3.4 Bios for the K7N2-L

[bushmaster]

me thinks the new Bios for the K7N2-L was written by Iraqs ex minister of defense as it now reports my CPU's core temp to be at 28c. 32c under load. I dunno could be they have it giving ambient temp now to quiet down the people complaining about 50c operating temps. It also reset all the memory controllers but all seems to be running ok.

[bushmaster]

Maybe there was an issue because I can get my laser thermometer pointed right at the die between the HSF and CPU and I'm reading 29c and the HSF is no longer warm to the touch.
Then I just dropped the speed on the HSF and it's idling at 32c.

[bushmaster]

press release from MSI
http://www.theinformationminister.com/press.php?ID=612190207

[deadkenny]

lol

Nice to see he's moved on and not remained mired in the past. :D

Fortunately 3.4 hasn't shown up on Live Update yet. I think I'll hold off for a while longer. ;)

[bushmaster]

3.4 does drop the temps and has support for KVR333 ram but does severly cripple the overclocking ability of the board.

[deadkenny]

I don't think the BIOS is actually dropping the temp like that, it's just re-calibrating the measurement of the temperature.

[bushmaster]

Actually I used a device to check temps thats independent of the PC and the temps have dropped.

[deadkenny]

That's interesting. What mechanism do you suppose is responsible for the lower CPU temp? In any case, some of the temps people are reading are obviously just plain wrong. How can the processor possibly be running at room temperature?

[bushmaster]

Like I said before. Refer to the minister of information he has the answers and only tells the truth.

Actually IMO I bet they were ramping to much voltage into the CPU to begin with and it was the cpu's vcore that was reporting falsely in bios and thats why I could get 190Mhz fsb OC's w/o even touching the voltage prior to the 3.4 bios.

[bushmaster]

MSI announces that hopefully 90% of all issues with the model K7N2-L board should be fixed with the release of bios revision 6.8. But as we are currently just releasing revision 3.4 it will take some time. Please be patient and thank you all for purchasing MSI products.

[Rob R.]

Hey Bushmaster, what is your overall thoughts on this board? I am going to buy it and build a new machine with it in the next week or two. I have my new case and power supply sitting here ready for it. (frankly, it's driving me crazy with anticipation)

I plan to run the XP2500 Barton in it as well, what are you currently running in yours?

[killer_teddy]

I'm running an XP1700 in mine at about 50°C:( I'm not that happy really, I still have driver issues because the CD packaged wouldn't install em downloading didn't help either plus I just learnt how it wont unlock all CPU's just 1700 1800 and 2500. The main complaint from me is the temperature I tried a CPU with the same stepping on a different mobo with stock HSF and not only was it quieter but the temp was about the same it was just as stable and the case had no extra cooling. I kinda regret the £25 I spent on this HSF and extra case cooling now. But saying all that at stock speed (haven't clocked yet, Temps too high for my liking) it is stable and fast but given the option again I'd probably go with an Epox 8RDA+. Oh and larger HSF's are a bit of a bugger to get on as well.
:t

[bushmaster]

Because the K7N2 series is a new board and has technology newer then when XP first hit the shelves, It is suggested that you either update XP with the newest service packs prior to loading the Nforce drivers or better yet do a streamlined install of XP with the service packs, then install the Nforce drivers. Also when doing the Bios update I found it better to boot to bios, reset all values to default then do the bios update. I had to do this after my first try and had better results when I did it that way.
Now she will overclock as long as I set all values accordingly and seems to have no ill side affects. I only OC'd to see if it would and after a couple of days I put all back to normal settings except for the memory which I left in dual mode with high performance settings.
And take MSI's suggestions on what memory to use as the Nforce chipset seems to be somewhat picky on who it will play nice-nice with.

[killer_teddy]

Do you think it's even worth the bother updating to the 3.4 BIOS. I just tried it and it said it was the wrong model number or something.