Any K9N SLI Platinum users out there?

robselina

Hi All,

I'm picking parts for my new machine, and I'm leaning towards an MSI K9N SLI Platinum main board. From what I've read on the forums, they seem to work pretty well and the ACPI & Sensors DO work. ACPI support is especially important to me. So, if any one out there using this board can throw their two cents in on these questions, I'd really appreciate it.

1 - does ACPI actually work on this board w/ gentoo?
2 - how hard was it to get the built in audio, network, etc working?
3 - what's the preferred ram? I'm leaning towards dual 512MB sticks from corsair, it's 4-4-4-12. Comments?

I'll mention I'm planning on running an AMD 3800 X2, the 65w version. Haven't decided on a new video card, but it will be nvidia.

Any comments appreciated. I hate buying hardware that doesn't work well under linux!

Thanks,

rob

AaronPPC · Guru Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 522 Location: Tucson, AZ

robselina · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:20 am Post subject:

thanks for the reply Aaron!

yngwin · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:36 am Post subject:

I have that board and it works really well under linux, with intel hda audio drivers and nvidia forcedeth ethernet drivers.
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robselina · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:41 am Post subject:

urge to use newegg checkout rising....rising.....

robselina · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 3:37 am Post subject:

I have no self control.....order placed :lol:

Phenax · l33t Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 972

Same motherboard only without the SLI,
been working for about a year now.. love it.

Though, I can't vouch for the sound. I know there are drivers for it but this whole time I've been using an Audigy 2. (Neither negative nor positive experiences, no experiences)

96140 · Retired Dev Joined: 23 Jan 2005 Posts: 1324

Phenax · l33t Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 972

Me too, I've had this board for a while and I've configured the hell out of BIOS/etc.

robselina

Awesome, thanks guys. I'm going to be picking your brains about the BIOS config the minute this thing shows up (probably Thursday). I ended up getting a 7600GS from gigabyte, couldn't quite swing the extra $50 for the GT, though I know there are quite a few worthwhile differences. I put that money towards a zalman CPU fan instead, I really want a quiet PC for a change! I also spent way too much money on a 550W 80plus SLI PSU from Seasonic..........hopefully I can have my cake and eat it too on this system: powerful, quiet and relatively energy efficient.....at least that's what I'm hoping for!

96140 · Retired Dev Joined: 23 Jan 2005 Posts: 1324

robselina · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:38 pm Post subject:

yea, i don't expect this box to top 150-170W, and was planning on using the 330W model, until newegg sold them all out and I was impatient :roll:

96140 · Retired Dev Joined: 23 Jan 2005 Posts: 1324

robselina · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:57 pm Post subject:

That's pretty much how I justified it to myself - if it's oversized, hopefully the passive cooling will be good enough to keep the fan speed down. I was initially planning on sizing the PSU pretty tightly, since I know most PSUs are most efficient at about 50% of rated output, so a 330W-350W model makes sense to optimize it's electrical efficiency, but as you noted, it will also be noisier..........

Do you have your BIOS configuration notes handy? I might as well learn as much as I can before the new toys show up in the mail :wink:

96140 · Retired Dev Joined: 23 Jan 2005 Posts: 1324

robselina · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 2:14 am Post subject:

robselina · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:51 pm Post subject:

Brown just left me a big box of goodies

The fun starts tonight!

robselina · Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:26 pm Post subject:

box is assembled and I have a working base system!

So far I'm pretty happy. The one thing I need to tweak more is cooling. Case temps are a little high (around 40C) and the CPU is running at around 40-45C, but I've got the Zalman fan on full-blast (around 2800 RPM) to keep it there which is quite noisy. I'm hoping the thermal grease will setup a little better after a couple of heat cycles and then I can drop the fan to around 1800 w/o going over 50-55C. BTW, what's a good target temp for an AMD X2?

As for system cooling, does anyone know where the 'system' temperature sensor is located? If it's on the case fan, that explains the relatively high case temps, since the zalman is a cross-flow type pointed right at the system exhaust fan. I presently only have one case fan, a 120mm exhaust fan at the back of the case and I'm tempted to put an 80mm on the front for intake instead of leaving that as passive....

BTW, I used the liveCD for the first time. It made installation a lot faster. I just did a networkless install of the CD with no special options to get a booting system, then I tweaked the usual config files and re-compiled the system followed by an update. Probably saves an hour or so over my usual procedure with the minimal install disk.