![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- 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.
BIOS
MSI based the K8N’s BIOS off of the Phoenix AwardBIOS template. The BIOS contains a number of enthusiast-friendly enhancements as well.
The Cell menu contains various FSB and voltage related performance options, and well as a DRAM Configuration submenu. The System Performance and Aggressive Timing options control how aggressively the internal chipset timings are set, with System Performance set to High Performance and Aggressive Timing set to Enabled providing better overall system performance. The D.O.T. Ranger option controls how aggressively the CoreCell chipset operates. There are six operating modes available, with the Commander mode offering the most performance, providing a speed increase of up to 11% over current CPU FSB.
The DRAM Configuration submenu contains all available memory related performance/configuration options. The Max Memclock (MHz) options allows for configuration of the memory FSB independent of the CPU FSB. With this option set to Auto, the DRAM FSB is locked to the CPU FSB. The user has the ability to configure the following memory timing options: CAS latency; RAS precharge delay (shown as Row precharge Time (Trp)); RAS to CAS delay; and precharge to active delay (shown as Min RAS# active time (Tras)). Note that on all memory timings listed, the numerically lower setting forces more aggressive memory operation.
The CPU Overclock in MHz option controls the CPU FSB speed, with a maximum allowable FSB of 300 MHz. The AGP Overclock in MHz option controls the speed of both the PCI and AGP buses, with a hefty maximum allowable setting of 100 MHz. Note that the PCI FSB is determined by the system using the AGP/2 rule. The HT Frequency option determines the current speed of the HyperTransport link between the CPU and the system memory. The actual speed is determined by multiplying the selected multiplier setting by the current CPU FSB. The option allows for a maximum multiplier setting of 5x.
The DRAM Voltage Adjustment option controls the system memory voltage, with an adequate 2.85v allowable maximum. While not enough voltage to really push your DRAM too hard, that should be sufficient for a decent overclock, or more than enough with some decent PC4000 sticks. The AGP Voltage Adjustment option controls the voltage supplied to your AGP based video card, with a maximum allowable voltage of 1.85v. This should be plenty of voltage to push that prized card of yours to a whole new level of performance. The CPU Ratio option controls the internal multiplier set for your CPU at boot time. Note that you must have an unlocked processor in order to use this option. Setting the CPU multiplier to anything other than the default with a multiplier locked processor will result in a non-booting system. The CPU Voltage Trimming option controls the voltage supplied to your CPU, with a 1.81v maximum defined. This should be plenty of voltage for your Athlon64 processor. The one omission here is the lack of chipset voltage control.
The Integrated Peripherals menu contains various options and submenus for configuration of the various onboard and system integrating devices. The Advanced Chipset Features submenu contains the standard AGP related configuration options. The Onboard Device submenu contains options for configuring USB port operation, as well as the state of the SATA-150 and LAN ports. The RAID Config submenu controls the operation of the chipset RAID functions. With the IDE RAID option set to Enabled, the RAID boot BIOS becomes active. Note that you have the ability to enable drives on the ATA-133 ports for use in a RAID array on a master / slave basis. In testing, I found no problems when using a drive connected as primary slave in a RAID array while the primary master IDE drive was operating in standalone (non-RAID) mode.
The Advanced BIOS Features menu contains a multitude of options for configuring system startup parameters, including drive access order. When a USB device is attached to the system at boot time and is properly detected by the system, it will show up in only of the Boot Priority submenus. My test bench uses a USB 2.0 external had drive, which showed in the Hard Disk Boot Priority submenu as shown.
The PC Health Status menu contains a number of system voltage, temperature, and fan speed statistics. In addition, the CPU and Chipset fan headers can be configured through the Smart NB Fan or Smart CPU Fan options with a temperature threshold. This threshold determines the speed of the connected fan, with the connected fan going at maximum speed when the monitored temperature goes above the configured threshold. Note that each of the Smart options have a tolerance option allowing for fine tuning of the selected threshold temperature.