What are Peoples Experiences with the MSI-Neo's?

[Kunaak]

well, my Asus P4C-800D seems to have a cap on the voltages available from 1.6 up, setting it past 1.6 gets me a massive under volting issue, that seems to have no solution.

sooo I orderd a MSI 875 Neo LSR (FISR seemed to have a ton of useless features, so I chose the LSR)

I chose it cause of the downward CPU socket (for my prometeia)
cause of the high VDimm voltages available, and that it was dirt cheap (89 dollars)

I hear theres some issue with updating the BIOS online...
then something about corsair not working right (but I don't care about the corsair issue, as I have kingston)

is there any other issues with these boards?

[Major]

I've been playing with one for the last couple of days Kunaak, its a good solid board ! I think you will be happy for the most part, + it has no issues with the promie thats also why I got myself one.

It OCed with my 3.0c to excatly the same fsb as with the IC7 for the same OC. I didn't have a chance to compare results though with the IC7 as far as bandwidth and cpu because I lost all my bench screenies that I had for my IC7 and P4C800.

It didn't do as well with the 2.4c though, but this could be because I had the NB water cooled on the IC7. I was able to get it stable at 285mhz vs the 290+ for the IC7.

This is what I like about the board:

1. Layout is excellent and no componets on the back side uderneath the cpu which makes it easier to prevent condensation when using vapor change.

2. Outstanding voltage adjustments particually with Vdimm up to 3.3v ! and over the top adjustments for Vcore !

3. Very stable I had no issues with reboots or lockups once I found a stable OC it was consistant.

4. It benched 3Dmark to within 500 points of the IC7, and since I'm now using Cat 3.6 since I ran the IC7 3dmarks it could be just the drivers accounting for the difference. Never the less this board performs very good with 3d apps.

5. No reset hold issues with the vaporchill or the Promie ! that is a big plus since both the IC7 and P4C800 have know issues and from what I've seen posted it is hit or miss weather they will work right or not. I guess I got lucky with my IC7 since I didn't have any problems.

Here are my gripes with it:

1. The Vcore adjustment increments take a .1v step at 1.7v and above thats too wide in my book, would be better with .025v increments (might be corrected in future bios)

2. The Voltage readings are all over the place, they fluctuate very badly but I have a feeling that they must be stable on the board are are only reported by winbond to be flaky (or else it would crash all the time !)

3. As you pointed out its picky with memory, I had issues getting the board to run my corsair at 1:1, but ran great at other dividers. I have a feeling that this issue will also be corrrected with bios revisions and probably doesn't affect other memory modules.

4. I found the beta bios 1.32 available here at Xtreme and Opp recondmended to be you best bet. The later bios offer a turbo option BUT the memory defaults to spd at any overclock above 200mhz. Once again this might be corrected in future bios revisions.

5. The NB HS is only marginal at best. After removing it to put some AS3 on it I found that it would not even make contact with the core of the NB until I removed the foam shim on it.

[Kunaak]

my northbridge will have some super cold water on it.

one question, since I know you have both vapochill and promie.
does this board report below zero temps?

that lack of the turbo feature will kinda suck, but I'd rather have control then the turbo feature.

I am very glad to hear it has no issues with the prometiea, I wasn't looking forward to jimmy riggin a seperate PSU for the prometeia alone.

my prometeia kit gets here on monday, and my NEO should be here soon after.

mix that with the super vapochill from bowman, my -35C water chiller (both new toys) and my old tank-the prometeia, I can't wait to get it all up and running. ;)

[Major]

Sounds like your going to be hitting some big numbers Kunaak !!!:toast:

Thats some serious cooling you got there !

I don't have my Promie yet, I've bought one but I haven't received it yet :(

But Opp and MrIcee both reported no issues with the Mach I and the Mach II will work with any mb so you shouldn't have any problems.

I tried the 1.4, 1.6 and the 1.32b and none of them reported sub zero temps.

Really everything that can be said negative about the board could all be corrected with a solid bios ! I think in the next week or so we should see a new bios revision (I hope)

[Kunaak]

I'd like to hit some good numbers, but I can't fool myself, with having only a ti 4200 for now. on top of that, its a odd 4200 that is non-reference design, so I can't find anything about volt modding it, and looking at other VM guides for the 4200 don't seem to relate well to my card.

but I wanna give a go at PCmark, I like that benchmark alot.
I wanna shoot for 12,000 on memory.
anything other then that is just icing on the cake. :)

I am not fooling myself about my 2.4C, it's a costa rica and barely does 3.5 ghz on the best air cooling, hopefully the extra voltages with the MSI will help alot ;)

trying not to get my hopes up too high, but still excited.

[Krowbar]

I have tried almost all the BIOS versions and am unable to get overclocks to match what I was getting with the IC7 and P4C800-E. I used a 2.8C that does 244 fsb on the IC7, 242 on the P4C and it couldnt post after 228 fsb on the MSI. Another 2.6C that does 255 fsb on the P4C won't post after 240 fsb.

The 3.0C does a bit better though - 250 fsb on the P4C and it does 244 on the MSI. This happened on both the boards that I tried.

On the prometeia the 2.8C did 264 on the IC7, 270 on the P4C and does 254 on the MSI (bios 1.6). It has pretty much lagged behind the other two boards everytime.

The BIOS has a lot of problems however. 1.4 won't let you go past 218 fsb and 1.6 is the worst yet, it defaults to SPD timings on memory if your _actual_ fsb is over 200 it seems and since my board shows as 202 fsb on cpuz, I can never set timings. Bios 1.32b (Oppainter approved!) seems the best so far, it lets me set my own timings and the bench scores are much better.

[Major]

Krowbar what are you using for NB cooling on your boards ? have you done anything to the MSI nb ?

[Krowbar]

I'm only using stock cooling. The first board died afer a BIOS flash and I've had this board about 2 weeks but havent had a chance to look at the NB yet.

Another thing I forgot to mention is I tried Buffalo Tech PC3700 and because the modules are reported as Melco PC2700, the BIOS refuses to let me use the 1:1 divider. :/

I forgot to try them with the 1.32b bios so going to try it real quick.

[Krowbar]

Heh, Bios 1.32b defaults to DDR266 no matter what I set. :/

[Major]

Krowbar I promise you if you take the nb hs off, remove the tim and foam shim, clean it up real good and reinstal it with some AS3 you will see a good bit of improvement with the fsb on the MSI. ;)

The factory tim stinks and is about a 1/32" thick ! lol like I said the nb hs on the MSI doesn't even make contact with the nb die with the shim on it !

[Krowbar]

I'm going to give that a shot, I have nothing to lose with this board heh.

[Major]

Originally posted by Krowbar
Heh, Bios 1.32b defaults to DDR266 no matter what I set. :/

Try setting your memory to spd and see if that enables your other dividers, thats what worked for me with the XMS.

[Krowbar]

Originally posted by Major Slaughter
Try setting your memory to spd and see if that enables your other dividers, thats what worked for me with the XMS.

That was a bit better, now it sets it to DDR333 instead.

[Nohto]

I have one and it doesn't impress me in the least. The bandwidth as far as memory goes isn't nearly as good as the Abit or the Asus. I was able to get close to 6200 on the Abit and the best I can get on the MSI is 5700. I just ordered another Abit, I'll let you know if I can get the same or higher mem scores. I also didn't use the new bios that Abit put out that increased everyones memory scores at the time I had my first board.

[OPPAINTER]

Well my problem with the MSI is that it held back my chip. I couldn't get past 274 with my 3.0. The minute I put the chip an Asus, I can go to 280 with the chip at lower voltage then the MSI. I've had the MSI to 310, so it's not a FSB issue.
And I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a new bios, their bios team sucks at the concept of overclocking.

I also had another chip that was held back by the MSI compared to the Asus or even the Abit. I tryed 4 of these mobos by the way.

OPP

[Nohto]

I experienced the same problem with mine. On the Abit I could get my 3.0 over 4.1 mhz and run sandra mem, but with the MSI I am lucky to get it to do anything at even 4.0.