MSI Neo4 Platinum: Max Ram and XP64

[zman]

Hello,
I am thinking of upgrading to the Neo4 Platinum SLI motherboard. My concern is how it will handle 4GB of RAM. I will be using an X2 4800+ dual core procesor, OCZ Platinum Ram (I can run it now at 2-3-2-5 using 2x1GB on a Chaintech board and I wil be purchasing another dual channel pair). I plan to use a dual boot for windows XP Pro and windows XP64. Also will this board work OK with XP64, and will the ram behave differently with respect to dual channel modes and 1T timing? This wil be primarily used for workstation apps and video editing, with the occasional game. If I overclock at all it will be limited to what air cooling and stability will comfortably allow. I also plan to add another Quadro FX3400 graphics card when I have the $$. Thank you in advance for your reply.
Albert

configuration desired:
X2 4800+ dual core processor
600w Seasonic Power Supply
4x1GB dual channel OCZ Platinum Ram
Nvidia Quadro FX3400 256MB video (with one to follow)
200GB 7200rpm Seagate HD, NCQ data drive
160GB 7200rpm Seagate HD, (partitioned 80GB and 80GB
WinXP Pro (on one 80GB partition)
WinXP64 (on other 80GB partition)
Dell 24" flat panel display

 

[[em]HEAT]

Hello,
I am thinking of upgrading to the Neo4 Platinum SLI motherboard. My concern is how it will handle 4GB of RAM. I will be using an X2 4800+ dual core procesor, OCZ Platinum Ram (I can run it now at 2-3-2-5 using 2x1GB on a Chaintech board and I wil be purchasing another dual channel pair). I plan to use a dual boot for windows XP Pro and windows XP64. Also will this board work OK with XP64, and will the ram behave differently with respect to dual channel modes and 1T timing? This wil be primarily used for workstation apps and video editing, with the occasional game. If I overclock at all it will be limited to what air cooling and stability will comfortably allow. I also plan to add another Quadro FX3400 graphics card when I have the $$. Thank you in advance for your reply.
Albert

configuration desired:
X2 4800+ dual core processor
600w Seasonic Power Supply
4x1GB dual channel OCZ Platinum Ram
Nvidia Quadro FX3400 256MB video (with one to follow)
200GB 7200rpm Seagate HD, NCQ data drive
160GB 7200rpm Seagate HD, (partitioned 80GB and 80GB
WinXP Pro (on one 80GB partition)
WinXP64 (on other 80GB partition)
Dell 24" flat panel display

I have this mobo and you'd be better off getting an Asus or a DFI. I'm waiting for the new Asus board to hit before I upgrade again. I've had nothing but trouble with this piece of crap mobo. I'll never deal with MSI again.

 

[zman]

Thanks for your reply [em]HEAT:

I need to do something this week, so with what is available would you recommend the Asus A8N SLI Platinum over the DFI Lan party? The DFI has always sounded really great but I know they deviate from standards a little bit and I am pretty new to this and don't want to get over my head. What attracted me to the MSI board was the integrated Audio and IEEE as I have had some problems with the Chaintech board and the SB Audigy 2ZS and thought with a high end board with decent intagrated audio (with less CPU overhead) that I could fall back on this. (The SB cards seem to be notorious for bringing out problems). I would think there would be less conflicts if the board manufacturer had more control over more of the peripherals like sound and USB/Firewire etc.

I have the feeling the Asus is more reliable, and the software SLI switching may be very useful if going betweena gaming mode and a dual monitor mode. But the Asus on Anandtech and Tomshardware did not seem as strong a performer as the MSI at stockspeeds to mild overclocking (I will not overclock or only a small amount... sure, that's how they all start!).

Any more advice you or any others with experience out there can give me would be appredciated. I will be using this machine a lot for video editing, 3D modelling, 3D rendering and also playing games when I am not too busy. This is my home computer.

Thank you.
Albert