Neo 2 and X2 ?

Avonvilla · 27 Mar 2006 at 00:30

I cant seem to find a definate answer as to whether the msi neo 2 plat will support the x2 chips ? Heard mention of unoffical bios' to do it but is there an official one that does ?

Thanks

malccy · 27 Mar 2006 at 10:24

Would ask on the official MSI website forum to get a definitive answer.

barney · 27 Mar 2006 at 11:32

Yes it does. Cant put a link in without breaking the forum rules but:

Product Information
CPU

Supports Socket 939 for AMD® Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 processor
Supports up to 4800+ or higher CPU
Supports AMD® Cool'n'Quiet technology
Chipset

ATI Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire (RD480) Chipset
- HyperTransport connection to AMD K8 Athlon 64 processor
- 8 or 16 bit control/address/data transfer both directions
- 1000/800 MHz "Double Data Rate" operation both direction
- Compliant with PCI Express 1.0a specifications
- ATi® CrossFire technology support
ULI® M1573 Chipset
- Supports four channel native SATA controller up to 150MB/s with RAID 0, 1 or RAID 0+1
- Supports 24KHz/96bit HD audio
- Ultra DMA 66/100/133 master mode PCI EIDE controller
- ACPI & PC2001 enhanced power management
- Supports USB2.0 up to 8 ports
Main Memory

Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 2.5V DDR SDRAM.
Supports up to 4GB memory size with or without ECC.
Supports Dual channel DDR333/400MHz.
Slots

Two PCI Express x 16 slots. (supports PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant)
Dual Graphic mode
- PCI-E 16 X2 (Master) slot is compatible with PCI Express x 8
- PCI-E 16 X1 (Slave) slot is compatible with PCI Express x 8
Single Graphic mode
- PCI-E 16 X2 (Master) slot is compatible with PCI Express x 16
Two PCI Express x 1 slots. (supports PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant)
Two 32-bit v2.2 Master PCI bus slots. (support 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface)
On-Board IDE / SATA

An IDE controller on the ULi® M1573 chipset provides IDE HDD/CDROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA 66/100/133 operation modes
- Can connect up to 4 IDE devices
Serial ATA/150 controller integrated by ULi® M1573
- Up ot 150MB/s transfer rate
- Can connect up to 4 serial ATA devices
- Supports RAID 0/RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 mode
Audio

Azalia link controller integrated in ULi® M1573 chipset
8-channel audio codec Realtek ALC880
- Compliance with HD Audio (Azalia) 1.0 spec
LAN

Realtek® 8110SB LAN chipset
- Integrated Fast Ethernet MAC and PHY in one chip
- Supports 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s and 1000Mb/s.
- Compliance with PCI v2.2
- Supports ACPI Power Management
IEEE1394

VIA® 6306 chipset
- Supports up to three 1394 ports. (Rear panel x1, pinheader x2)
- Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps
Internal I/O Connectors

ATX 24-Pin power connector
8-pin ATX 12V power connector
4-pin GPU power connector
CPU / System / Power FAN connectors
CD-In connector
Front panel connector
Front panel audio connector
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
4 x Serial ATA connectors
2 x ATA133 HD connectors
2 x IEEE 1394 connectors support additional 2 ports
2 x USB 2.0 connectors support additional 4 ports
Chassis intrusion switch connector
IrDA infrared module header
Clear CMOS Jumper
Back Panel I/O Ports

1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x Parallel
1 x Serial port
1 x SPDIF Out (Coaxial)
1 x 6 in 1 Audio jack (S/SPDIF out)
4 x USB 2.0
1 x IEEE1394
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack
BIOS

The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface(DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.
Supports boot from LAN, USB Device 1.1 & 2.0, and SATA HDD.

I have just got this for my new system. Havent finished building it to my final spec yet due to my 4800 not turning up and not having a PSU that is man enough to run my video cards. However i have been testing it with a 3000XP chip i had spare and must say it is a very nice board.

Very, very easy to overclock (even has an auto overclock function but havent trusted it enough yet to try it

) the utility software that comes with it is pretty good too.

I have had a few nightmares with MSI boards in the past but so far this board looks good.

Edit: one more thing if you look this up on MSI's website you wont find it on their UK one you have to look at their global site.

afraser2k · 27 Mar 2006 at 11:48

I think Barney has the wrong motherboard. The MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum is NForce3 Ultra, not Crossfire.

Not quite sure what the versions are in the following list are talking about but it looks like it with the latest BIOS from their web site: link.

Zefan · 27 Mar 2006 at 12:36

Why wouldn't it work? Why need an unofficial bios? AFAIK the chip is recognised the same as any other standard 939 hence doesn't need anything special. Am I missing something?

smids · 27 Mar 2006 at 13:15

It does work. I used to have one.

(Neo2 Plat) and I think BIOS 1.8 (was a beta back then) onwards supports it. Having checked, the 1.B supports it fully.

Edit: it is 1.9 onwards, not 1.8, sorry. 'Support for E6 processors'.

barney · 27 Mar 2006 at 13:19

Sorry yeah your right they are different boards (both called Neo 2), thats what you get for trying to reply to things while your at work (Sorry!).

Avonvilla · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:25

Thanks guys, guess i'm gonna have to get one now :-)

afraser2k · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:51

I was a bit confused there, I thought the versions listed next to the CPU speeds was the motherboard version.

That 3700+ San Diego is looking very tempting now.