Official MSI P7N Diamond (780i) Discussion/Review/Overclock/Guide/BIOS Thread

I'm giving up...can't comprehend at all this board.
Every time i think to have found a stable config it reveals to be faulty. The last week i've got it the CPU to 3.45 Ghz and RAM at 863 4-4-4-12 1t, wich passed >8 hrs prime95 blend and many hours of gaming. It lasted three days and then started random freezing while gaming, surfing or listening mp3. So i've run again prime to see wether was an OS issue or not. Well, prime errored after 2 hrs....why?!?!?!?
So i've spent another lot of time searching new settings with no luck. Thinking of RAM issues, i've also run a whole night memtest wich passed without an error.
Giving away the 863 4-4-4-12 1t settings, i've then managed to reach a stable config with the same 3.45 Ghz on CPU but RAM at 1104 and 5-5-5-15 2t.
Again, 10 hrs prime95 blend stable, another whole night of memtest, and played for a couple of days...till last night when the system locked while playing bioshock. What the hell?!?!?! What's wrong?
This mobo is really drivin' me mad, i'm thinking to give up with sli and nvidia chipsets...will swap to intel chipset, an x48 and a crossfire config...

panheimer - to me it sounds like there might be an issue with cooling. Have you pulled the circupipe off of the motherboard to put new thermal compound on? It seems like temps might be effecting things. I know that I just stop overclocking in the summer because my ambient temps get way too high (for my liking anyways). Do you have another smaller fan that you could put on the "roller coaster" to help cool it? Other than that, which BIOS are you running? I'm guessing you probably have mentioned it before, but I'm not sure where :)

I wish I knew what happens to all these 'faulty' MSI 780i boards when ppl give up... that would be score :D

My temps are ok, CPU never exceeded 66° C (the hottest core in everest), SB 48°C and i've got two small 60mm fans on the circupipe (one on the NB and the second on the PWM heatsink). Besides that, theese days are a little colder than before, last night i've got 28°C in bedroom while before there were at least 30-31°C.
I'm running the 1.1b8 bios, as it is the only one that let me change my q6700 multi. Well, im still using a x10 multi as strangely i've got better everest memory benches than using a x9 multi (saw latencies at 78 ns!), but started oc with the integer settings so for now i won't swap to the 1.2b1 or 1.2b2.
I've got this mobo for almost two months, and it seems to be always the same stories: lot of trying to find a stable config, it runs for some days and then it starst freezing and rebooting woth no reasons...so the cycle begins again.
i'm very frustrated, like the old DFI lt 680, i've spent much more time finding oc config than playing...yes, ocing is a matter of patience and lot of times, but when you never get to a result it's very annoying.

I'm now fully on the X48 Platinum. I'll continue to support the P7N Diamond and also post new betas.

I'm also uploading P7N2 Diamond beta BIOS releases (also performance) here: http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=118146.0 | Just for those of you that have been asking.

Good luck to you all!

Alright, I have a new symptom. I was watching a fullscreen streaming video and my computer locked up. Part of the video progress bar showed slight corruption (vertical lines of corruption every 100 or so pixels across the bar), but everything else was okay. Sound continued as a quickly repeating noise. The computer rebooted itself within about half a minute.

I did Prime95 last night on all four cores for 15 hours and had no errors. I've now run two MemTest86+ tests overnight with no errors. It's also stopped rebooting when the computer boots up, even though I've made no changes and it was doing it very consistently for two days. Finally, I also had a reboot last night while playing Bioshock (which had been running fine for hours). Temperatures are all okay, so far as I can tell (the hottest core has never gone beyond 65 C under full load for hours), though I still don't know what a few of the SpeedFan temperatures are. There are two labeled Temp1 and Temp2 that I think are motherboard related, and they idle at 32 C and 41 C, respectively. If anyone knows what those are, I'd love to know.

Anyway, perhaps this will help narrow my problem down?

@ panheimer -

It wasn't that difficult for me to switch to the new bios with the actual voltages instead of the integers. Sure, it took some getting used to, but it was nice to be able to actually see what values other people are using and set em straight up without having to change em to "P7N" numbers. It sounds like you have cooling under control, so I wonder what else it could be. What kind of PSU do you have, and is it stable? (If it is the 1000w one in the sig, you wouldn't think that would be the culprit, but you never know) I'm sure you have probably already been through the rigors of finding the culprit of the stability issues, but figured id ask anyways. :rolleyes: Also speaking of the PSU, did you use the same one on the DFI board? If so, is there a possibility that it isn't stable and could be causing the errors, seeing as you said the DFI board wasn't very stable either? Also, seeing as you are running SLi, what do you have your nb and sb bridge voltages at? I know with my setup that I have to run the voltages a bit higher than others that are running a single card to keep stability. Anyways, I know I'm probably just pulling strings here, but I'm just trying to help out. :)

Thanks for you post bluspikez, but i've already tried every your observations.
The PSU is the galaxy 1000 DXX, and i'm almost sure it works fawless as between dfi ant msi i've used it with and asus rampage formula and two 2900 xt in crossfire without any issue. With the DFI i've had many probs managing 4 gb and keeping temps down, especially the pwm circuit. The main issue with that board was that some times it didn't post (cold boot?) and you have to resest bios, load one setting with NB voltages upped and then load the setting with oc config...very tedious. Other than that it run well and was stable, but never managed to get a decent oc on that board (stuck ad 3.3 while the same CPU worked fawless with che rampage formula at 3.6 touching CPU volt and all the rest on auto...).
Now i'm running only one 8800 ultra and 2 gb of ram, and even my oc is nothing exceptional (3.45 ghz with 345 x 10) so the board doesn't have to be stressed so much.
Last night i've tried to swap to 1.2b2 bios and converted the integers numbers in voltage values, but things got a little harder as the xls file from xavier has some values GTL that aren't present in bios, so i've tried to use the nearest ones but prime freezed after an hour. Did four run with different values then at 4.00 i swapped again to the P07 and turned everything off. This morning i've lowered RAM from 1104 to 1035 keeping all the other settings, and for now prime is bending for more than 7 hrs with no errors nor pc lock. Hope this time is the good one...but i'm scared thinking that even this config will run nicely for a couple of days 'till it crash again...

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Originally Posted by bluspikez

@ panheimer -

It wasn't that difficult for me to switch to the new bios with the actual voltages instead of the integers. Sure, it took some getting used to, but it was nice to be able to actually see what values other people are using and set em straight up without having to change em to "P7N" numbers. It sounds like you have cooling under control, so I wonder what else it could be. What kind of PSU do you have, and is it stable? (If it is the 1000w one in the sig, you wouldn't think that would be the culprit, but you never know) I'm sure you have probably already been through the rigors of finding the culprit of the stability issues, but figured id ask anyways. :rolleyes: Also speaking of the PSU, did you use the same one on the DFI board? If so, is there a possibility that it isn't stable and could be causing the errors, seeing as you said the DFI board wasn't very stable either? Also, seeing as you are running SLi, what do you have your nb and sb bridge voltages at? I know with my setup that I have to run the voltages a bit higher than others that are running a single card to keep stability. Anyways, I know I'm probably just pulling strings here, but I'm just trying to help out. :)

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I plan on going sli soon. I have a gtx260 on its way and I am going to use the evga stepup program for another one. What do you have your NB set at? I am afraid to go too high. What is a normal system temp? Mine peaks at 50c mabey 51c.

Don't know nb temps, system (sb?) is at 48° while gaming. On the nb i've put a 60 mm fan and another 40 mm over the pwm. So i think it's not temp issue causing my system to freeze or reboot. Or if it is i don't know what else to do, i think i've very good airflow inside the case, as removing the side panel there are no temp changes.
My nb volt is at 1.425, adding more it causes the system to reboot while loading windows, while lowering to 1.4 or 1.375 it freezes while loading. Tried different FSB term to compensate NB voltages variation, but it's useless.
Maybe i can run the system at 3.45 ghz and keeping the ram at 680 and 4-4-4-12 1t or even at 5-5-5-15 2t wich was stable (at least for a couple of days...) with much less NB volt but have to pay very low memory bandwith and now i don't know if it is worth anything to struggle to mantain sli when 4870 crossfire give so much performance on a very oc friendly intel chipset like the x48...

I feel for you man. That sucks. My system temp is a little hotter and that cm stacker has some mean airflow.

well, with 7x120 fan @ 1900 you also had to have good ariflow and temps, especially with the 9800gtx wich has lower load ant idle temps than my 8800 ultra!
I suppose you have scythe slipstream, the SY122512SH ones, right? How does they work? Are they loud?
For the stacker i'm using a whole stock of nanoxia 120 fans (2x2000@1600 rpm on the true, 2x2000@1600 intake on the side panel over the vga, 2x1250 intake on the front and 1x1250 on the rear and 2x1250 on the top). They works pretty well, moving a lot of air and remaining quiet enough for my bedroom.
I've also a CM cosmos in the living room, with some scythe s-flex (1200 and 1600 rpm) on it, but i'm looking to upgrade with some more powerful ones and as now it is hard to find nanoxia fan, i'm wondering if these slipstream works well...

I have 7 of them and there not that loud dont get me wrong theyre not quiet, but I would recomend them. They move alot of air. I plan on going sli soon. I have a gtx260 on the way and am usind the stepup program for another. What would you have to set the nb at for the 2 Ultras?

I run nb volts at 1.475 for my regular setup and 1.550 for when I ramp it up while benching.

Well, as I said i've never managed to get a good oc setup from this mobo, so can't really tell you how much you have to raise nb volt for a SLI setup.
Today i'm using a 3.4 (340x10) Ghz config, with FSB at 1380, RAM 690 5-5-5-15 2t. With this settings i keep the nb at 1.275, CPU GTL at 25 and FSB Term at 11. They are settings i've found to be stable (at least for a couple of days, befeore searching for higher oc...) using the 8800 Ultra in SLI. As i'm not using SLI in these days, this morning i've tried to lower NB volts but the system freezed after half an hour of surfing, but telling the truth i can't tell you if it's caused by low nb volt or a bad combination of nb volt and FSB term.
So i think that SLI config isn't affected by NB volt but i'm not sure about that. Sorry to can't help you more, but as i said, i never managed to comprehend this board.

So NB voltage has to be increased when running SLI? I've not changed any voltages; all are running on Auto. To recap, I'm running 4gb of RAM at 588, 1:1 with my FSB. My CPU is at 294x9 (2.565 GHz). I can try tweaking the voltage on my own, but around where should I be starting? Is this a likely cause of my instability?

[RANT]North bridge voltage has nothing to do with sli. It does however have a great deal to do with the memory controller and system stability in general. FSB terminator voltage is the cpu vtt, this also has a great deal to do with system stability. I've repeated this several times... the max on this board is only 1.313v, that's it, it's so low even when it's maxed out it's ridiculous. The more this thread progresses the more I get the feeling people aren't reading any of it. Or that somehow they wandered into the wrong forum. If I'm scared of the voltages, on this or any other motherboard then it's time for me to go to bestbuy and look at gateway. If I want to build a kickass system and oc the snot out of it then I come here. There are dozens of places in between those 2 points. If people want to know where to start overclocking and setting up voltages for this great mobo then I suggest a good place to start is page 1 of this thread. I see people wanting to be spoonfed. READ! Then read some more. If someone has a faulty board, damn that sucks. Talk to MSI tech support, RMA it and get one that isn't faulty and then get on with it.[/RANT]

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Originally Posted by loonym

I wish I knew what happens to all these 'faulty' MSI 780i boards when ppl give up... that would be score :D

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I wish I did too..

Well. I'm kinda back with an update. I've been running Windows XP 64bit for a while now. I've still had random reboots. All drivers are the latest.. So I can't comprehend how on earth I get the reboots. I mean, come on! I don't get obnoxious resets during memtest. How can this be?

I still haven't found any vital information in the event log, nor had any blue screens. Temperatures are still not all that high. The highest temp on the north bridge was 50C. All four cores are also at max 53C, GPU on the other hand has been as high as 62C. But that's changed now that I've got a small fan hanging under it. :p

I was thinking that it might be the Creative X-Fi-card that came with the motherboard. 'Cause I didn't install it in the 'small' pci-e port. It can't fit there with my enormous GFX card. But that turned out to be wrong. I still got the reboots after I removed it completely.

So. Thoughts? Should I give up for real this time?

I think this is my last post in this thread. Yesterday i've ordered another rampage formula and it's arriving today. This was my first experience with an MSI high end board and to be honest, i think i'll never buy another one. It's simply ridiculous to pay so much money for a budget board that doesn't work at all. The building quality is very very poor: the MSI sticker on the sb fall off after a week, the shield over the rear mobo connector was defective (the reset cmos button and its hole aren't allineated!) and others little details like these.
Then, it is supposed to be an ocers board, but, as loonym posted, the max fsb term (or CPU vtt) at only 1.313 is a great limiting factor, but i don't want to talk about oc, only because i've didn't managed to get out a good oc from this board doesn't mean that this is a bad board, as others have managed to get very good results.
But what can you tell me about a board that isn't stable with stock settings? Send to RMA? Maybe, or maybe not. I've got the chance to try two different cpu on this board: a Q6600 and a Q6700. Well, the first worked fawless at stock settings, with everything in auto, then i've swapped to the q6700 wich wasn't able to complete the boot in windows! Thinking of OS corruption, i've tried a fresh windows installation, but didn't managed to complete even the installation!
Just here in this thread there are at least another two users who can't get stability at stock settings or near it: aelgen and fiskbit. Sure, maybe they have also a faulty board, but what happens if they send it to rma and it results to work with another CPU? My suggest is to try first with another CPU and then send it to RMA...
Also, it's the first mobo i've owned wich had so many usb related problems: G15 not recognized in bios, difficult to get usb flash drive to be recognized, the 3com wireless dongle that i have to disconnect and reconnect every time i load windows, logitech g9 mouse with lags problems when i set the polling rate at 1000...
I wrote to MSI customers service, the 1 july, yesterday they concluded that they can't reprocude my issue and suggested me to send this board to RMA. Well i think i will send it back to my resellers for a refound or they may throw it away, i don't dare to sell this board to another user knowing all its problems...
Sorry for this post, but i'm very disappointed: throwed away 200 euros and 2 months of my time....

That xfi card can indeed cause issues. I tried it in the last slot and it doesn't play well for me there. I use the xfi card that came with the P7N in another motherboard now and I'm using a cheap usb audio adaptor that works fine for what I need. BTW apologies if I seemed harsh earlier or offended anyone but there are a lot of answers to some of the most often repeated questions in this thread. I'm going to put an e8400 in this P7N later today and try some high fsb. All my quads hit a wall at anywhere from 450-470fsb. Hopefully I'll have screenshots. Have I said I like pics? :rofl: :ROTF:

Uh, before leaving this thread i would like to thank loonym for his help and many suggestions, xaviermaxx for his excel file and deep analyze of this board and all other users who posted here as it was very useful for me.

panheimer: I hope things work out better for you with the new board. A shame the P7N didn't work out for you. Good luck!

loonym: I can't help but think I triggered that rant. I've read through this 1000 post thread in its entirety, though I should probably do it again soon considering that I know a lot more now than I did the first time through and would get more out of it. I'm hardly new to building my own computers, but rather to tweaking hardware and such. This is the first time I've had issues with stability at stock (which is what I've always run) and frankly it's frustrating for me. Diagnosing random reboots is not something I'm familiar with, and seeing other people have similar issues and then give up after fiddling with it for a while is a bit discouraging. On the plus side, the reboots aren't frequent enough (usually, though even this is inconsistent) to keep me from enjoying this awesome system I've built. It's a definite step up from everything I've used before. :)

I'm gonna up my northbridge voltage a couple notches to see if that makes a difference. I'm unsure of what other settings to tweak in the BIOS to try to counter this, so suggestions would be great. Definitely been appreciating your help so far, loonym; I find it rare that people bother to help out beginners at all.

Did you gave a look at your memory sub timings? At page 30 of this thread xaviermaxx found to have to change his trc value with memtest to get stability. I've also saw that my ram are certified by ocz with a twr (write recovery time) value of 9 while in bios the max value allowed is 6...may ram sub timings values be the trick for stability? It would be interesting see some post of users who have found stability with the complete ram settings read from everst chipset page.

Im still using one of the early beta bios on my q6600 what bios do you guys recomend I use?

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Originally Posted by loonym

That xfi card can indeed cause issues. I tried it in the last slot and it doesn't play well for me there. I use the xfi card that came with the P7N in another motherboard now and I'm using a cheap usb audio adaptor that works fine for what I need. BTW apologies if I seemed harsh earlier or offended anyone but there are a lot of answers to some of the most often repeated questions in this thread. I'm going to put an e8400 in this P7N later today and try some high fsb. All my quads hit a wall at anywhere from 450-470fsb. Hopefully I'll have screenshots. Have I said I like pics? :rofl: :ROTF:

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Nice! Please post some screen shots. I havent seen many wolfdale results on this board. Im sure I helped trigger the rant quite a bit myself. Thanks for all the help (seriously). Ive read through most of this thread and learned ALOT, but I just havent seen very many wolfdle users on here.