[bobgun]

The title says it all. Do you know if this board is good for overclocking? I am currently using a Gigabyte 8inxp that I want to replace. This looks like a good one to use.

Also can anyone tell me if it takes a long time to detect an sata drive during the initial boot up stage. It isn't a big deal put I am hoping it is faster than the board I am currently using.

Thanks in advance,
Bob

[mtb856]

Oh the stories I could tell... :stops drooling: Oh yes, this is a great board, I've had it for 5(?) months now, maybe more. It is a very stable oc'ing platform, of course depending on what processor came with your HP computer( some are better than others). You might consider going into your profile and putting your system info in your signature (see sig below) it helps us solve your problems faster.
Okay, back to the board.
1) It offers FSB increase past where any processor could go ( theoretically, it could take my 1.8A up to 4 gigs, not possible, but the board supports it)
2) It gives voltage increase for Vcore, ram voltage, agp voltage in smaller increments, than many other board companies.(Notice: if you have a Prescott processor, the PFS does not support vcore increase b/c at the time, the cooling was not good enough to support the heat output of the Prescotts, so keep that in mind. It does support vcore for Northwoods and whatever the older P4's were called... Williamettes I believe?)
3) It does support SATA ( I don't have an sata drive, so I'm not sure about the faster load time question that you had, you might try the MSI forums, they have some good guys over there).
4) It supports up to DDR 533, faster ram than you're likely to need, as well as Dual Channel... something I would highly suggest if you're going to overclock. My brother (enduro) was able to oc his stock HP ram quite a bit, more than I thought possible, so you could try your stock ram, it may work or it might not.
5) It does not have a convenient way to change FSBDR ratios, which is the only complaint that I have about this board, although it only affects your oc a little if at all.
If you want good cooling for the board, it does support the Thermalright heatsinks, I have one on my board... very good at cooling w/ a 92mm fan attached.
I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, look at my sig to see the oc that this board and processor gave me. I can beat out a P4 3.2C in benchmarking, and it cost me only $110 as opposed to the $250 for the 3.2C.
If you have any questions, feel free to PM me at any time. or just post the question if you want.
BTW Welcome to the Forums!
OC forever!

[theflyingrat]

I recently got my 865PE Neo2-PFS, and I view it as a bit of a mistake.

First off, I have a Prescott. No voltage options at all for the Prescott are available. MSI claims they'll unlock that ability in the future, and I'll believe it when I see it. MSI seems to lack the ability to listen to their customers.

Secondly, as mtb856 stated, the FSB to RAM ratios are b0rked. My CPU (a 2.80A,) runs default at 133FSB, and the memory is automatically ratioed to run at 333. I can only get to about 160FSB before I've hit 400MHz mem speed. I have Crucial PC3200, but it's rated at CL3. This board doesn't give you the option to run at CL3, apparently - only 2 and 2.5. So anything above this bus speed and the boot fails. It makes it difficult to tell if it's my CPU (which runs at about 3.3 GHz at this speed,) my memory, or the motherboard causing the bottleneck. Since I can't increase the voltage to my CPU, loosen the RAM timing sufficiently, or even change the memory divisors.

It is running stably at the current speed (159FSB, I think,) and the PCI lock obviously works (since I'm using SATA,) so the board isn't so bad. It's not an all-out tweaker's board. I could think of quite a few less expensive boards that would do the job better.

Oh, last annoying thing - if you use Serial ATA, you can only use ONE of the IDE channels. I don't know why. My old IS7 (that died and killed my RAM... curse you, Abit! A plague on your houses!) could run both IDE channels and SATA. I don't understand why MSI couldn't manage that. But to answer your other question, SATA does detect quickly on this board, and performance seems to be up to snuff. Definitely runs faster on this board than on my last NForce2 board.

But for the $84 I paid at Newegg, I'm sort of wishing I would have spent my money elsewhere.

[bobgun]

Thanks for the responses,

As for my hp it is actually a dell, it is my backup machine. It is almost 4 years old has a P4 1.5 Ghz Socket 423 with 768 MB of PC800 RDRAM. It still works. I also updated my sig.

From what I have read in your posts it might be a board to stay away from for now. I was hoping this board would do the trick because it is cheaper than the other three I am thinking of. The three boards are an Abit AI7, Abit IC7 or a DFI 875 INFINITY.

Again thanks for the info.

Take care,
Bob

[mtb856]

I would stay away from it if you're getting a Prescott, b/c you'll be very limited on your oc. On the other hand, if you're getting a N'wood ex. 3.0C then it's a fast chip and you can oc it a lot. The SATA problem is one that would be annoying if you had more than a few drives. So just list out what you want on your computer and see if the limitations are small enough that you can live with them. I only use one IDE channel for my non-HD components, so I'll probably never run into theflyingrat's problem. Good Luck on your decision.
I've heard of all of those boards, but I haven't done any in depth research on them, so I can't really give a better answer than any review website could.

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

sorry, threadjacker here

I have the 865PE Neo2-PFISR (almost the same board), can the same good stuff be said about this board? I'm using the N'wood 3.2 and 1GB (512x2 dual channel) of GEIL Ultra Plat. DDR500 (PC4000).

and one more little Q. With the Zalman all Cu CPU heatsink and 3 case fans, what's the maximum I should try to OC on this board?

[mtb856]

I would only take the vcore up to 1.60 or 1.65 if your case temps are good. I saw a guy on overclockers.com that had your cooler w/ the cpu at 3.73 and your ram and mobo probably aren't going to hold you back at all.

Download motherboard monitor 5 ( MBM5) it's a great program for reading temps.

Download Prime 95 and/or SiSoft Sandra 2004 to bench test your oc ( Prime95 to test the stability of your oc and Sandra to match your oc against other processors)

I wouldn't let your load temps get beyond 54°C b/c stability is affected at some point beyond that.

Flash your mobo to the newest BIOS, MSI has a problem with reading temps high.

BTW, you might consider putting your system in your signature (see mine below). Don't worry about threadjacking on this thread, not enough people post here for it to matter anyway.

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

thanks. I'm still new to all this.

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

ok, I updated my sig.

[mtb856]

Nice job on the sig


BTW, if you get MBM5 don't forget to put you temps: idle, load, case, room temps
Good Luck on your oc.

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

hey, I installed MBM5 but it doesn't seem to have my exact MB listed, it's got a bunh of the NEO2 types, but not the 865 NEO2-PFISR. I tried, a few of the other NEO2s but the numbers seem off, as in CPU(idle)=58C, case temp= -25C (negative 25*). I tried updating it, but I can't get my motherboard. Any ideas?

[mtb856]

Have you tried all of the Neo2 mobos that are on the list? I don't think that mine was on the list, but I found one that was almost the exact same thing. What you'll have to do is go through them and find a temp that seems reasonable. I would say with your setup a low 40's idle temps and around 52°C load temp is pretty reasonable, so go for one that give you temps in that area. My case temps are 27°C most of the time, but my room's pretty warm, so it might be lower for you.

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

Yea, I tried the list and none seemed right. Doesn't matter now b/c the computer is DEAD. I don't know what's wrong now, the whole thing started out with problems from teh start.

from 2 viruses that had to be removed, then there were some random freeze-ups and random restarts (not due to virus activity). Then Windows stopped loading (including the boot CD when I decided to do another clean install). Now the computer won't even turn on. I push the button, the LEDs light up for about 1/10 sec and then it's dead. I have to cut the power before I can turn it on again, then once again, I get 1/10th sec of power. I tried resetting CMOS with the batt. jumper and no help. I took a good look at the board, tried starting w/o the VGA card, checked out the mem, checked out the processor, it can be anything as far as my knowledge goes.

I'm gonna call MSI today.

[Karbon]

Did a d-bracket come with your board? I remember one coming with my neo2-LS. You hook it up to 2 things on the board and it can usually diagnose what the problem is

[mtb856]

Hmmm, I wish my mobo came with one of those... that would have saved me a lot of trouble and stress several times.

Ninety-9, sorry about your problems... I'm not sure what's up with your board, it may just be a manufacturing problem that showed up. I can't think of anything that would slowly kill your mobo, most problems just make them stop working. It couldn't be SNDS, b/c your not oc'ing and it's your mobo not your processor... it can't be from overvolting your board for the same reason... if you static shocked it, it just wouldn't work... I cannot for the life of me think of what it could be.

Hope MSI can help, or that you can replace your board if it's toast.

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

Ok, good news, the power failure was the power supply. If you flick it on, it goes on and shuts off. Now the computer stays on (not to mention the place that tested it geve me a 500W supply). Unfortunately, I'm still not in the clear.

I wanted to do a fresh install of WinXP, but I could not get the CD-ROM to load at all. I would boot from CD-ROM, it would enter the Windows setup and load all the necessary drivers then it'll say at the bottom "setup is starting Windows." At that screen, the computer would stop and I would go nowhere. My Bios is set properly to S-ATA in Native mode. MSI couldn't figure it out either, I jus can't load windows setup. So I say, hell, I already got windows installed, I may as well see if it runs. SURPRISE, the WinXP runs just fine.

So, I'm in WinXP and everything is running normally, except I'm getting a TON of freezing up. My Case Temp is currently 33*C and the CPU temp is 42*C at idle (I'm using the Intel heatsink and fan until the Vantec arrives). I'm geting FREQUENT freezing anytime I put any REAL work on the machine, say I'm, listening to an MP3 and working on photoshop, or if I'm watching a DVD. Anytime I take the processor over (I guess) 80-100% load, The while computer will freeze, DVD/MP3 will stop playing, mouse will freeze, nothing will work at all. If I hit the reset button, I get stuck on the initial MSI "Splash" screen (the first thing you see when you start the computer). SO, in order to recover from a freeze, I have to use the power button.

Is there good reason to believe the Mobo is slightly toast b/c if so, I gotta hurry up and contact NewEgg before my RMA claim time expires (I think I get 14days to claim bad parts).

[mtb856]

You might try posting this in like the Operating systems forum or maybe another one like the general mobo page, b/c the guys over there will be able to answer questions better... not many people come to the MSI Intel forum. I'm not sure what to tell you and since no one else has replied... I'm guessing they don't either. I won't make any guesses b/c I have no idea at this point. Hope the other guys can help you.

BTW, my windows setup would freeze as well... I just restarted my computer and eventually it made all the way through setup.

[Dcasole]

Ninety-9 SE-L . Try posting your problem here in the MSI forum boards

http://forum.msi.com.tw/board.php?boardid=10&sid=

When I first installed my MSI board and tried to load XP I ran into the same problems as you and Danny and the boys were a great help. It now is stable as a rock!

Some of the things I did were
1- Bought new memory sticks - this board can be very selective on what it likes to run. I have 2 sticks of Kingston ValueRam PC 3200 running in Dual Channel and have found that this brand is very stable with the board .
2-Up the memory voltage to 2.7 or 2.8 - Default voltage will be 2.6 . When trying to run this voltage in Dual Channel I experenced all kinds of problem from Windows not loading (just like you) to blue screens in the middle of using an application. As soon as I upped the voltage all my problems are gone
3- Chaneged out my PSU - I had an Antec 350 which just was not up to the task of handling my Prescott . I would get random reboots for no reason .I bought an Antec True Power and now I have no more problems.


Good Luck
Dave

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

hey all, I'm back. New mobo, same problems....

read this post: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.p...61#post2904061

[mtb856]

Geez, that's a pain in the butt. Sorry about your problems

At least you've narrowed it down to several choices. It wouldn't be the processor IMO b/c you haven't oc'ed it yet... so that narrows it down to the HDD or the video card. Are you oc'ing the video card? If so you may have the voltage too low or the temps are getting too high and it's shutting the computer down.

I would be willing to believe the RAM idea b/c my first memory was a corrupt stick of Crucial PC2100 :P . I got registry errors, crashing, the whole bit. I bought the Geil that I have now and reinstalled Windows and haven't had a problem since. That might actually be the problem you're experiencing... although I hope it's not a bad stick of ram and that it's just the Windows install. Good Luck

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

Originally Posted by mtb856

Geez, that's a pain in the butt. Sorry about your problems

At least you've narrowed it down to several choices. It wouldn't be the processor IMO b/c you haven't oc'ed it yet... so that narrows it down to the HDD or the video card. Are you oc'ing the video card? If so you may have the voltage too low or the temps are getting too high and it's shutting the computer down.

I would be willing to believe the RAM idea b/c my first memory was a corrupt stick of Crucial PC2100 :P . I got registry errors, crashing, the whole bit. I bought the Geil that I have now and reinstalled Windows and haven't had a problem since. That might actually be the problem you're experiencing... although I hope it's not a bad stick of ram and that it's just the Windows install. Good Luck

I replaced the video card today and it's still ****ing up.

It can't be the memory from what I can see, it's excellent memory, it's compatible, I've bumped it from 2.6v to 2.7v, the ddr timing is set exactly as it is wirtten on the geil sticker. I've run each stick by itself and it still keeps screwing up.

The CPU is not overheating and if it was the computer would shut off. It's not the thermal grease shorting anything since it's been freezing since the stock heatsink.

Oh yea, and I've had 2 different CD ROMs
It's either the CPU, HDD or maybe one of my removable hard drives (which have been shut off since I built the system...they are plugged to the IDE but not to the power...).

[mtb856]

Man, I wish I had a solid answer for you... but I don't


Why did you say you couldn't reload Windows from the CD? I agree that it's probably not the ram b/c it's compatible and it's running at stock speeds. Stock voltage on my Geil is recommended to be 2.7V and I'm running it at 2.8V at the moment, so you wouldn't be getting freezing from low voltage.

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

wouldn't I be getting alot of memory dumps if the memory were bad, anyhow? Haven't had any blue screens or error boxes, it's only when I open up a more demanding program.

So far the following has caused freezups:
Opening an Adobe Acrobat document
Using Kazaa Lite
Playing a DVD (2 different DVD programs)
Sonique - MP3 software

surprisingly, Photoshop 7 and FlashMX haven't caused it to freeze, although I haven't used photoshop on that computer recently.

I'm looking at the possibility it's the HDD or something on the HDD.

I think I'm gonna flash the bios in a few. I jus got the new mobo in, so it's back to the old version. Oh and jus to add a small pain to the pile, the new MSI board came with a dead battery. The Bios is reading the batt at 0.5V when it should be 1.5 (I think). So I now have to replace the battery or else the next time I unplug the system it'll reset my cmos and clock.

[mtb856]

Have you considered viruses at all ( especially with Kazaa on your computer)? I doubt that a virus would make a computer crash if you opened only a certain file, so that might be stretching a little. It couldn't be HD corruption b/c you're not oc'ing.... it's not the memory for the reasons you stated above.... Your computer crashes only when you access certain programs, so could it be those programs or is it b/c they are demanding programs?

I think I'm gonna flash the bios in a few. I jus got the new mobo in, so it's back to the old version. Oh and jus to add a small pain to the pile, the new MSI board came with a dead battery. The Bios is reading the batt at 0.5V when it should be 1.5 (I think). So I now have to replace the battery or else the next time I unplug the system it'll reset my cmos and clock.

Man, you're just not having good luck with these boards are you? It doesn't seem to be getting better at all.


Is there someone else's HDD that you could put in your computer? If you could do that, you could see if it's your HDD or if it's some other component in your computer.

[Ninety-9 SE-L]

not a virus, I got Norton constantly checking and I have spybot checking as well, there are no problems that I can see in that form. Maybe an error check might help. I'm so damn unlucky.

[TweakGames]

Hi, this is my first post. I just bought a MSI 865G NEO2-PLS with a 3.0E (I think thats a Prescott but who knows hehe) And generic Mwave ram. Should I return the board?
I’m going to be using it as a windows 2000 server .. server hehe.
Does anybody have any successful stories? You people are starting to scare me.


Oh, and if it is a Prescott, I cant up the core voltage. What exactly happends when you do that? Just get hotter? I doesnt make the clock speed faster does it?

[mtb856]

Hey, Welcome to the Forums

First off, don't let our posts scare you too much.... Ninety-9 is just having some bad luck with his boards ( lots of bad luck unfortunately ). MSI boards are really nice if you get one without any bugs in it, but even my board has some fairly major bugs..... it overclocks really well ( look at my sig), but so do a lot of other boards.

At this point, I would almost recommend the Abit boards ( or some other well rated manufacturer.... ) as well as the MSI boards. My MSI board is excellent for overclocking, but I've heard that the SATA doesn't work well with the IDE ports for some reason.... I don't have SATA, but that's just an example of some of the bugs that my board has.

Like Dcasole says below, our board overclock really well, and most of the problems are just hardware related ( using the wrong ram or changing the wrong settings) but I would do some in depth research on the bugs in your board and see if they affect anything that you'll be needing if you want your server to run correctly. You may find that another board manufacturer has a mobo that fits the bill, and if it gets good ratings..... I would go with whatever works the best for you.

If you want to purchase another board for overclocking ( I don't know what board to recommend for server use b/c I've never done any research on servers), I would recommend the Abit IC7 Max 3.... it's one of the best rated mobos that you can buy. If you look on www.cpudatabase.com , the guys with the highest overclocks have this board.

What I would do is go to the Abit section ( or the other mobo sections) of the forums and check out what problems they are experiencing and then make a decision about whether you want to switch over to another mobo or not.

3.0E (I think thats a Prescott but who knows hehe)

Yep, the "E" means that the processor is a Prescott( also means that it has a 800 FSB and HT).

Processors with a "A,B, or C" letter are Northwoods

with the exception of the 2.4A Prescott ( which runs on a 533 FSB and does not have HyperThreading)

generic Mwave ram

That I would recommend upgrading if you're planning on overclocking or running games of any kind..... if it's just going to be a server then the generic ram should do it's job... just don't expect it to do more than that.

BTW, what's your budget for this computer? If you posted in the Networking section, the guys over there might be able to help you get a good server rig built.

Oh, and if it is a Prescott, I cant up the core voltage. What exactly happends when you do that? Just get hotter? I doesnt make the clock speed faster does it?

That's a protection feature built into some of the MSI boards b/c the Prescotts that first came out ran so hot that people would burn them out if they increased the vcore. If you have excellent air cooling or water cooling, then you can increase the vcore.... otherwise it's too much of a risk. Especially when you're overclocking.

Increasing the vcore is only used to gain stability when you're overclocking.... when you overclock past a certain point, your cpu starts to crash or freeze because it needs more voltage than it's getting, and that's when you increase it.

To increase the clock speed, you need to increase the FSB in BIOS... for the 3.0E, your stock FSB would be 200 mhz ( * a mult. of 15 = 3000mhz) and to overclock, all you do is slowly ( by slowly, I mean by increments of 5 mhz) raise the FSB and then test your temps and stability.

I would hold off on overclocking the Prescotts until you have better cooling, or until you've done Dcasole's Prescott taming mod.... just look at his sig and he has a link to it. Just look in the threads in this section, he posts here almost as much as I do so he shouldn't be hard to find.

Once you've done that, I would download Motherboard Monitor 5 to monitor your temps and then download Prime 95 to test for stability.

If you have any other questions, or if I didn't explain something very well, feel free to ask again..... that's what we're here for

Here's the link to the MSI forums... the people over there are an excellent source of information if you want to find solutions to your problems.

Good Luck,

Meatball

[Dcasole]

TweakGames, Next time you might want to start a new thread but I will try and help you

Does anybody have any successful stories?

This is a great overclocking board . I have been able to run my 2.8 at 3.6 for over 7 months with no problems .

Most of the problems experenced with this board and a prescott are caused by not having a big enough power supply , not having good ram, using the wrong bios settings, the need to do a fresh install of xp after installing the board, not controling the heat and I could go on and on .

I to experenced blue sceens etc but after asking a lot of questions on the MSI Forums boards and getting a lot of great answers my board is rock stable

You can get any any answers you need here
http://forum.msi.com.tw/

Oh, and if it is a Prescott, I cant up the core voltage. What exactly happends when you do that? Just get hotter?

MSI chose to lock the Vcore of this board for good reason . The prescott employs "Dynamic VID" which throttles the vcore up and down according to load. If one were to set the Vcore on the high side of the limit of the chip this Dynamic Vid could push it over the edge and you could end up with a " Fried Chip"
Read more about this here
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTg5

It doesnt make the clock speed faster does it?

Vcore has nothing to do with Clock speed . If you are going to overclclock you do it just like any other intel chip and use the FSB.

If you would like to send me a PM I will gladly help you with all the settings that you would need to enjoy a sucessfull overclock
Make sure you send me all of your systems specs ( see my signature ) as this will make things much easier

Dave

[Dcasole]

Darn it Meat you beat to the punch me once again

Dave

[mtb856]

Originally Posted by Dcasole

Darn it Meat you beat to the punch me once again

Dave

Yeah, and now my fingers are cramped so much I can't type anymore