I'm having a hard time deciding if I should get the MSI Neo2 Platinum or ASUS A8V Deluxe. The ASUS uses the VIA chipset and the MSI uses the NF3. I haven't been able to confirm that the MSI Neo2 will undervolt or even determine the voltage range, grrr.

Which would you choose and why?

Thanks,
Megaman

I bought the MSI Neo2 Platinum and have been very happy with it. Before that board I had purchased a K8T800-based Abit board, but had major problems with it because the AGP lock did not function. While attempting to overclock my CPU, I nearly burned up my video card, and it actually overlcocks to a lower speed now that I have the new board. That chipset had known issues with the AGP lock not working, but supposedly they fixed it in the newer revision, which I had. I don't know if they have fixed this issue by now or not, but as of the first week of February it was still broken, and could not be fixed with a BIOS update. I will not be buying anything with a VIA chipset in it until they can figure out their problems.

As for undervolting the Neo2, I can take a look at mine tonight when I get home and post the available settings for you. Off the top of my head, I believe it does have some lower settings available, but I don't know for sure. I'm sure the voltage range for that board is also available from MSI or one of the many hardware review sites.

For the record, I have owned a long string of Asus boards in the past, and would have bought one again, but they didn't have a NF3 based board available when I bought mine (not sure what's available now).

eander315: I've searched the MSI website for voltage range info but have come up empty handed. All the Neo2 reviews that I've read only talk about overvolting and overclocking. Nothing about undervolting or voltage ranges for the CPU.

If you could check the BIOS voltage range for me, that would be great. Nothing beats first hand info.

L8R
Megaman

The latest revision of the ASUS A8V Deluxe is supposed to have working PCI/AGP lock.

Does the A8V Deluxe undervolt?


Edit: Are any Asus boards undervoltable?

i have a k8n neo2 platinum, just rebooted to check ranges. anyone know where clockgen gets its info from btw, bios or just a database or does it not even care what your mb's limits are?

anyways, range in bios is 0.825v up, clockgen lists down to 0.8, not that it matters at that point. be forewarned that i haven't even tried anything below 1.5v on it myself, but i assume it works fine since it's a great mb.
there was some wonkiness with using abnormal voltages with the neo2, but iirc it only applies to overvolting - the mb ignores any setting above 1.4v and instead you have to use a lower voltage combined with the separate option to increase voltage by a certain percentage, something like that.

i was sort of wary of buying any non-Asus mb at first too, but didn't really have a choice at the time, and aside from some placement issues the neo2 is nearly perfect. only other feature i would have really appreciated is onboard raid 5 (yeah right), but then i'd be stuck with this mb forever.

oh, and the bundled round IDE cables are a JOKE - they literally took regular cables, and folded and hogtied them into submission. would be prudent to just cut the sleeves off and use them as regular cables.

Woo hoo!

Finally, somebody who can confirm that the Neo2 Platinum will undervolt. Thanks Straker!

As for undervolting the ASUS mobo, this is where I got my info:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article69-page1.html

But, dont believe every thing you read on the web. Who knows if you can trust these SPCR guys?

When I get a chance, maybe I'll add the MSI Neo2 Platinum to the undervoltable mobo thread.

Thanks!

Ok, I guess what I meant to ask is:
Are any Pentium 4 Asus motherboards undervoltable.

I attempted an undervolt to my P4P800E Deluxe and the AI booster utility (which I believe is buggy) shows the voltage at no less than 1.6x. I'm not sure if that's accurate or not, but I'm also not sure if motherboard monitor would be reliable either.