TheGoatEater.com

Hey everyone, got this board a while ago and have been testing and using the board as a HTPC board in my main rig

I have been using this board for light gaming and watching HD content on my 1080P tv, mainly MKV 1080P files… I was using integrated 4290 graphics first but at my wanting to play games on my monitor and tv with more eye candy I picked up what I think is the best price to performance gpu today (5770) I got two as I couldn’t pass up the deal that put two of them at $188 for two new cards so that is why I am using them, and they will output audio which is a plus.

am digging this board as a good base for a htpc setup due to it being rock solid and allowing me to easily unlock extra cores… It has to be said I think I have a quirky main OS as it won’t boot with 4 cores enabled into the win 7 Ultimate 64-bit that I use for my main OS, oddly enough it only lets me use 3 cores. I can boot into a standard windows 7 32-bit Premium install from my OCZ Agility with all 4 cores no problem – even at 4.2GHz as you can see

This board supports core unlocking for AMD chips, with the ability to activate the cores you want – though “core 1″ is unable to be deselected, which I think is a safety feature to prevent trying to boot without a core selected. The ease of use couldn’t be easier, all you need to do is in BIOS select “enable” next to the “Unlock CPU Core” option. Save and exit to unlock the CPU – though I have encountered where I need to press F1 after the reboot and then go into BIOS again and set your custom values or enable OC Genie.

 *If you encounter problems with your custom OC profile in
 conjunction with unlocking cores*

Do the following:

Change Adjust CPU-NB Ratio setting from  “Auto” to “x8”.
Change HT Link Speed setting from  “Auto” to “x8”.

This is a temporary work around as the BIOS becomes more refined

Overall this board seems to be a very solid HTPC board with its Military Class concept with high quality components. With the inclusion of SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 this will be a board that is equipped for new tech, not to mention being 6 core CPU ready.

I have been having great experience with the on-board audio, as I have it hooked up to my receiver with an optical connection for use when I am using my monitor, the sound is good enough for me. When I output to my TV I have been using the audio through the tv speakers, with the audio output going through the 5770.

A feature I really like is the 4 internal ports for USB, nice for hooking up all the premium HTPC case extras… A CMOS clear button would have been nice but the feature for a HTPC board isn’t necessary, just for people like me that love to tweak everything its a bit hectic to clear it with jumper every time.

HTPC setup:
MSI 890GXM-G65
AMD 555 BE - Stock cooler and Scythe Mugen II
Visiontek 5770 1GB x2 cards in Crossfire
Thermaltake DH202 with VFD display and remote
WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB
A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB DDR3 1600 AX3U1600GB2G9-2G and Dom GTs
LITE-ON 4X BD-ROM Model iHOS104-08
Corsair HX650W Modular PSU
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

displays:
Viewsonic VA1912wb
Insignia 1080P 120Hz 32" TV

I will show my results from testing 4 cores at 3.6GHz and 4.2GHz on air – each test super pi 1m and 32m, everest, pifast, and lastly wprime (though I forgot to test at 4.2GHz)

Stock setup with optimized defaults

OC Genie and all cores enabled

1m w/ 4 cores at 3.6GHz

1m w/ 4 cores at 4.2GHz

32m w/ 4 cores at 3.6GHz

32m w/ 4 cores at 4.2GHz

everest w/ 4 cores at 3.6GHz mem @ 1600 7-7-7-20 1N

pifast w/ 4 cores at 3.6GHz

pifast w/ 4 cores at 4.2GHz

wprime w/ 4 cores at 3.6GHz

MSI, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products, and DreamHack will join forces to host DreamHacks Counter-strike tournaments at DreamHack Summer 2010 (19-22 June) and DreamHack Winter 2010 (25-28 November). Tournament will also be named MSI Counter-strike Championship.

MSI will together with already signed head sponsor KVD.se, Scandinavia’s leading auction websites,  be the title sponsor of Dreamhacks official Counter-strike tournament at DreamHack Summer 2010. DreamHack have already announced a cash prize of US$137,000 and additional US$ 3,400 gift cards from KVD.se.

The weapon of choice for gaming superstars

MSI is now increasing the stakes with putting in 5 x MSI Big Bang-Fuzion gaming mainboards for boundless Multi-GPU systems to the 1st placed team and another 5 x MSI Big Bang-Trinergy gaming mainboards for true 3 way SLI systems to the runner-ups of the tournament. It will add another over 9,000 to the total prize purse that now will be US$27,000, including both cash and product prizes.

“It’s great to be working with DreamHack, the world’s largest gaming festival, to be able to showcase our latest gaming products to the Nordic gaming communitys,” said Jason Lee, MSI’s Component Marketing Director. “As the title sponsor of Dreamhack CS 1.6 tournament, we are glad to show our support and passion for gaming community and believe that when world’s best gaming teams coming out to compete it will be a truly memorable experience for all of us: visitors, professional gaming teams, organizer and manufacturer. Besides, you will see the latest top-of-the-notch gaming products from MSI, including Big Bang series.”

“MSI is the weapon of choice for gaming superstars” said Fredrik Nystrom, DreamHacks Press Office and also Key Account for e-Sports & Gaming “E-sports is a vital part of the DreamHack concept and if you compare DreamHack with a rock festival, the Counter-strike tournament is the headlining act.”

MVP awarded by DreamHack and MSI

The MSI Counter-strike 1.6 Championship is played at DreamHack Summer 2010 with 16 teams in the main tournament. DreamHacks tournament is played in a Pro/AM format and open for both amateurs and world’s top gamers. Qualifiers are played around the world and you can also sign-up and play at DreamHack events to grab a spot in the main tournament.

DreamHack and MSI will also award the Tournament Most Valuable Player during the Prize Ceremony and the winning player will also get a MSI R5770 Hawk graphics card.

Big Bang-Fuzion	Big Bang-Trinergy	Hawk R5770

MSI 5870 Lightning

5870 Lightning specs

5870 Lightning power connector

MSI R5770 Hawk

MSI R5770 Hawk specs

MSI R5850 Cyclone

MSI R5850 Cyclone specs

MSI Big Bang Fuzion - OC Genie - THX Certified Soundcard

Working MSI Big Bang Fuzion w/ 4890 Cyclone and GTX 260 Lightning

MSI Motherboard Lineup

Neat Big Bang skinned Laptop in the suite

also skinned inside as well

A little showing from the MSI suite! they have some great products coming out for sure!

Many thanks to the fine people of MSI for their time.

-Ryan

(updated 1/9/2010)

Traveling by air out of Des Moines,Ia poses some problems in January – namely the deicing that needed to be done and took us 20 extra minutes to get off the ground…  I am posting this from Memphis Intl. airport waiting for out pilots to get here to fly us, of course they are delayed.  Today I will get in and meet up with skinnee from XS and various other sites around the web including his own site  skinneelabs.com .   So expect some great stuff this weekend from me and the site, and I can tell you that in a week I am headed to Taipei, Taiwan so expect some great updates from there as well!

A great picture I got in the plane during sunrise

Sunrise over middle America

-Ryan

It has happened…  Intel i5 670 has hit 7GHz, done by overclocker nickshih from Taiwan.

From XS Forums (click)

validation

Equipment used (shortlist):

Clarkdale I5 670 3.47g

EVGA E658

Kinston 2000 CL8 1gx2

ANTEC TPQ1200w OC

WD500G

F1ee

I have 80 pounds of DICE and will have a fun weekend – LOL

ASUS P6T6 that I though may be damaged – guess not…
Xeon W3570 Batch 3914A742
MSI 275L
Hitachi 2.5″ HDD
Silverstone ST1000-P
other various stuff

5.507GHz 8 thread

P6T6 PREPPED!

prepped for sub zero

only $20USD for the Dry Ice

Dry Ice

Pot Mounted

Mushkin Redline 3x2GB w/ Elpida MGH-E Hyper

Running full of Dry Ice

start of 3D testing

Just short of 354K AM3

37.2K '05 score

By: Ryan Leiserowitz

*Disclaimer- CPU Core unlocking is CPU dependent – every cpu is different, you may not be able to unlock any cores, one, or both cores… this is  CPU dependent as they are not all equal*

MSI has implemented their “Unlock CPU Core Function” in most of their AMD motherboards – I will show you simple steps to unlock these extra cores.

On these screen shots I am working with a 790GX-G65 with 1.5 bios and am able to easily unlock a 550 BE to triple and quad core processor…

Thanks to MSI for these BIOS options and their help…

Its very easy just select a few bios options:

1st – go to cell menu

1st step

2nd – select Unlock CPU Core to Enable and Advanced Clock Calibration to Auto

2nd step

3rd – If you want a Triple core – select your cores in CPU Core Control

3rd step

Triple core unlock

tri core 550

Fully Unlocked “Quad”

quad 550

Since Oct. 2009, MSI are releasing new BIOS revisions adding new exclusive Unlock CPU Core

function, for most of AMD platform motherboards.

(please update to latest bios)

msi AMD motherboard support list

To increase the success rate of “core unlocking,“  MSI strongly recommend you to choose CPU in the “Main Support CPU List” to be the subject of unlocking attempt.  Only those CPUs have been confirmed that their concealed cores can be unlocked successfully in many forums.

cpu support list 1

CPU SUPPORT LIST

cpu support list 2

Questions / Comments?

!!!PRETEST!!! so much room for improving

Thanks to MSI, TiTON for helping with the pot and Charles, and Gomeler

12 Hours straight benching / 35bs of Dry Ice for $10 USD / OSs were crap – need to get better ones sert up / thsi is new Platinum SLI from Newegg open box because I killed my other one – 2 GB board inbound later today!

not pushing too hard and wasted a lot of time on OSs – this was a last resort that worked out well for unoptimized and generic load-out adn I suck at 32m super pi I know !!!!

Pretty Good For a Lower end Board eh? and please I know voltage is high – rough tuning no time for fine tuning – lol no time in 12 hours

Still!!! I had to use 1.51 CPU-Z instead of 1.52 damn thing sucks with this setup

Setup -
W3570 3847A987
MSI X58 Platinum SLI – New one
MSI N260GTX-OCv3
MSI GTX 275 Lightning
PNY 8800GTS 320MB
7900GS SLI (OEM)
Silverstone Zeus 1200W PSU
WD 80GB IDE HDDs
a lot of OSs
K|ngp|n F1EE w/ Acetone
Muskin Elpida BBSE
Lots of Scythe High CFM Fans

BTW – these were on a full SP3 XP Pro install not oiptimized at all