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

[theYipster]

Question: Has anyone got their hands on two of the long bridges and hooked both of them up with the blue and white slot configuration? If so, was there any performance increase? If not, I'm going to be the first .

I would actually love to get my hands on an extra long bridge myself (I e-mailed Aaron about this earlier.) If anyone has an extra one they're never going to use and wants to send it to me, please PM

[theYipster]

BIOS issues:

The CPU and Memory are not in the preferred 1:1 ratio. Is there a "quick and dirty" way to go 1:1 on the 1.16beta BIOS? I don't want to play with the voltages until I do all of my homework on oc'n the board. I have a great VID on this G0 Q6600 (1.1625) so I don't want to screw up and fry it before I get to put it on water...

For some reason there is no standard 1:1 setting on the P7N. To achieve 1:1 you have to set RAM mode to manual and do some math. Fortunately it's quite easy. To set 1:1 on the P7N, just set your RAM to 1/2 your FSB.

[AaronYuri]

I'm not going to use the bridge. I had originally planned to do an GTS SLI setup. But I'd rather have the GX2 to use with Nehalem. I'm also in the UK, so it'd cost a bomb to send it to the states.

[JohnNYNJ]

JohnNYNJ,

This is what Pchas01 did on the MSI forums:




http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=115893.0 But he already showed you this.

I've heard that the Enzotechs run hot but I agree that it's the only tried and true solution...

[JohnNYNJ]

Stable at 3GHZ: no sweat .

8 GB OCZ (2x 4GB kits) DDR 2-1000 @ 5-5-5-18.1T @ 2.1v

I'm running 1:1 (1333 and 666), slightly bumped up vNB to 1.375 (still in MSI's "white" zone of values) and the minimum step-up on CPU (didn't try AUTO, I just bumped it up by .0125), FSB GTL 65, GSB Term 25 and all others on Auto. I'm reading around 48-50C under load with my microtemp infrared thermometer pointed at the NB. I'm running around 49.5-51.5C on the SB which seems a little high for this board - thoughts?

The hottest core is < 35C idle and hovers around 57C under load (65C max scared me a bit but I think OCCT at 94&#37;+ usage is torture) on the stock Intel retail box cooler: * for Intel*.

I can't wait to put this system on water; I'm having a great time with this set-up.

Many thanks to silent-circuit, theYipster, x-built-Stan, loonym, AaronYuri and Pchas01 on the MSI forum.




Watercooling/Case Modding thread on [H]

P.S. WTB: 1 long SLI cable!

[malik22]

Whats the diameter of the NB heatsink 60mm,80mm?

[Family man 72]

JohnNYNJ,

This is what Pchas01 did on the MSI forums:




http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=115893.0 But he already showed you this.

What is the exact model of Thermalright installed on mosfets?

[JohnNYNJ]

What is the exact model of Thermalright installed on mosfets?

That is a Thermalright HR09 (appears to be the HR-09U to be exact) which is supposed to be a perfect fit after you flip the holdown retainers over to reposition the spring pins.

Info here: http://www.acousticpc.com/thermalrig..._heatsink.html

[theYipster]

Stable at 3GHZ: no sweat .

8 GB OCZ (2x 4GB kits) DDR 2-1000 @ 5-5-5-18.1T @ 2.1v

I'm running 1:1 (1333 and 666), slightly bumped up vNB to 1.375 (still in MSI's "white" zone of values) and the minimum step-up on CPU (didn't try AUTO, I just bumped it up by .0125), FSB GTL 65, GSB Term 25 and all others on Auto. I'm reading around 48-50C under load with my microtemp infrared thermometer pointed at the NB. I'm running around 49.5-51.5C on the SB which seems a little high for this board - thoughts?

The hottest core is < 35C idle and hovers around 57C under load (65C max scared me a bit but I think OCCT at 94%+ usage is torture) on the stock Intel retail box cooler: * for Intel*.

I can't wait to put this system on water; I'm having a great time with this set-up.

Congrats and glad to hear you're having fun with the board. Keep us posted on your further endeavors.

[Bragor]

My aim wasn't to run the fastest system, but to have a most silent one. I have all the outer fans on my case (Antec P190) running on slow setting beside the 200something mm side fan, which runs at full speed (and still doesn't make much noise)

I've got the following system running stable at 3789 MHz for almost 2 months now:

P7N Diamond
Intel e8400 with AC Freezer 7 pro
G.Skill 2x2GB kit (F2-8000)
Antec P190 (I shot it for less than 100 € and couldn't resist .. love the thing)
PNY 8800GTS 512MB (G92)

BIOS settings are:
FSB 1684 MHz
Dram 842 MHz
CPU +0,15 V
NB 1,425 V
SB 1,525 V
DRAM 1,95 V
DRAM Timings 5/5/5/15

everything else is on auto (I didn't try to set things I've no knowledge of)

To get started, I was slowly increasing the CPU and DRAM frequencies and tried to run memtest with it. In the range from 1600 to 1650 MHz FSB I haven't had much luck, as the system wouldn't boot, or start memtest. I had to increase the voltage alot to get any results. Ahead of like 1660 MHz things started to get more stable with lower voltage. This is why I endet with the above figures.

The system in its current shape passed 8hrs of Orthos Blend as well as small FFT's (Blend usually gave me more issues .. even though the small FFT's were rather easily passed, it crashed while testing the larger FFT's in Blend).

The only thing I'm a little scared about are the temperatures. The CPU with around 60-65° C on a daily use (up to 75° C when testing with Orthos) doesn't give me headaches, but the NB/SB runs around 55° C which I think might be a tad high.

[theYipster]

NB/SB at 55c is a tad high for this board under best circumstances, but nothing to worry about. A flexible fan mounted over the heat pipe (such as an Antec Spot Cool) will effectively lower temps, but of course will also add noise.

As for the proc, E8400s have been known to incorrectly report temps, although I'm not aware if it's a cpu issue, temp software issue, or board / bios issue. If you feel temps are accurate, you can check the mount of your cooler (is it installed correctly with the right amount of TIM applied?) or invest in better cooling. Unfortunately, a better air cooler will also be louder. If you want maximum cooling potential with minimum noise, water is your best bet.

[gamin]

using my new rig for 2 weeks now, I wanna share my (happy) feelings with you.

so, as described in my sig, I wanted a silent system, powerful enough for actual games. of course this computer won't be "gaming only", but it will be its major job. I didn't know that much about the board and the RAM I bought, but I thought it would be perfect for me. this is the first time that I don't choose an Asus motherboard (and also the first time I don't buy an intel chipset), but I really really don't regret it. I was used to MSI graphic cards, so I decided to take the P7N Diamond, cos' I've never been disappointed with MSI products. other reasons were the X-Fi sound card (can't forget my good old AWE32... snif...) and all the connectors available. X-Fi has been hard to configure, but it's finally working fine. Crucial was not my first choice (corsair dominator first), but different tests and articles convinced me that corsair was not what it was before, so, I choose the crucials. with their leds and with the leds on the mobo, my computer looks like a christmas tree (what I wasn't thinking about at the beginning). I finally bought a lian li transparent panel for my tower (compatible with lancool pc-k7), 'cos I wanna see all those lights all the time !!!

about the 2x NX8800GT Silent : I've read all the articles around with those new 9800 generation cards, and I still have the feeling I made the right choice. they are silent & powerful : 1680x1050 in every games, with 4xAA and anisotrop on. Crysis is the only game that suffer bad performances with those settings, but Crysis is not the only video game on earth

after reading all the messages in this topic (and after theYipster was kind enough to explain the basics of overclocking in a long post), I tried some overclocking. the biggest I tried was 4Ghz, but I've never been able to stabilize it. 3.8Ghz was working, but hot hot hot. as I first wanted a powerful and silent computer, I prefer to leave overclocking for now. I don't need it, and I'm still scared about making anything bad. and I don't want this computer to need more cooling and more noise. Noctua's fans are definately the most silent I've ever bought.

actually, I'm running P07 bios, which is the only one that allow me to put 9.5 multiplier for my CPU. don't want that speedstep thing to take control of my rig ! as my ram needed to be manually set in the bios to get right CAS and voltage, I prefer to do the same with my CPU (even if OCCT is reporting a very little overclocking, CPU@3170Mhz (0.16% overclock) and RAM@333.8Mhz (0.24%). if someone can explain ).

that's it. thanks for your help, thanks for sharing and be sure I'll stay with you to read your "adventures"

[malik22]

What size fan will fit the Northbridge?

[dogg]

After changing bios version from 116B to 07B my issues with RAM settings are gone /big thx to loonym for bios file /.... Even when I set RAM settings to manual CL4 /4-4-4-18 T1/ settings are already there and I'm able to go up with FSB on those settings...
So, I'm stable on 3960 MHz....1760MHz FSB, 800MHz RAM, CPU voltage +0.2000V, RAM voltage 2.10V, NB voltage 1.35V everything else on auto...

Everest stress test no crash after 30mins... Played Half Life2 with no crash..

No USB device issues as with 1.0 version..

Some 3D mark scores...
Default setting of 3Dmark....... 17 547 3Dmarks
1680x1050, 4xAA/quality 4/, AF/quality 10/.... 12 587 3Dmarks
/ with these settings there's just small increase, but probably that's the graphic card border/

Some temperatures while running stress test

CPU1 and CPU2 max on 67 C /read from everest/... don't care about CPU temp which is still showing 50C
NB on 46C / read from my temp sensor installed on NB /
SB on 47C / read from my temp sensor installed on SB /

So those are somethig about 5-7C more than on default... Heatpipes are hot on touch, but that's the reason why they are there

Today I'll try some more difficult games than HL2..


__________________________________________________ ________________
MSI P7N Diamond (780i)
E8400 Penryn on air (Zalman CNPS8700NT)
2x2G Geil Evo One DDR2 CL4 800MHz
2x MSI 8800GT 1GB OC in SLi
2x 150GB WD Raptor
750GB Seagate Barracuda
Power: Coolermaster M series 850W
Logitech G15 Keyboard
Logitech G9 Mouse
Logitech MOMO Racing Wheel
Eizo Flexscan S2031W
Vista 32Bit Ultimate

FSB term voltage still showing max value 63 /no 65 settings as Yipster post/

Anyway, I'm happy with this performance.... All games running more than 60 fps, just Crysis is something for next year machines /or maybe later/ ...

[loonym]

Haha... I'm still here! I always knew it would take more than a couple guys with knives to kill me
Glad to hear things are working out for you dogg and that this bios is a step in the right direction for most.

[pacific vortex]

well I'm glad youre still with us but...

Haha... I'm still here! I always knew it would take more than a couple guys with knives to kill me

care to explain?

[gamin]

in french, I would say "il n'y a que les imb&#233;ciles qui ne changent pas d'avis" means only stupid guys don't change their mind... I've finally managed a stable 4.0Ghz overclocking with my E8500, but it was hard for me to find what was going wrong...

first, some shots :

3D Mark 2003 with CPU-Z :



3D Mark 2005 with CPU-Z :



3D Mark 2006 with CPU-Z, GPU-Z and RealTemp:



forgot to take shots of OCCT and Orthos, but they both ran fine for some hours...

the settings now (with bios P07) :

FSB : 1686
DRAM : 843
CPU RATIO : 9.5
CPU Volt : 0.22500
DRAM Volt : 2.20
NB Volt : 1.400
CPU GTL : 25
FSB TERM : 63
all others Auto except for the DRAM settings which I had to change to 5-5-5-18-30-2T to get it stable... believe it or not, but my RAM settings were the problem. with 4-4-4-12-24-2T which is supposed to be normal, no way to get it stable. with the others, everything is running smooth...

thanks theYipster for being such a good teacher

CPU-Z validation : here

PS: now, I know my CPU can handle it, but I'm back to its default settings... I feel safer that way...

EDIT: mistyped RAM settings, sorry

[loonym]

well I'm glad youre still with us but...care to explain?

I had surgery for bladder cancer and was in the hospital several days.

[NIVO]

glad you are still with us loonym

[theYipster]

Here, here, loonym! Happy to know you're still with us too... all the best!

[gamin]

same thing for all the good things : you think it's gone, and, no, it's not... great to see you back loonym

[loonym]

glad you are still with us loonym

lol me too

Maybe it's just me but every ram I've tried in here so far runs 1T and tight timings 1:1 @800 flawlessly.

[gamin]

noob question (still discovering in fact) : what are the best ram settings (for speed in general, forget about overclocking) ? 800Mhz@4-4-4-12-24 or 1000Mhz@5-5-5-15-30 ? can't find and understand a good answer to this...

[malik22]

I Have a question with 8800gtx in sli in the blue slots will the included X-Fi Xtreme fit?and is there and alternative if not im getting this board next week

[theYipster]

Malik, the included X-Fi PCI-E card will fit with two GTXs in the blue slots.