Socket 939 Roundup: Battle at the Top
by Wesley Fink on July 30, 2004 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
MSI K8T Neo2-FIR: Features and Layout
| MSI K8T Neo2-FIR Motherboard Specifications | |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | VIA K8T800 PRO/VT8237 |
| Bus Speeds | 200MHz to 280MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| CPU Ratios | 4 - 20x in 1x increments |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | Default, 66, 76.4 |
| HyperTransport | 1x-5x (200MHz to 1GHz) |
| Core Voltage | CPU default to 1.85V in .05V increments |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 2.55V to 2.85V in .05V increments |
| AGP Voltage | Auto, 1.55V to 1.85V in.05V increments |
| HT Voltage | Auto, 1.26V, 1.32V, 1.38V |
| Dynamic Overclocking | 3.3%,5%, 6.6%, 8%, 10%, 11%, 15% |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Unbuffered Memory to 4GB |
| Expansion Slots | 1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots |
| Onboard SATA/IDE RAID | 2 SATA 150 drives by VIA VT8237 Can be combined in RAID 0,1,JBOD plus 2 SATA 150 Promise 20579 |
| Onboard IDE | Two Standard VIA ATA133/100/66 (4 drives) PLUS 2 IDE by Promise 20579 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 8 USB 2.0 ports supported by VT8237 3 IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports by VIA 6306 |
| Onboard LAN | Gigabit Ethernet by Realtek 8110S |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC850 8-Channel with SPDIF |
| Tested BIOS | 1.0 |
MSI seems to have had a lock on supplying Reference Boards for the Socket 939 launch. While the K8N Neo2 was the Reference board for the nVidia 939 launch, a special version of MSI K8T Neo2 was the Reference Board for the AMD Socket 939 launch. You can find more information on both MSI boards in our Socket 939 Chipset Launch article.
The K8T Neo2 retail board adds many adjustments and tweaking options to the basic K8T Neo2 that we reviewed at launch. MSI also supplied a board with a working PCI/AGP lock just prior to the completion of this roundup, but it took several boards to finally get there. We have been assured that shipping K8T Neo2 boards will have working PCI/AGP locks and we are passing this information to you. When we finally received a fully working board, the K8T Neo2 was a decent performer and certainly one of the best of the VIA K8T800 PRO chipset Socket 939 boards.
The K8T Neo2 is available in several versions with different options depending on price. Our test board was the top-line version, which added a Promise 20579 SATA/IDE RAID controller and VIA IEEE 1394A Firewire. Layout of the board is more conventional than the MSI K8N Neo2, with the 4 DIMM slots to the upper right, and the IDE/floppy and ATX connectors on the upper right. The 4-pin 12V connector is difficult to route as it sits almost in the center of the board. The additional IDE and SATA connections are all in areas that could potentially interfere with longer PCI cards, but the AGP 8X is clear of obstruction for a large top-end video card.
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum: Overclocking and Stress Testing
MSI K8T Neo2-FIR: Overclocking and Stress Testing
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
83 Comments
View All Comments
bigtoe33 - Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - link
Asus USA did block sales of the A8V but some US resellers decided to go it alone with imported european boards.While it does p1$$ me off that there were still boards in europe not upto scratch you have to commend Asus USA for blocking sales and trying to at least look after some customers...they are also honouring RMA's also.
So #1 it does show some resarch was needed before you bought your board as i tried to let everyone know that the first boards available were not PCI lock fixed although any of them do work with the lock and work VERY well.
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - link
#1 - Asus never advertised or listed an AGP/PCI lock as a feature on the original release of the A8V Deluxe. That is the only reason we have not yet reviewed this board. While we did have a sample with a working lock, we have stated in every comment about the A8V in memory reviews and articles that Asus had not yet released a production board with this feature, but that they planned to implement this feature in the future.It is also our understanding that the US office even held release of the board to the US market, but many huge on-line vendors direct imported this board or brought it in from European sources. Since we were working with Asus, we know they tried very hard to hold release of this baord until they could work through issues of adding a stable PCI/AGP lock to the A8V.
It is our understanding than Revision 2.0 will implement an AGP/PCI lock, but we have not yet seen the production board, which we expect this week. We will confirm the new feature when the board is received.
We tried to caution readers about the AGP/PCI lock on early VIA boards as loudly as we could. In fact we got a lot of flak from manufacturers and VIA about our articles on the problems with the AGP/PCI lock on early VIA boards.
Asus did not even list the AGP/PCI lock as an option on the AV8 Deluxe. Our suggestion is to contact Asus, but you got the features Asus advertised and listed for this board.
shamgar03 - Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - link
I bought a ASUS A8V like 3 weeks ago, but in the article it says they are re-releasing it or something, does anyone know if they are going to patch that with bios updates, or did I just get the shaft?