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

[nugzo]

Ok she's on the bench Installing Vista 64. Be back soon with updates....

[XavierMaxx]

Ah lucky catch on my part, checked the thread right after your post - good luck with that and let us know how it goes.

As for my results, 3.4 seems unattainable for one reason or another, I suspect it will require fine-tuning like 3.2 did. Boosting CPU voltage past a point does nothing for stability (~25 min OCCT) and same with NB voltage, so I assume either I need more FSB term (I do need more than 1.25 for 3.2) than the board can deliver currently or I will have to do some GTL tweaks. I have a FSB hole between 3.2 and 3.4 at 9x, and 1600+ seems unstable at any setting, so that remains my best bet unless I tweak up to find the edge of the hole (I expect ~3.25).

[nugzo]

Ok so far so good. After about 45minutes of playing she's running at the same speeds as my ASUS striker II Formula. I still only have 1 video card in and 4 gigs of ram. I ran about 15min of small fft and was ok then i stopped it to run memory tests and super pi. I just started Prime back up in this screenshot. I will let it run while i run back to the shop and pick up my sound card. The temps are high ATM because my TRUE isnt mounted correctly. The backplate is still on my striker so it s not mounted tight at all. Heres the SS.

[XavierMaxx]

Looks pretty good. Gives me a clear idea of your system characteristics.

I see that you have the Sidebar so I assume you are running Vista, especially since the screenshot border is using the default snipping tool stroke. I mention that because Super PI crashes on me and I've heard it is a Vista compatibility issue (although I did not bother to try XP compatibility mode now that I think about it). It might be an x64 issue, too, but I'd assume with 4 or 8GB you are running that as well. Do you know anything about that?

I see that your GPU core is 60C idle there, that is what I would consider borderline for idle (you want 50-55C auto and 40-45C manual) but it is likely due to automatic fan control. I am curious as to what you hit under serious load, my expectation is that it will be at least low 70s and as high as 80+. The automatic fan control probably only hits about 50% at that point, so a manual setting of 86% like I use on this board would net you closer to 65C or so.

Everything else looks great...hope it works out for you under more testing, this board needs more users to fully probe its strengths and weaknesses.

[nugzo]

Looks pretty good. Gives me a clear idea of your system characteristics.

I see that you have the Sidebar so I assume you are running Vista, especially since the screenshot border is using the default snipping tool stroke. I mention that because Super PI crashes on me and I've heard it is a Vista compatibility issue (although I did not bother to try XP compatibility mode now that I think about it). It might be an x64 issue, too, but I'd assume with 4 or 8GB you are running that as well. Do you know anything about that?

I see that your GPU core is 60C idle there, that is what I would consider borderline for idle (you want 50-55C auto and 40-45C manual) but it is likely due to automatic fan control. I am curious as to what you hit under serious load, my expectation is that it will be at least low 70s and as high as 80+. The automatic fan control probably only hits about 50% at that point, so a manual setting of 86% like I use on this board would net you closer to 65C or so.

Everything else looks great...hope it works out for you under more testing, this board needs more users to fully probe its strengths and weaknesses.

On the striker with all 3 cards installed full load is 60-68c with fan set to manual on 80%. Of course the middle card always shows the hottest. The ss earlier the fan is set to auto. I havent touched any of that stuff yet. Yes i'm using vista 64 SP1. I havent heard of or had issues with super pi in vista 64. I haven't used it much though.

[XavierMaxx]

On the striker with all 3 cards installed full load is 60-68c with fan set to manual on 80%. Of course the middle card always shows the hottest. The ss earlier the fan is set to auto. I havent touched any of that stuff yet. Yes i'm using vista 64 SP1. I havent heard of or had issues with super pi in vista 64. I haven't used it much though.

Was just checking as I know Fiskbit was having some issues with SLI and/or GPU temperatures, thank you for clarifying that. Your temp results look spot-on so that helps provide a good benchmark for determining if anybody is having overheating issues on auto. My card definitely runs hotter with this board, I imagine it has to do with the chipset more than anything; glad to see it wasn't my imagination. Guess I'll have to look into my Super PI issue some more...it makes me nervous, lol...although I passed a 2-hr run of CPU-focused OCCT last night plus loops of PCMark Vantage overnight without a problem.

[Fiskbit]

Well, I wasn't having issues with temperatures, per se; I just didn't have the fan speed upped. I'm running them at 50% for the colder card and 60% for the hotter card. Current temps are 56 and 60 C, but case ambient is 5 or 6 degrees higher than usual because it's a hot day.

I had to do a complete reinstall of windows last night and will be looking at SLI again soon. Perhaps things will run more smoothly this time.

[nugzo]

OK 45 more min woth of prime with no errors. I just added the other 4GB of ram and still doing well. 8gb at 933 5-5-5-15. This is the same as the striker. I havent even tried to tweak this system yet just wanted to se if it could hang. I apears that it can. I'll now install the board in the case and continue. I'm using the 1.1b2 bios and loonyms bios settings here where he was calling me out for downing this board. Thanks Loon! The only things i changed were the vcore and NOT setting the SLI memory to expert. Heres a SS of the 8GB of Gskill.