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

[Litri]

If you read through the thread alot of people were using a Q6600, there is alot of good info here. You should find a good starting point. Keep in mind auto does not mean stock. Once you start overclocking stuff like your pll and vtt gets almost dangerously high on most boards. I never tested this with a multimeter. You might need to replace the TIM on your chipset with something like MX-2 since you have all of the dimms occupied. The northbridge runs hot and that seems to have helped alot of people out.

You may have hit a FSB hole they are random and huge on these nForce boards. My e8400 hit one around a 440fsb. It sounds like you got a good board though. With some tweeking and research you should see good results. Good luck.

This is really funny... i have a dual-boot with XP 64 and Windows 7 Beta. So out of curiosity yesterday i choosed to start Windows 7 Beta and... be impressed!!! it booted to desktop with no stability problems above 1200FSB, I even threw the longest Super Pi calculation, and Prime 95 as well.

What's going on??? I even managed to get 1333FSB and no problems at all!!!

Is Windows 7 less sensitive to overcloking??

Then i started thinking... ok, I have the latest drivers from Nvidia for Xp64, 181.22 Whql and i have both 8800GTX overclocked to 610mhz GPU, 1450mhz Shaders and 950mhz memory... i also have Nvidia system tools installed (which is the app i used for the overclock)... Could it be that?

If not what other explanation??? SLI is activated in Windows 7 and makes no difference... super-stable.


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[loonym]

In these days my MOBO has 1st birthday / or better say anniversary /.. I must agree with bababooey and stickboy, that it's about little play with voltages, but since MSI did a very good job with MOBO's BIOS, it's much more easy to find a stable setting.. I did no cooling modifications and it's stable /e8400 1760 FSB, e8600 1732 FSB/ for 24/7 use.. I, somehow, like to keep 1:1 DRAM:FSB ratio on this board ..
and gl Litri..

Mine has run with a q6600 oc to 3600 at 100% load around the clock crunching WCG for the past year.

[Litri]

Hi, I been watching this post for a while and finally decided to get myself a P7N and hope I can beat all the odds. I got everything up and running and so far so good until I ran the 3DMark06 test, the score was shocking 946, I knew there must be something wrong but I could not figure it out.
My config is below
MSI P7n Diamond V1.0
MSI Geforce 9800GT OC 512MB
2GB 1066 DDR2
160G HD
Pentium 4 3.6GHz
Windows XP SP2
I know my CPU is a bit slow for the graphic card but is it normal to score that low? I wanted to experience some OC with a low end CPU first before I upgrade to a Quad.
Any help will be appreciated
PS I ran CUPID and everything seem normal.

I guess your CPU is holding you back VERY BADLY!!!!

I even did a search on futuremark ORB and couldn't find any system benchmarking matching your specs...

Time for and upgrade???

[dogg]

Mine has run with a q6600 oc to 3600 at 100% load around the clock crunching WCG for the past year.

Hi loonym, I'm glad to c u here again..U are our guru ...Nice new rig u got there.... I didn't mean to post some world record of OC.. just let Litri know,that this MOBO realy like oc... I'm keeping FSB there, cause my RAMs like that /11150 read, latency 47.7/.. when higher, RAM performance droping 1000-2000 read, latency to 51.. I made some changes in hw as well.. I gave up 8800GT SLi and changed it to single ULTRA, which is keeping that SLi thing between PCIe slots cooler, and my power supply bit more warm.. I'm really happy with this board and some issues I got before was not MOBO related /for example, SATA problem was there because of Seagate crappy firmware/...

[stickboy00]

Hi, I been watching this post for a while and finally decided to get myself a P7N and hope I can beat all the odds. I got everything up and running and so far so good until I ran the 3DMark06 test, the score was shocking 946, I knew there must be something wrong but I could not figure it out.

My P4 3.2 + 7800GS AGP scored around 7000 in 3dmark06 so I would think your setup should be a bit higher than that. Something is definitely fouled up with a score of 900?!?!

[Litri]

OK, so i thought it will all be glory...

After uninstalling Nvidia system tools the PC is booting to desktop with Xp x64
and there are no freezes but whenever i start IntelBurnTest and it is around
a minute through... i get a BSOD and the computer restarts.

These are my bios settings now:

System clock "Manual".
FSB clock 1600.
DRAM clock 800.
Multiplier at 8.

Memory timings manually added.
CPU Voltage "+0.0500"
DRAM voltage "2.1"
NB Voltage "1.40"
SB Voltage "1.55"
Memory Ref Voltage "0.975"
Everything else on "Auto"

Some tips on how to get it working at those 3.2ghz????
My CPU vid is 1.3125.

Thanks!

[BababooeyHTJ]

Your vCore is pretty low. Also I doubt that you need that much vNB (I'm pretty sure thats how I killed my board). Do you have adequete cooling/airflow over the northbridge? It's nessesary on these 780i's they run hot. You may want to replace the TIM on the chipset, that seems to have helped alot of users.

[oz38super]

Hi guys, thanks for the reply, I will have to do more test to found out what wrong. The board has a 8 pin CPU power connector but I only plugged in a 4 pin connector, is that a problem? Also is that possible or will help to set the FSB:RAM ratio to 1:1 for my 1066 DDR2 Ram? Sorry for all these amateur questions.

[Litri]

Hi guys, thanks for the reply, I will have to do more test to found out what wrong. The board has a 8 pin CPU power connector but I only plugged in a 4 pin connector, is that a problem? Also is that possible or will help to set the FSB:RAM ratio to 1:1 for my 1066 DDR2 Ram? Sorry for all these amateur questions.

Using only a 4-pin connector should not be a problem, I have it like that and it follows the motherboard requirements and specs.

I just noticed in your previous post that you wrote "MSI P7n Diamond V1.0".

If that means that you have BIOS version 1.0, i would recommend you to flash your bios to the latest one... http://global.msi.eu/index.php?func=...1&prod_no=1372

Regarding the FSB... it will be difficult as doing that will mean that you will have to overclock the CPU by a nice amount and as far as i remember those processors were coming with a quadpumped 200FSB, 800MHZ and they were already very hot... by the speed you mentioned i guess it is a P4 (Cedar Mill core) 661, 65nm.

It will be a bit harder than normal to clock this thing... i think.

[Litri]

Your vCore is pretty low. Also I doubt that you need that much vNB (I'm pretty sure thats how I killed my board). Do you have adequete cooling/airflow over the northbridge? It's nessesary on these 780i's they run hot. You may want to replace the TIM on the chipset, that seems to have helped alot of users.

How high should i go on the CPU V.... any tips???

I'm not going to push the FSB more... perhaps CPU GTL ref and FSB term need to be adjusted, or??

Cheers!

[x-built-Stan]

Litri,

You should bump Vcore to around 0.875. If still unstable, go to 1.0

[oz38super]

Using only a 4-pin connector should not be a problem, I have it like that and it follows the motherboard requirements and specs.

I just noticed in your previous post that you wrote "MSI P7n Diamond V1.0".

If that means that you have BIOS version 1.0, i would recommend you to flash your bios to the latest one... http://global.msi.eu/index.php?func=...1&prod_no=1372

Regarding the FSB... it will be difficult as doing that will mean that you will have to overclock the CPU by a nice amount and as far as i remember those processors were coming with a quadpumped 200FSB, 800MHZ and they were already very hot... by the speed you mentioned i guess it is a P4 (Cedar Mill core) 661, 65nm.

It will be a bit harder than normal to clock this thing... i think.

Hi Litri, once again thanks for the reply. I admitted I made a fundamental mistake for putting the P4 CPU on this high end board, I shouldn’t spent all my budget try to air conditioning the case and water cool the cpu. I will get myself a Q6600 when its price come down a bit, in Australia it is still in demand. By the way is it really not a good idea to install any 45nm chip in this board?

[FedericoUY]

By the way is it really not a good idea to install any 45nm chip in this board?

Hi oz38super, I don't think at all it's a bad idea. I used my p7n diamond with a q9450 for some time with really good results, till my board died. I was able to manage around 440 of fsb, so my processor was around 3500-3600 (just 3 days of overclock).
Now my board is in rma, but when i got it back, i'll put it my Q back .

[oz38super]

Hi oz38super, I don't think at all it's a bad idea. I used my p7n diamond with a q9450 for some time with really good results, till my board died. I was able to manage around 440 of fsb, so my processor was around 3500-3600 (just 3 days of overclock).
Now my board is in rma, but when i got it back, i'll put it my Q back .

Hi FedericoUY, I watched this post for a while now and found a lot people RMA their board had a commom factor, ocing a 45nm chip, do you mind tell me what wrong with yours?

[FedericoUY]

Hi FedericoUY, I watched this post for a while now and found a lot people RMA their board had a commom factor, ocing a 45nm chip, do you mind tell me what wrong with yours?

My board died suddenly. Never posted again. Very similar to BababooeyHTJ. He said he think the problem maybe the chipset, and maybe it is.
Yes, we all have 45nm chips, but I don't think that's the problem, because other people here used 45nm chips with no problems like loonym, before his Q6600 he had a x3360 on a p7n, and oc'd to 3825.
I think the problem with our boards has been a bad batch of boards, or defective nVIDIA chipsets.

[oz38super]

I have an option to choose between Q6600 or Q9400, which one should I go for?

[BababooeyHTJ]

Thats a good question. I would probably go with a q9400 based on how these new q6600 batchs are overclocking. I don't think that the 2mb of cache would make much of a difference.

When I got my board back I could clearly see that they replaced the northbridge. Too bad because it ran well before it died suddenly.

[FedericoUY]

Yes... if Q6600's stepping is B3, and you are planing to do some oc, I prefer Q9400. At same speeds maybe Q9400 is a little faster, but Q6600 G0 will overclock more. Q9400 will go over 3.4Ghz with some luck, Q6600 over 3.6Ghz, so I guess it's your choice...

[stickboy00]

I have an option to choose between Q6600 or Q9400, which one should I go for?

I'd spend 50 bucks more and go for the Q9550.

[Bjynne]

I just fired up my old Rig with Intel core 2 quad Q6600 and Msi P7N Diamond and 4gb (4X1gb) of ram. 1.2Bios
and the board at stock speeds was not stable I had to up the nb voltage to make it stable.

Does anyone have a link to the latest beta bios?

[FedericoUY]

I'd spend 50 bucks more and go for the Q9550.

Me too!

Does anyone have a link to the latest beta bios?

Bios 1.3b2:
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=115073.160

[Bjynne]

Me too!



Bios 1.3b2:
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=115073.160

Thanks

So what are the changes in this bios?

[FedericoUY]

Thanks

So what are the changes in this bios?

I don't know the real changes, because my board is in RMA process right now. What I know about it is that it would include a fix to some 45nm chips like Q9450, because if you check CPU-Z, cores #2 and #3 (last two of 'em) were with the lowest multiplyer that they have, even if EIST were disabled.

[oz38super]

Last night I upgraded the BIOS to 1.2 and it won't POST, the harddisk LED on but no keyboard light. I also tried to leave only one stick but still no luck. Any suggestion?

[FedericoUY]

Last night I upgraded the BIOS to 1.2 and it won't POST, the harddisk LED on but no keyboard light. I also tried to leave only one stick but still no luck. Any suggestion?

Three little led's on? No video or beeps? ::Fright::
Cleared cmos with the back button?
Well, as anybody would recommend, try different ram sticks, different cpu's, another vga, remove the battery for some minutes, remove all but 1 cpu, 1 mem stick, 1 vga and 1 psu.
Are all your fans on when you power on the board?
It sounds a lot like what happened to me and others, but I hope not.