Msi U230?

Well yeah, I guess on the price issue you have a point, £250 for a version of the U230 is a good price in a sense, because it is a great piece of kit. But I should tell you, the difference between the Yukon platform of processors/chipsets (the MV-40) and the Congo platform (L335) of processors/chipsets really is so big its needs to be taken into consideration.

The Yukon releases were a disaster for AMD, really poor processors, abandoned v quickly, I just wouldn't reccomend something with them in. But the Congo's were a complete turnaround, and wipe the floor with what's in the 1201n. I mean I read one guys review of the U230 with the Yukon chips, and he actually reported the laptop as being sluggish in general use.

So it's just a slight warning, you may want to consider spend the extra 150, because I would say its really worth it, if you look at what else is on the market for a 12inch, really non of them are even close to the U230 quality. IMO!

 

I'll stick with my bet.

 

It's a shame the U230 with the dual core L335 hasn't been released in the UK.

 

Isn't the Neo MV-40 supposed to be better than the Atom N270 that is quite common in a lot of netbooks?

 

The Neo MV-40 is superior to the N270 in performance. The difference between Yukon and Congo is not the CPU's, it's the chipset. Yukon uses an RS690 chipset whereas Congo uses a newer RS780 chipset. The MV-40 is still used as part of the Congo platform, one model that comes to mind is the Asus 1201T. Performance compared with an L335 should be similar in single threaded apps, but the L335 would be the better solution when taking into account multitasking or running multi-threaded apps.

 

Now the performance is making more sense. I got caught up in processors rather than looking at the overall picture.

It's a shame, because it seemed like an attractive purchase at £250 for the 12" netbook compared to around £300 for new 10" netbooks.

I'm tempted to pay £150 for an MSI U100 with XP Home, being as I only really want it for browsing on (taking to work, etc.) and not to replace my Inspiron 6400, which I think a decent dual core 12" netbook could do.

 

Yeah you're right on that one, MV 40 does seem to still be a lot better than the n270, I didnt realise that.

MV 40 benchmark score - 390
N270 (asus 1201n) benchmark score -229 (right at the bottom of the list)
L335 benchmark score - 869

 

With that in mind, what about the 12" MSI U230 with MV-40 for £250 against the 10" MSI U100 with Atom N270 for £150?

 

I been following this thread to see how it developed, so just registered to give my opinion/findings.

I've got the UK version with the single core MV-40, had it for a month now. For general basic computing its spot on. Due to it having HDMI, I was hoping it would play HD movies with ease - out of the box it doesn't. I have managed to get it to play HD content now using hardware acceleration, but had to find the right codecs (used the pure codec pack in the end). Without hardware acceleration the CPU would max out and video would not play smoothly. with hardware acceleration it now only uses 20% CPU and is perfect- it looks great on the 37" lcd.

So happy with the playback of HD content I have downloaded, however streaming HD Flash on content is another thing, in fact streaming any flash content is very CPU intensive. I have downloaded the latest flash 10.1 Release Candidate which supports hardware acceleration, the only thing is the drivers msi supply do not support it. I have tried using the latest drivers from AMD, but other things stopped working so well so reverted back to stock.

I have contacted MSI and requested they put out an updated driver that support flash hardware acceleration, as I feel you should be able to stream HD content on this netbook. They asked for extra details about my set up, which I provided, but they haven't got back to me yet

Other things are you can use the synaptics driver from one of the other MSI netbooks to enable things like scrolling etc on the touchpad- Not sure why it doesn't have this as standard.

Would be interested if anyone gets an overclock on the CPU, and if any one with the single core has got any tips to get HD Flash streaming smoothly.

 

Has anyone gotten multi-touch to work? I take it this touchpad isn't capable of it.

 

Thanks for the information higgsy79.

Which model MSI Synaptics driver did you use?

 

Used this driver, its from the u130

MSI Europe ? Computer, Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Mainboard, Graphics and more

The above driver doesn't give multitouch or 2 finger scrolling, I have tried other synaptics drivers that have the setting, but it just didn't work and the device didn't seem to like those other drivers so stuck with this one from the u130. It gives you ability to scroll, and use corners of the touchpad to assign to various functions, and a few other things too.

 

Thanks. That sounds similar to the Synaptics driver on my Dell.

 

Some pictures of the cover off and a GPU heat sink mod:

 

I see a passive heatsink there, but the GPU is under the heatpipe along with the CPU.

 

Well crap, that must be the SB or NB chipset then. It had an ATI logo on there.

 

Going back to the RAM speed being capped at 667 MHz. With that in mind, if you wanted to upgrade the U230 to 4 GB, would you be better off installing:

2 x 2 GB PC2-5300, CL5, DDR2-667 RAM
or
2 x 2 GB PC2-6400, CL6, DDR2-800 RAM

Computer memory upgrades for MSI (Micro Star) MSI Wind12 U230 Netbook from Crucial.com

 

My memory is rated to run CAS 5 at 667 or below and BIOS still forces it to CAS6. I would get the DDR2 800, just in case MSI releases a BIOS that honors SPD speed and timings.

 

My G.Skill 667 runs CL5....

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Laptop Memory Model F2-5300CL5D-4GBSK

One of the few ways to boost performance with this system is by running RAM with a lower latency. I would go for the 667.

 

I suppose it could have been a SB chip. The Radeon 3200 is incorporated into the NB. That's what's sitting under the heatpipe along with the CPU.

 

So anyone know how to fix the CPU basically halving its power when on battery?

It's not the power setting, it seems to be some sort of strange in built mech that crapifies the CPU when its not plugged in. alot of things like movie playback are simply not possible on battery. the computer is also very sluggish.

 

Head into the BIOS and disable PowerNow.

 

Ah ok, thanks, I hadn't actually looked into what PowerNow did until now.

 

You can also use ATI Catalyst Control Center to disable PowerPlay which will run the IGP @ 500Mhz vs. 380Mhz with it enabled. That will also help to improve your video playback.

 

With PowerNow enabled it also halves the speed when plugged in, except it steps it, so it runs at 1,600 MHz when needed and idles at 800 MHz at other times.

I've tried disabling PowerNow and seeing how the chip reacts using Windows 7's power options and setting the maximum processor state to 50% on battery and 100% plugged in and the chip speed stays at 1,600 MHz on both power types.

My Intel Core Duo does the same thing in my Dell notebook, using Intel's SpeedStep Technology, except when you set the power scheme to Home/Office Desk, which is the scheme I use when plugged in, it forces the chip to run at full speed all the time.

 

If you have PowerNow enabled, all you have to do is use ECO Gaming Mode to lock the speed @ 1600Mhz when plugged in. Should lock the RAM @ 320Mhz as well.

 

No, IGP will pull back to 380mhz when playing a HD accelerated video, even if overcloked or PowerPlay is off.

I use RMclock to override system CPU power management and works well.

What is wrong with WIndows 7 x64? i managed to archive 6 hours of battery on idle in Windows 7 x86 with my CPU undervolt @800mhz, but i cant get get to 4 hours in Windows 7 x64 using the same undervolt, so i have no idea of what is going on.

I just tried with a RTL8187SE on the 2nd mini pci-e, this wireless card uses the USB conection, but there seem to be NO WAY to activate it, the 3G funtion key does not work.

And using a RTL 8191SE (uses pci-e conection), is detected and installed OK, but there is NO WAY to enable it, so it does not pick up any signal.

SO i have no idea of what we could use the 2do mini pci-e in this state... maybe the funtion key is not enabled because MSI does not sell the U230 w/3G modem in USA??? we should ask MSI about this problem with the 2nd mini pci-e...

PCI-E SSDs MAY work...

 

If you turn off PowerPlay on AC you can use OverDrive to see the GPU @ 500Mhz.

What is your lowest stable voltage with RMClock? I couldn't get under .7V stable.

 

Yeah but when i open a video it sets back to 380mhz, just keep Overdrive open to see it.

I got 0.6675v @ 800mhz and 0.8250v @ 1600mhz.

 

What ECO mode are you running in?

 

I dont use ECO modes, i just leave it off.

I do all my power management using RMclock, i even set to auto-change OS energy plans as i change rmclock power setting.

Just remember to NOT use "Power on Demand" with RMClock, with default settings it just doest work, it does not change vcore fast enought.

You need to change the "P-state transitions" settings in "Advaced CPU configuration" with RMclock to be able to use Power on Demand, just set the "VID Stabilization time" to something like 150, and it will work.

 

If you use the ECO Gaming Mode, it should lock your clocks. I've benched with the GPU set to 700Mhz in Gaming Mode and the marks were higher than stock.

 

On the U230 with Neo MV-40 and RS780MN + SB710 chipset is the Radeon HD3200 AGP or PCIe? I can't see how to find this out on the actual netbook and I want to make sure I get the correct software from AMD's website?

 

It would be a better idea to just use the MSI drivers that are qualified for the system.

 

Does the MSI driver include the latest ATI Catalyst Control Center?

 

No - but I have tried many other drivers and they dont work other things stopped working. The MSI drivers are the best, however as I stated in a previous post they haven't been updated and dont support hardware acceleration in flash (I dont game but i do stream alot of video).

I am still waiting for MSI to come back to me about whether they are going to update the drivers.

Also in relation the to PCI-E slot thats free, I tried a PSION 8GB SSD in there and it didn't detect it - I think the bios has something to do with it

 

Does anybody know of any good tutorials for v2.35 of RMClock and know if this version is compatible with the AMD Athlon Neo MV-40?

Edit:

Found one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/235824-undervolting-guide.html

What about AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 compatibility?

 

Should work.

 

Ati Mobility Radeon 10.4 drivers works perfectly well

 

The MSI drivers work better, although they do need to be updated. I noticed less battery life with Radeon 10.4 drivers and there were incompatibilities with some other software. Maybe that's why you're having issues with your GPU throttling back to 380Mhz. You should give the qualified drivers a try.

 

Here are some videos i made of the U230 playing some games...

YouTube - MSI U230 Game Test part 1

YouTube - MSI U230 Game Test part 2

YouTube - MSI U230 Game Test part 3

 

MSI drivers are always outdated, none of us from the Gaming series ever stuck to the MSI drivers.
Just to clear it, there are no incompatibilities and that throttling back is a Powerplay feature, and forget about qualified drivers.
Maybe give a try to newer Unofficial, Leaked 10.5 drivers
10.5/10.6 Drivers
10.5/10.6 Drivers

Use at your risk

 

Anyone receiving hypertransport sync flood errors?

I had one of those (including frequent sudden shutdowns) in my u230 before I had it replaced. I was undervolting at that time so I don't have any idea if it had anything to do with those errors/shutdowns. Used .7v@800mhz and .85v@1600 mhz which ran fine in 60min stress tests (under 40c coretemp) but had sudden shutdowns even if I returned it to stock settings.

I don't have much experience in hardware/software specifics
(I just used the Undervolting guide posted somewhere), and would wish to hear some thoughts about it.

 

The throttling issue was with PowerPlay disabled on a machine not using the MSI driver package, thus the suggestion that perhaps using non-MSI drivers may be the cause. With PowerPlay disabled on a machine using the MSI package there was no issue. It is a plausible theory since OEM's have tailored their drivers for ages to add specific support or functionality, and there were other irregularities when using Catalyst 10.4 drivers as well. 10.5 is worth a try.

 

10.5 drivers are official now.

 

Yup i was having all those issues with my U230 as well... they magically dissapeared after i added another 2GB of ram... it makes no sence to me, but wharever.

Using EXACTLY the same config, rmclock is reporting a discharge rate of 10000mw on Windows 7 x86, and around 13500mw on Windows 7 x64... I have no idea of why.

 

I still had HyperTransport errors with 4GB installed, but usually when messing with AMD OverDrive or RMClock. Has anyone run into these issues with PowerNow disabled?

 

Anyone got bluetooth working?

I try to set it up but it asks me to connect a device? I guess that means its not built in or something?

 

( [Solved] Hyper Transport Sync Flood Error problem still continues - Asus - Motherboards-Memory) other hardware, same problem

according to this article, its got to do with the voltage and memory (even though my u230 is brand-new), so back to stock configurations for me. Would rely on built in power-saving configurations to extend batt life. ( would enable/disable powernow on different situations )

Darn it. The netbook is pretty warm without undervolting. rmclock pretty much scared me of undervolting any of my computers since I'm past my replacement period

-bluetooth is an optional device in u230, in my case (Philippines dist.).

 

Hey gang,

Is this a good price, good seller for this netbook? Thanks.

MSI 12" Netbook Grey Athlon X2, Neo Software, 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB Hard Disk Drive, 6-cells, 802.11bgn, Windows 7 Home Premium (Retail) from mwave.com