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

[BababooeyHTJ]

I think my board is fryed. I was playing the Witcher today and got a hard freeze with no bsod, my screen just froze. I hit reset and when my pc reset it would not post, no beeps, nothing. I pulled out all but one video card and one dimm, then swaped and tried a different slot for the ram. I cleared cmos, same thing, then pulled the battery and that didnt help either. The only thing that I did notice is that my hard drive led is staying on solid and not blinking. Im going to pull all but one hard drive now, then try my spare psu. I dont know what else it could be. How is MSI's rma policy? Will they accept my rma since I pulled my heatsink and replaced the TIM?

[BababooeyHTJ]

I just pulled everything apart and reseted everything including the heatsinks on the board so I could get a good look at the caps and chips. I didnt notice anything obvious. It didnt help at all but when I turned it back on I did notice that the fans on the video cards did not turn on either. Still no error code. Every other fan turned on. I really think the board is shot, Ill try my spare psu tomorrow but if that dosnt work I think Ill try to rma the board (if I can).

Edit: The leds for the video cards and ram did turn on. I dont remember what color they are supposed to be, if that even makes a difference.

[dogg]

I was not able to change cpu to E8600 running 1.2B3 bios.. Stop at start screen, cpu identificated right but it was not possible get to bios setting .. Only flashing 1.2 official /with reinstaled old cpu/ worked for me.. I remember I got some issues with this bios before, so do anybody know newer version with E8600 support...?

[loonym]

I'll try and get one from MSI support dogg. Might take a day or 2. I have a q9650 coming so I may need a bios if I decide to test in the P7N

[dogg]

[Bobo888]

I recently had trouble connecting to a network through the ethernet connectors on the motherbard because my MAC address was 60-50-40-30-20-10/11. Has anyone else ever seen this? A friend of mine recomended re-flashing the bios but for now im just using a cheap pci network card.

[Fiskbit]

Krispinn, I don't know if you're still following this thread, but try increasing your FSB Term quite a bit. That seems to have helped for me, as I've not had problems with starting up now that the FSB Term voltage is substantially high. I'll post my exact voltages next time I start up my system and can get into the BIOS. Hopefully that'll help.

[bluspikez]

Krispinn, I don't know if you're still following this thread, but try increasing your FSB Term quite a bit. That seems to have helped for me, as I've not had problems with starting up now that the FSB Term voltage is substantially high. I'll post my exact voltages next time I start up my system and can get into the BIOS. Hopefully that'll help.

And you can set it as high as the motherboard will allow (1.313v) without having to worry about damaging anything; the mobo doesn't support a value that is high enough to fry anything (which could be good or bad, depending on the person you talk to...more voltage options in the bios would allow for more overclocking). I run mine at that value any time I have my cpu overclocked, even a minimal amount.

[nugzo]

I was not able to change cpu to E8600 running 1.2B3 bios.. Stop at start screen, cpu identificated right but it was not possible get to bios setting .. Only flashing 1.2 official /with reinstaled old cpu/ worked for me.. I remember I got some issues with this bios before, so do anybody know newer version with E8600 support...?

Same thing here. My striker died so i pilled out the Diamond. Hangs on first screen with E8600. Put q6600 in and it boots right up. E8600s have been out long enough to have bios support from MSI. My Q9650 will be here tomorrow.

[dogg]

Same thing here. My striker died so i pilled out the Diamond. Hangs on first screen with E8600. Put q6600 in and it boots right up. E8600s have been out long enough to have bios support from MSI. My Q9650 will be here tomorrow.

But, as I wrote official 1.2 BIOS supports E8600 ... I remember some issues with E8400 and 1.2 BIOS together, and with E8600 overall stability is solid on 4.33 GHz.. I set this setup right from a start and no previous issues appeared.. /i had video corruption issue before/..
Now got a feeling, this CPU likes this BIOS auto values - CPU V +0.3000 /thanks to VID 1.1000/, RAM V 2.2, NB 1.55 V, SB 1.6V, everything else on auto 433*10, FSB:RAM ratio 1:1..
I didn't try any other bios after, 1.2 just worked and it was 6th time I got my cooler down and CPU out of socket ..went to the shop next day and CPU worked there, so than I was sure it's BIOS or broken board.. So I needed to swap CPUs couple of times, again, because of BIOS flashing..


LOONYM...
Some new Beta is worth to try, anyway

[Fiskbit]

bluspikez: Does it matter if the FSB Term voltage is higher than vCore at these low voltages? I currently have my vCore .025v higher than I'd like so that FSB Term is less than vCore; if that's not necessary, I'd love to drop my vCore back down to keep temperatures lower.

[stickboy00]

I sometimes get a crash and/or BSOD when playing crysis (and warhead). This crash always happens during an intense firefight when there are tons of sounds and I'm thinking the sound card may be the issue. Can you install the Creative drivers for the x-fi extreme audio or should you only use the MSI drivers?

[BababooeyHTJ]

I thought Id make a quick post as to why I think this board gives some people issues at "stock" settings. When I got my P45 and poped in my e8400 I noticed that the VID was not reported the same as my P7N, so the board would undervolt my chip abit at auto. Still this board clocked well for me and I never had any plans of running my chip at stock speeds anyways.

[alex0826]

Here's my questions/info/screen shots etc... Please advise.

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/...ml#post4624293

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/...ml#post4642283

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/...ock-chart.html

[XavierMaxx]

Not here to offer any assistance at the moment (although I may check back later this week to see if I can help), but I wanted to post more results from this board. I have tested the 1.2B3 BIOS as well as 6/8GB RAM configuration.

I did have the video corruption issue known for this chipset although it was extremely rare. Like I've seen from others, the newer (1.2x) BIOS revisions have helped but not completely cured this problem. So far, however, the 1.2B3 BIOS seems to have completely fixed the problem for me. I want to clarify in that I only had issues twice a month but I have not had any since 1.2B3, a revision which I installed almost immediately after its release.

I also picked up a second 2x2GB kit of my RAM and tested 6GB SC and 8GB DC to see how the board handled those configurations. 6GB worked immediately without a hitch and real world performance dropped about 5% over DC. 8GB caused problems on boot/POST - I have to reset the BIOS whenever I change RAM so the default settings were barely able to work, requiring multiple attempts. Once I got my "solid" settings in the BIOS again, I found that Windows would blue screen on loading. Dropping from 1066 to 1000 made the RAM completely stable, and I'm currently testing at 1018 which appears to be stable as well. No changes were required for any voltages.

[alex0826]

Hi, unless I've missed something, there are no postings for this board and the Q9450 CPU? At the beginning of this string there is a Q6600 set up chart, I'd love one for the Q9450 if possible? Also I've read about how in the past some CPU's could be modded (bridged) using some conductive paint, or a pencil. Is it possible, to solder two pins or something like that and unlock this CPU? I bought this and can't afford something from the QX line. What is the most likely stable max I can hit with this setup, "In asking this I do understand that every exact setup can still turn up different stable overclocks"

MSI P7N-Diamond
Q9450
OCZ SLI 800 8GIG's <----was this a poor choice for RAM?
OCZ Vanquisher CPU cooler <-----was this a poor choice for a cooler?
4 500 GIG 7200.11's RAID 0
EVGA 9800 GX2
Vista Ultimate 64-bit (Ultimate POS) jk
I've been told by someone that my ram wasn't a good choice, as well as the CPU cooler...?

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/...ml#post4624293

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/...ml#post4642283

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/...ock-chart.html

Don't know if any of this will help in anyway...?

O yeah, I have the known video problems, and they're annoying, lol

[BababooeyHTJ]

What bios are you useing? Im pretty sure they cleared that video corruption issue up with the latest offical bios. Ive heard good things about that board with a 45nm quad. I had good luck with this board, untill it died on me. The most important thing with this board is chipset cooling. At the very least replace the TIM on the chipset with something like MX-2. You might want to invest in aftermarket cooling for the chipset though.

[dogg]

I didn't touch MB cooling just swapped CPU cooler to Coolermaster GeminII S which actually perfectly fits this board and perform good cooling for MSI rollercoster.. only disadvantage of this is that hot air from rollercoster is going straight to graphic card PCB where is GPU on the other side what rising my GPU temperature 10C higher than lower one in SLi.. So I probably change SLi to single GPU solution when it will make more sense than today's single solutions.. Than I use just lower PCIe slot.. This cooler can be extended to 2x92mm fan/extension plates included/ so it will cover memory sticks as well /RAM sticks must be regular size, not taller/ but will not reach rollercoster as with 120mm default fan.... That was the easyest cpu cooling istalation I ever did and result is 5-10C down on NB compare to Zalman CNPS8700NT 110mm, so I can recommend this one for this board..
Some photos how it looks..

Sorry about the cable mess

[raymeus3]

Excellent posts guys. I’ve read ‘em all! Mwahaha! Anyways, I would appreciate some help from you P7N’ers out there. (FYI: I suck at posting on forums so who knows how good this will look)

I’ve completed a list of all the parts I need for my current computer project, BEAST v2.0 (v2.0, because v1.0 was going to be AMD based, but AMD quad core is laughable, and BEAST from the case, Chenbro SR10769-BK-H)

Ok, here’s my request: could someone measure for me and see if a 92mm fan, centered around the processor, sticks above the top length of the motherboard? Or a 120mm fan for that matter? (I’m pretty sure a 120mm will) Now, what I’m asking for is hard to explain, so I’ll go off of the pictures here:

http://fryfrog.com/v/MaryAnn-Donnie/Toys/ChenbroSR10769

If you look at the pictures, the top of the motherboard rests right against the power supply support tray (usually a rail, but a tray in this matter). So, I need to know if my CPU cooler (92mm at the moment) will be too large to fit in the space (Since all these mobos have the processor so damn high up on the board nowadays). I want the CPU cooler fan to point towards the back of the case, requiring 46mm of clearance between the center of the CPU and the top of the mobo.

The ATTACHMENT illustrates my attempts so far to measure and see if it will fit. The circles are ~120mm and ~92mm. (note the mad mspaint skills :P)



I would appreciate anything this forum could throw at me. Thanks.



-Also, I've listed the parts, so if something screams CONFLICT, please let me know.


BEAST v2.0 Parts
Case: Chenbro SR10769-BK-H
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz (G0 HOPEFULLY, because chances are 50/50 if you order from newegg)
PS: Rosewill RX950-D-B 950W SLI 8800Ultra Power Supply
Mobo: MSI P7N Diamond (of course)
Video: MSI GeForce GTX 260
Ram: OCZ Titanium XTC 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3320613AS 320GB (x2 w/raid 1)
OS: Windows XP Pro 32 bit
Cooling:
CPU Cooler: XIGMATEK HDT-S963 92mm w/ XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket
CPU Cooler Replacement fan: Vantec Tornado TD9238H 92mm x1 (~100 cfm)
NB Fan: Asus Passive Water/Heatpipe CPU/Chipset optional fan x1
Rear Case Fan: Vantec TF12025 120mm Thermoflow x1 (~100 cfm)
Rear PCI Case Fan: Rosewill RFX-100 90mm x1 (~60 cfm)
Front Case Fans: Vantec TF9225 92mm Thermoflow x2 (~58 cfm)
Mid Case Fans: Vantec SF12025L 92mm Stealth x2 (~55 cfm)

Plan on shooting for 3.6gHz on the processor (9 x 400), with 1:1 ratio, so memory maxed at 400mHz.


EDIT:
Ok, just noticed pics above. Niiice. hey dogg, is it possible to move down that cpu cooler like 5mm? It looks like the cooler hangs over the top of the mobo by mere mm's.

[raymeus3]

So really, I'm looking for the best cooling solution that doesn't break the boundary of the top of the mobo. Also, another sad restriction: the rear 120mm case fan could be a problem (see ATTACHMENTs), because the MB ports aren't inlaid like most cases.

With dogg's post, now I'm thinkin the GeminiII might fit, depending on how far I could adjust those fans (see ATTACHMENTS).

Dammit! I love this case too much! ARGHHHHH!



EDIT: Jesus I am dumb. It will fit, because the pic I ATTACHED IS A P7N, but can't get a good look at the top! So it will fit the mobo, but maybe not the case... Man, I need to go to bed.

[dogg]

It's just bad angle on that photos.. I just wanted show clear there is space between passive part of cooler and the edge of fan so air can flow right on mobo rollercoster.. MOBO is actually 2-3mm longer over top edge of cpu fan, so don't worry about it.. Just notice that GeminII /you posted/looks bit different than GeminII S..GeminII ,seems, not reaching rollercoster that close as GeminII S, and it's taller /just 6mm, but maybe fits taller RAM modules../

[raymeus3]

thanks dogg. I have the GeminII S as a distinct possibility now. Might go with the two 92mm fans though.

Still, I wonder if the GeminII w/ the 2x120mm fans will fit...DAMN MY CURIOUS NATURE! AHHHHH!

If anyone has a GeminII (non S) w/ the 2x120mm fans on this mobo, please let me know if the mobo is longer than the top of the CPU Cooler. Thx

[dogg]

thanks dogg. I have the GeminiII S as a distinct possibility now. Might go with the two 92mm fans though.

Still, I wonder if the GeminiII w/ the 2x120mm fans will fit...DAMN MY CURIOUS NATURE! AHHHHH!

I'm sure you can fit two 120mm fans on GeminII S somehow / second fan will be fixed just on one side /

[raymeus3]

I'm sure you can fit two 120mm fans on GeminII S somehow / second fan will be fixed just on one side /

Ah, the old ziptie method... that might just be crazy enough to work.

---
If anyone has a GeminII (non S) w/ the 2x120mm fans on this mobo, please let me know if the mobo is longer than the top of the CPU Cooler. Thx

[dogg]

yeah.. that way
I also checked your hardware setup .. I have good experience with Mushkin RAM.. tried ocz reaper, geil evo one, corsair dominator as well.. they performed well, but underclocked Mushkin works best for me..