K8N Neo2 - Orange PCI Slot & other Questions

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar (More info?)

I just purchased the K8N Neo2 slot 939 Mobo, but haven't installed it
yet (I'm waiting for the CPU to come). I looked over the manual and
have a few questions.

1 - I am confused about the orange PCI slot which is used for
"communications". What communications? Do they mean a network card?
What can or can't be installed in that slot?

2 - I am also uncertain about the overclocking mechanism. I assume
you use the "cell menu" in the BIOS. I am used to the Abit softmenu
screens where you input the speed for the processor that you want.
This MSI board appears to pre-select levels of overeclocking (private,
sergeant, etc.). Can you manually enter a speed you want to use?

3 - Lastly, I went to the driver page for Realtek for the network
drivers for linux and was surprised that they said that for the 8201B
chip, drivers were not necessary? How will Linux see the network?
here's the note:

"The Ethernet hardware consists of two parts: a PHY chip, and a MAC
chip. It's the MAC chip that requires the drivers. RTL8201x is a PHY
only chip which does NOT need any driver at all. If you have RTL8201x
in your computer system, there must be another MAC chip in the system
too. Most likely, the MAC chip is embedded in the chipset. Please
contact the board or computer provider to find out which MAC chip is
in your system and how to get the drivers for it."

Where do I get the drivers for the MAC chip?

 

[user]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar (More info?)

"Tom Voltaggio" <tom@voltaggio.net> wrote in message
news:d8cd61c7.0408301754.6ed1c943@posting.google.com...
> I just purchased the K8N Neo2 slot 939 Mobo, but haven't installed it
> yet (I'm waiting for the CPU to come). I looked over the manual and
> have a few questions.
>
> 1 - I am confused about the orange PCI slot which is used for
> "communications". What communications? Do they mean a network card?
> What can or can't be installed in that slot?
>
> 2 - I am also uncertain about the overclocking mechanism. I assume
> you use the "cell menu" in the BIOS. I am used to the Abit softmenu
> screens where you input the speed for the processor that you want.
> This MSI board appears to pre-select levels of overeclocking (private,
> sergeant, etc.). Can you manually enter a speed you want to use?
>
> 3 - Lastly, I went to the driver page for Realtek for the network
> drivers for linux and was surprised that they said that for the 8201B
> chip, drivers were not necessary? How will Linux see the network?
> here's the note:
>
> "The Ethernet hardware consists of two parts: a PHY chip, and a MAC
> chip. It's the MAC chip that requires the drivers. RTL8201x is a PHY
> only chip which does NOT need any driver at all. If you have RTL8201x
> in your computer system, there must be another MAC chip in the system
> too. Most likely, the MAC chip is embedded in the chipset. Please
> contact the board or computer provider to find out which MAC chip is
> in your system and how to get the drivers for it."
>
> Where do I get the drivers for the MAC chip?

I've got a K8N Neo Platinum board (socket 754). I think Neo and Neo2 are
the same board except for the socket.

Check out this web forum. It's a good place for info on MSI boards. And
will probally get you better answers than mine.

MSI HQ User Community Forum » AMD64 nVidia Based board
http://msihq.designlab.info/board.php?boardid=28&sid=

1 - The orange PCI slot is for a wireless card. I don't think it's
specially designed for wiresless cards or anything. It does share IRQ with
PCI slot 2 in the Neo manual.

2 - the Neo BIOS lets you choose between the preset OC levels and manual
OCing. The Neo can change memory timing and FSB.

3 - I think the onboard ethernet drivers are installed with the nForce3
driver package. I've never set up a linux system, but I expect if there is
a linux nForce driver package it will have the networking drivers included.

-rc23