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- Date:
- Tuesday , April 20, 2004
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
MSI K8N Neo
This is the first retail sample motherboard based on NVIDIA’s nForce3 250Gb Athlon64 chipset that we have evaluated. The K8N Neo boasts an array of stunning features and speed to boot.
Introduction
MSI, also known as Micro-Star International, is well known in enthusiast circles for their cutting edge and performance products. In line with their dedication to new technology, MSI has included their dynamic overclocking technology, coined CoreCell, across their entire line of motherboards.
The K8N Neo is the latest board in MSI’s Athlon64 based lineup. The board itself is built upon the single chip nForce3 250Gb chipset, and supports the AMD Athlon64 754-pin processors, in addition to PC3200 DDR RAM operating in Single Channel mode only. The K8N Neo is feature complete right out of the box, requiring the minimum of components to function such as processor, RAM, video card, and drives. The following components are integrated in to the motherboard: 2 IDE ATA-133 ports; 4 SATA-150 ports; 8 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 3 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 1 port each); NVIDIA chipset integrated Gigabit Ethernet; Realtek 8 channel audio codec featuring S/PDIF output ports; on-board support for the D-Bracket2 diagnostic LED display; and serial, parallel, and PS/2 port support.
Main Specifications Overview:
CPU | AMD Athlon64 754-pin processors |
Chipset | NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb |
FSB | 200 MHz |
BIOS | Phoenix AwardBIOS |
Memory | 3 DDR DIMMS, up to 2 GB |
Expansion slots | 1 x AGP, 5 x PCI |
Onboard IDE | NVIDIA integrated controller supporting 2 x ATA 133 and 4 x SATA 150 ports with support for RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1 across all ports |
USB 2.0 | 4 rear panel / 2 headers supporting 2 ports (8 ports total) |
IEEE 1394 | 1 rear panel / 2 headers supports 1 port each (3 ports total) |
AGP | AGP 4x/8x |
Audio | 8-Channel Realtek codec with S/PDIF output ports |
NIC | NVIDIA integrated Gigabit Ethernet controller in rear panel |
Detailed Mainboard Specification List:
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Packaging
Following recent trends with their box art, MSI took a simple approach to the outside of the box, with the name of the board, chipset and supported processors prominently displayed front and center. The K8N Neo is packaged with the following array of items: ATA 133 and floppy rounded cables, SATA 150 cables, a dual ended SATA power plug, the rear shield, the normal complement of driver CDs and manuals, the D-Bracket2 upright, and an additional bracket containing 2 IEEE 1394 ports. D-Bracket2 has in-built support for 2 additional USB 2.0 ports as well as a series of 4 diagnostic LEDs, helpful in troubleshooting system problems.
Board Layout
The K8N Neo sports the most unique layout of any board, either AMD or Intel processor based, that I’ve seen in a long time. As you will find out in more detail below, MSI definitely took some time and patience is developing this masterpiece. The only complaints I really have concerning the board is the fact that the NVIDIA chipset is passively cooled. The review board was a retail sample board and not a final retail product. In constructing the board, MSI chose to use capacitors manufactured by: Rubycon (Japan), and Sanyo (Japan). The capacitors marked as RLX and CFJ come from an unknown manufacturer.
The CPU socket area is completely clear of obstructions, and has plenty of room for even the biggest HSF or waterblock unit. The board uses the 2 hole Athlon64 mounting mechanism, completed with backplate. Note the placement of the socket in the middle right area of the board, rather than the traditional placement along the board’s edge. Directly above the socket are 2 SATA-150 ports and the C_FAN1 BIOS monitored CPU fan header. Note the MSI took the liberty of passively cooling the power regulation MOSFETS, located to the upper right of the CPU socket area. The ATX12V power connecter is located along the board edge, in the out of the way upper right corner of the board. The DIMM slots are located to the right of the CPU socket area, oriented in a vertical layout on the board, rather than the traditional horizontal layout, along the both right edge of the board. This placement by MSI definitely helped with CPU space considerations. The MSI CoreCell chipset is located to the lower left of the first DIMM slot, with the ATX power connecter and the 2 ATA-133 ports to its left just below the CPU socket. CoreCell allows for user configurable dynamic overclocking of the board. However, the maximum configurable dynamic overclock is limited to 111% of the rated CPU FSB.
The NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb chipset is located just below and to the left of the AGP slot. Note that MSI chose to passively cool this chipset with a small aluminum heat sink. The sink itself is held to the board by 2 pushpins going through holes on opposite sides of the chipset. My recommendation is to upgrade to an actively cooled solution since the chipset did get rather toasty during normal operation. The BIOS monitored NB_FAN1 chipset fan header and the 2 other SATA-150 ports are located just below the chipset. To the left of the SATA ports is the on board floppy port, with the CMOS reset jumper, IR header, and CMOS battery just above it. MSI chose to color code the front panel headers, which are located in the lower left corner of the board. Just above the front panel header are the DLED header, the S_FAN1 and S_FAN2 unmonitored system fan headers, and the 2 onboard USB 2.0 headers.
The K8N Neo comes standard with 1 AGP slot and 5 PCI slots. Between PCI slot 5 and the edge of the board are the 2 onboard IEEE 1394 headers, with the front panel audio header and the CD_IN port just above them. Note that the rear panel audio ports will not function unless pins 5/6 and 9/10 on the front panel audio header are jumpered.
The K8N Neo comes standard with the following rear panel ports: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; a serial port; a parallel port; 1 IEEE 1394a port; 4 USB 2.0 ports; a Gigabit LAN Ethernet port; 5 audio ports; and RCA and optical based S/PDIF output ports.