about the best method to flash BIOS, you will probably get 10 different answers
Some observations:
1. Flashing under Windows has become "normal procedure" for boards of most other manufacturers; (I will not use this method for my MSI boards, though, because of the negative opinion on it in this forum. If the comments are correct, then the only conclusion can be that MSI software engineers are at present not able to deliver a Window-based flashing program with which MSI-BIOSes can be flashed into MSI boards in a safe way. I'd rather not find out the exact reason for this . I have used Windows-based flashing programs numerous times with boards from other manufacturers - Abit, Asus, Soltek, ECS, etc. without any problem).
2. If the procedure as described by Syar really has significant advantages over "plain flashing", then it means that either the BIOSes are flaky, or the boards are instable. Such precautions have never been necessary and should not be necessary! I can only recommend - just to be on the safe side - that, while flashing, you dance around the computer, carrying two carrots, an onion and chanting "Flash! Flash! Flash!
3. There is something to say for not flashing from a floppy. Floppies are the oldest part of nowadays computers and the medium is probably the least failsafe part ... Therefore I have reserved a small (100 MB) FAT32 partition on a HDD, BIOS files and most recent flashing program will be copied to that partition. I will start the PC with a W98SE bootflop, go to that partition and flash from there. I have used this method a great number of times over the years, I will never add any switch when running the program.
Additional Info
Regards
Hans
Hi hansh,
thanks for that. I'll boot with a Win98 bootCD (NTFS support included) and thinking about flashing with an Iomega USB pen drive (FAT32). Any comments here?
And, blazing storm, thanks again for your valuable reply.

K8N Neo4 Platinum: SiI 3114 Raid 5 is anyone doing it?

I've scoured the internet google, yahoo, etc. I can't find one single review of anyone using the SiI 3114 chip for raid 5. I want to put 4 sata drives on the SiI 3114 controller in raid 5 but I am concerned about performance. See, I am putting together a home media server and these drives will be written to often and read from constantly - 24/7. Originally I wanted to get a hardware raid 5 controller however I ran into a few problems. There are no current mobos that support PCI-x (if you're not aware PCI-e and PCI-x are not the same thing) and sataII/PCI-e/any current technologies. This is a problem because all hardware raid 5 cards use PCI-x. Sticking them in a standard PCI slot will kill performance and is pretty useless. There is one exception which is the Areca cards but they are all over $500 (actually closer to $1000) and thats overkill for a home server.
So all I would really like to know is if anyone has experieince with, seen a review, knows a friend - anything - that can tell me how bad the performance of raid 5 on the SiI 3114 (the 2nd sata controller on the K8N Neo4 Platinum) is. I am quite anxious as I have spent almost 2 weeks looking for all this info. I know the SiI 3114 is a software solution, so I am not expecting anything amazing spped-wise, but I do need it to perform smoothly. I will be putting an AMD64 3500+ with a gig of crucial ram (2 512mb sticks) in this box and there will be no overclocking.
Someone please enlighten me? Thanks alot!

Sorry but I can only assume you are reffering to the SLI board which only has 2 ports. The non-sli version has 4 ports.
See here: http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K8N_Neo4_Platinum&class=mb.
Quote
Silicon Image's SATARAID5 supports another 4 SATA ports(SATA5-8). Transfer rate is up to 150MB/s
- RAID 0 or 1, RAID5, RAID10, and JBOD groups are supported
- Support up to 4 SATA devices connected to a single controller
I've been struggling with a way to get raid 5 on an nforce4 chipset for almost 2 weeks. So I've done my homework though I am not a tech expert by any means. Actually, this has been a thorn in my side till I discovered this new MSI board. I understand that more PCI-e raid 5 cards will be comming to market this quarter but, I assume, they will probably fall in the Areca's price range. So I'm hopping MSI has come to my rescue :D. Otherwise I have to buy an old technology operon board (no sataII, no pci-e, no anything current) and server hardware is totally out of my technical experience so I would like to avoid that if possible. Also, if I didn't mention it, what I want to do is use raid 5 with this chip with all 4 ports (4x250gb sata drives). Thanks!

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

K8N Neo4 Platinum w W2K Server: nForce 4 vs Silicon

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