MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum or EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra?

C

Chowder Head

Limp Gawd
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Oct 20, 2005
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Which one would YOU prefer and why?

Here's what I'm looking for. I want a worry free, rock stable board that has some OC'ing abilities. Nothing crazy like a DFI, but something I can tweak here and there later on as I get more experienced with it.

I already have a 7800GT, an Opty 165, 1GB of Corsair Value Select ram and I plan on using a Sychthe Ninja heatsink and 120mm fan, which also have already been purchased.

I think the mobo might be my biggest confusion before as soon as I almost set on something, I notice another one that looks great and indeed, it has some nice reviews for it. So given the above information, which one would be ideal?

Any experience, complaints, opinions, etc, would be most appreciated.

Thank you! :)

P.S., I'm sorry if I may of created a thread similar to billions others already made but I'm really confused when it comes to the mobo business.
 
I went with the Neo4 Platinum and have been happy with it so far (after ~8 months). I should note that the main reason I went with it is that I wanted a non-SLI board with 8 SATA ports, and the Neo4 is the only one which fits that bill. Sadly, I'm actually using 6 of them so far.
 
I went with NEO4 and have never been disappointed. It has never hindered me in my OC'ing abilities, I can OC all I want. I hit the ceiling on my CPU with this board (on air that is). It has never produced any problems and is completely stable. Layout is great. One small issues is that the RAM banks require that you place ram next to each other, so if you want DDR400 and 1T, you have to place the memory in banks 1&2 or 3&4 and cant do 1&3 or 2&4 which would allow for better cooling of OC'd memory. Another thing is that if you use high voltage memory then you have to do some soft modding to get the 3.0v, b/c stock it just does 2.9v max. I have memory that only requires 2.6v and doesnt benefit really (from my experience) from extra voltage. So pick your ram accordingly with this board. It has lots of multipler options and one of the older rock solid bios's (v1.60) has tons of memory dividers whereas the latest bios version (v1.B0) has less but support for AMD X2's and better OC stability even though honestly v1.6 has never produced OC problems for me. Ive had this board for about 1 year now and its been nothing short of great. Its never a component I have to worry about b/c it always does what I want it to.
 
Thanks for the input guys, it's appreciated. I was almost dead set on the MSI until I read this.

"We at HardOCP are sorry to report that this MSI K8N Neo4 motherboard has experienced errors in the field with overclockers. There seem to be some bugs that MSI cannot fix that are specific to this board that we never experienced in our testing. That said, we are pulling our award given, and advise you to look elsewhere should you be in the market for an enthusiast motherboard."

Is this a cause for concern? Anyone have experience first hand with this problem?

Thanks.
 
Ive never heard of this a I frequently troll the MSI forums...I think what they are referring to is the relatively low max HTT (somewhere around 285mhz i believe), if im not mistaken that should be what HArdOCP is referring to. I wouldnt listen to HardOCP, theyre just one group with one opinion. Take it from actual users, see how many of us give positive reviews and look at other websites. GO to MSI official website forum and look around and see what peopl with the NEO4 say (some refer to it as the MS-7125 in case you arent seeing too much about NEO4 platinum)
 
Thanks for the insight, I'll checl out their forums now.

One more question for the day. I was almost dead set on ordering thos board when I came across the MSI K8N Diamond Plus. Every site I went to gave it awesome reviews and I was hoping someone could tell me which one is the best one for me? The Diamond Plus or the Platinum?

Is the Diamond Plus strictly a SLI mobo? I only have one video card so if it's a SLI only, I'll go with the Platinum. And besides the obvious $60 or so price difference, which one excels in what? Or is the Diamond a much more superior board?

See, there I go confusing myself once again, lol.

Thanks!
 
I have read great things about the K8N Diamond as well, great layout but I believe it doenst OC as high as other boards,

If you have any desire to get SLI in the future AND you have a formidable nvidia card now (what kind of video card do you have now?), you may want the SLI MSI Diamond.
 
eVGA 7800GT. As of the moment, I don't see the need of going SLI right now. I don't play th e higher ended games as of the moment and can't really justify the purchase of another video card. But that may change in the future, I dunno.
 
well for 60 bucks extra you can keep your system running games for a while by just adding another 7800Gt, and maybe that distance down the road the 7800GT will be like around 150 or less, thus making it a pretty worthwhile investment. I see only positive with SLI unless you are dead set on NEVER having 2 video cards.
 
both board are fine boards and would fit the bill you need them for.the msi board has a better layout,look at the 24 pin power connector.if you have no intentions of going sli[which i think is a waste ]there are several ultra boards out that are great boards and will o/clock well.not absolute max like dfi but plenty fast and you wont spend days trying to squeeze the last 50 mhz out of them.dfi is good for what they are designed for time consuming tweeking for the last bit of performance possible.
the msi ultra,asus a8n-e ultra,epox 9npa+ ultra,abit kn8 ultra,any of these boards will give you what you need and its up to you as far as features,layout and price as to which one you would like to buy.myself after buying a total of 4 ultra boards have been so happy with the asus a8n-e board.it does everything well and the layout is perfect,has mature bios and is a very popular board.i also like the msi board as it has a great layout too.the abit board has a lousy layout and they havent had alot of good reviews with their nf4 boards but the kn8 series have the best reviews as now they have pretty much solved most of them.the epox has had good reviews since it came out but the layout sucks and there not as popular as some of the other brands,still a solid board.you can find sli boards on sale for close to or cheaper than some of the ultra boards and it leaves that option open for a future upgrade if you so desire.me,id never spend the money for 2 high line video cards when 1 gives me almost the same results.sli is a fad that will go away with dual gpu cards,thats my feeling anyway.so its up to you as which board is to your liking and budget.you really cant go wrong with any of the mentioned boards.all are proven and popular boards and there is online help with any issues you run into.a couple of rules apply to all of these.! a name brand powerful powersupply and good name brand ram,not value brand but mainstream ram.corsair,ocz,Gskill,something like that,at least 100.00 dollars or more for 2 /512 sticks..........good luck with your choise.........................
 
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