MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI needs -5V ?

[rajagra]

After much umming and ahhing, I had almost decided to get an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI motherboard. The onboard Soundblaster swung it for me.
But I was then confused by MSI's inconsistent naming convention on its website (randomly dropping the Neo4 from mobo descriptions it seems.)
Anyhow, I think this is the one.
Now what's this final footnote about:
"For this model, you must use the power supply that with a -5V pin supply"?
I have 2 recently bought PSUs, Enermax Coolergiant and Noisetaker, ATX 12V ver 2.0 and 1.3 Plus. Neither has a -5V line.
According to this , the -5V line was dropped from the spec ages ago.
"Version / Release Date / Notes
1.2 / Jan, 2002 / Remove –5V from all power distribution tables.
1.3 / April, 2003 / Remove guidance for -5V rail
2.01 / June, 2004 / Removed -5V reference"
So, what MSI are saying is you need a late spec, kick-ass PSU capable of running dual PCIe graphics cards, which also has a -5V voltage that was dropped from the ATX spec 3 years ago.
Huh? Back to the drawing board.

[StormPC]

The new 24 pin ATX V2.0 PSUs use -5 volts on pin 20. The MSI boards require a 24 pin PSU.

It has nothing to do with SLI. It's the new ATX standard.

[eek]

The msi board will happily run with a 20pin psu (my antec trueblue had 20 pins and it was as happy as pie).

However the creative audio requires the -5v line for it to work. My newly installed Akasa paxpower is 24pin but doesn't have the -5v line so the audio has gone pete tong. A pci card will fix it tho so as I had a spare pci slot its not much of an issue.

[rajagra]

The msi board will happily run with a 20pin psu (my antec trueblue had 20 pins and it was as happy as pie).
However the creative audio requires the -5v line for it to work. My newly installed Akasa paxpower is 24pin but doesn't have the -5v line so the audio has gone pete tong. A pci card will fix it tho so as I had a spare pci slot its not much of an issue.

Hmm. Like I said, one of my newish PSUs is ATX 12V ver 2.0, and it has the 24 pin connector. I thought I was covering all the bases with the PSUs I bought. But there is no mention of -5V on the box or in the manual.
And the main advantage the MSI has over the Gigabyte or DFI equivalents is the onboard soundcard with acceptable sound quality and low CPU impact.
I read of someone who rigged up a separate regulator to get round the problem, but I'm not taking that route.
I'm now in the ridiculous situation of having to choose a motherboard based on which PSUs I have!! Or buying yet another PSU (at least my current system is in a CM Stacker case so I can whack 2 PSUs in there.) Maybe I'll check out Tagan PSUs, they had a recent good writeup.

EDIT> The 4 extra pins do not include a -5V.
They are +12V, +5V, +3.3V and and additional ground.
See Tom's Hardware.

[eek]

I fully agree. Having just found a suitably quiet PSU (the akasa one that supposedly is fully ATX 24 pin.....) I'm not going to waste any more time trying to fix it. I'm just put a suitable pci sound card in.

[StormPC]

The msi board will happily run with a 20pin psu (my antec trueblue had 20 pins and it was as happy as pie).

However the creative audio requires the -5v line for it to work. My newly installed Akasa paxpower is 24pin but doesn't have the -5v line so the audio has gone pete tong. A pci card will fix it tho so as I had a spare pci slot its not much of an issue.

Well your power supply is not very good. My Enermax supplies have it.

rajagra:

It's not the 4 extra pins. The -5V is pin 20, normally unused in a 20pin ATX.