Alternatively, please try the following help resources for further guidance. Visit the MSI website for FAQ, technical guide, BIOS updates, driver updates, an d ot h er i n f orm at i on: h t t p: / / g l o ba l .
Safety Instructions Always read the safety instructions carefully. Keep this User’s Manual for future reference. Keep this equipment away from humidity. Lay this equipment on a reliable flat surface before setting it up. The openings on the enclosure are for air convection hence protects the equip- ment from overheating.
VOIR LA NOTICE D’INSTALLATION AVANT DE RACCORDER AU RESEAU. Micro-Star International MS-7380 This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.
Getting Started Chapter 1 Getting Started Thank you for choosing the P7N SLI Platinum Series (MS-7380 v1.X) ATX mainboard. The P7N SLI Platinum ® Series mainboards are based on nVidia nForce750i SLI & nFo rce430 i c hi ps ets f or optimal s ys tem ®...
Getting Started Packing Checklist SLI Video Link Card MSI Driver/Utility CD MSI motherboard Power Cable SATA Cable IDE Cable Floppy Cable Back IO Shield 1394 Bracket (Optional) User’s Guide * The pictures are for reference only and may vary from the packing contents of the...
Hardware Setup Chapter 2 Hardware Setup This chapter provides you with the information about hardware setup procedures. While doing the installation, be careful in holding the components and follow the installation procedures. For some components, if you install in the wrong orientation, the components will not work properly.
LGA 775 package. W hen you are install- ing the CPU, make sure to install the cooler to prevent overheating. If you do not have the CPU cooler, consult your dealer before turning on the computer. For the latest information about CPU, please visit http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php? func=cpuform Important Overheating Overheating will seriously damage the CPU and system.
M S-7380 M ainboard CPU & Cooler Installation W hen you are installing the CPU, make sure the CPU has a cooler attached on the top to prevent overheating. Meanwhile, do not forget to apply some thermal paste on CPU before installing the heat sink/cooler fan for better heat dispersion. Follow the steps below to install the CPU &...
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Hardware Setup 5. Lift the load lever up and open the 6. After confirming the CPU direction load plate. for correct mating, put down the CPU in the socket housing frame. Be sure to grasp on the edge of the CPU base. Note that the align- ment keys are matched.
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M S-7380 M ainboard 9. Press down the load lever lightly 10. Align the holes on the mainboard onto the load plate, and then se- with the heatsink. Push down the cure the lever with the hook under c ooler u nti l i ts f ou r c lip s g et retention tab.
Hardware Setup Memory These DIMM slots are used for installing memory modules. For more information on compatible components, please visit http://global.msi.com. tw/index.php?func=testreport DDR2 240-pin, 1.8V 56x2=112 pin 64x2=128 pin Dual-Channel Memory Population Rules In Dual-Channel mode, the memory modules can transmit and receive data with two data bus lines simultaneously.
M S-7380 M ainboard Installing Memory Modules 1. The memory module has only one notch on the center and will only fit in the right orientation. 2. Insert the memory module vertically into the DIMM slot. Then push it in until the golden finger on the memory module is deeply inserted in the DIMM slot.
Hardware Setup Power Supply ATX 24-Pin Power Connector: JPWR1 This connector allows you to connect an ATX 24-pin power supply. To connect the ATX 24-pin power supply, make sure the plug of the pin 13 power supply is inserted in the proper orientation and the pins are aligned.
M S-7380 M ainboard Important Notification about Power Issue NForce chipset is very sensitive to ESD (Electrostatic Discharge), therefore this issue mostly happens while the users intensively swap memory modules under S5 (power-off) states, and the power code is plugged while installing modules. Due to several pins are very sensitive to ESD, so this kind of memory-replacement actions might cause system chipset unable to boot.
Hardware Setup Back Panel Mouse (optional) Line-In RS-Out (optional) USB Port 1394 eSATA Port Port Line-Out CS-Out Optical USB Port SS-Out Keyboard Clear CMOS S/PDIF-Out Button M ouse/Keyboard ® ® The standard PS/2 mouse/keyboard DIN connector is for a PS/2 mouse/keyboard.
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M S-7380 M ainboard USB Port The USB (Universal Serial Bus) port is for attaching USB devices such as keyboard, mouse, or other USB-compatible devices. The standard RJ-45 LAN jack is for con- Activity Indicator Link Indicator nection to the Local Area Network (LAN). You can connect a network cable to it.
Hardware Setup Connectors IDE Connector: IDE1 / IDE2 This connector supports IDE hard disk drives, optical disk drives and other IDE devices. IDE2 IDE1 IDE1 (Primary IDE Connector) The first hard drive should always be connected to IDE1. IDE1 can connect a Master and a Slave drive.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Floppy Disk Drive Connector: FDD1 This connector supports 360KB, 720KB, 1.2MB, 1.44MB or 2.88MB floppy disk drive. FDD1 Serial ATA Connector: SATA1_2/ SATA3_4 This connector is a high-speed Serial ATA interface port. Each connector can con- nect to one Serial ATA device.
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Hardware Setup Fan Power Connectors: CPUFAN1, SYSFAN1, SYSFAN2, SYSFAN3 The fan power connectors support system cooling fan with +12V. W hen connecting the wire to the connectors, always note that the red wire is the positive and should be connected to the +12V; the black wire is Ground and should be connected to GND. If the mainboard has a System Hardware Monitor chipset on-board, you must use a specially designed fan with speed sensor to take advantage of the CPU fan control.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Front Panel Audio Connector: JAUD1 This connector allows you to connect the front panel audio and is compliant with ® Intel Front Panel I/O Connectivity Design Guide. JAUD1 HD Audio Pin Definition SIGNAL DESCRIPTION MIC_L Microphone - Left channel Ground MIC_R Microphone - Right channel...
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Hardware Setup Front USB Connector: JUSB1 / JUSB2 ® This connector, compliant with Intel I/O Connectivity Design Guide, is ideal for con- necting high-speed USB interface peripherals such as USB HDD, digital cameras, M P3 players, printers, modems and the like. Pin Definition SIGNAL SIGNAL...
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M S-7380 M ainboard IEEE1394 Connector: J1394_1 (optional) This connector allows you to connect the IEEE1394 device via an optional IEEE1394 bracket. Pin Definition SIGNAL SIGNAL TPA+ TPA- Ground Ground TPB+ TPB- J1394_1 Cable power Cable power Key (no pin) Ground IEEE1394 Bracket TPM Module Connector: JTPM (optional)
Hardware Setup Front Panel Connectors: JFP1, JFP2 These connectors are for electrical connection to the front panel switches and LEDs. ® The JFP1 is compliant with Intel Front Panel I/O Connectivity Design Guide. JFP1 Power Reset Switch Switch Power JFP1 Pin Definition SIGNAL DESCRIPTION HD_LED +...
M S-7380 M ainboard Slots PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express Slots The PCI Express slot supports the PCI Express interface expansion card. The PCI Express 2.0 x 16 supports up to 8.0 GB/s transfer rate. The PCI Express 2.0 x 8 supports up to 4.0 GB/s transfer rate. Mazarine PCI Express x16 Slot supports up to PCI Express 2.0x 16 speed (PCI_E1 ) Blue PCI Express x 16 Slot supports up to...
Hardware Setup NV SLI Technology NVIDIA SLI (Scalable Link Interface) technology allows two GPUs to run in tandem within a system to achieve up to twice the performance of a single graphics card. To utilize this technology, the two GPU cards must be connected by an SLI Video Link card.
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M S-7380 M ainboard 2. After the hardware installation is completed, restart the system and install the NV SLI driver/utility. A configuration panel will be provided for Multi-GPU control. Check the Enable multi-GPU box to enable the SLI function for the onboard graphics cards (concerning the details of multi-GPU settings, please refer to your graphics card manual) .
Hardware Setup PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Slots The PCI slots support LAN cards, SCSI cards, USB cards, and other add-on cards that comply with PCI specifications. At 32 bits and 33 MHz, it yields a throughput rate of 133 MBps. 32-bit PCI Slot PCI Interrupt Request Routing The IRQ, acronym of interrupt request line and pronounced I-R-Q, are hardware lines...
BIOS Setup Chapter 3 BIOS Setup This chapter provides information on the BIOS Setup program and allows you to configure the system for optimum use. You may need to run the Setup program when: ² An error message appears on the screen during the system booting up, and requests you to run SETUP.
M S-7380 M ainboard Entering Setup Power on the computer and the system will start POST (Power On Self Test) process. W hen the message below appears on the screen, press <DEL> key to enter Setup. Press DEL to enter SETUP If the message disappears before you respond and you still wish to enter Setup, restart the system by turning it OFF and On or pressing the RESET button.
BIOS Setup Control Keys < ↑> Move to the previous item < ↓> Move to the next item < ←> Move to the item in the left hand < →> Move to the item in the right hand Select the item <Enter>...
M S-7380 M ainboard The Main Menu Standard CM OS Features Use this menu for basic system configurations, such as time, date etc. Advanced BIOS Features ® Use this menu to setup the items of AMI special enhanced features. Integrated Peripherals Use this menu to specify your settings for integrated peripherals.
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BIOS Setup USER SETTINGS Use this menu to save/ load your settings to/ from CMOS for BIOS. Load Fail-Safe Defaults Use this menu to load the default values set by the BIOS vendor for stable system performance. Load Optimized Defaults Use this menu to load the default values set by the mainboard manufacturer specifi- cally for optimal performance of the mainboard.
M S-7380 M ainboard Standard CMOS Features The items in Standard CMOS Features Menu include some basic setup items. Use the arrow keys to highlight the item and then use the <PgUp> or <PgDn> keys to select the value you want in each item. Date (MM:DD:YY) This allows you to set the system to the date that you want (usually the current date).
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BIOS Setup IDE Primary/ Secondary Master/ Slave, SATA 1/2/3/4 , E-SATA 1/2 It will showing the device informations that you connected to the IDE/SATA connector. LBA/Large M ode This allows you to enable or disable the LBA Mode. Setting to Auto enables LBA mode if the device supports it and the devices is not already formatted with LBA mode disabled.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Floppy Drive A This item allows you to set the type of floppy drives installed. Available options: [None], [360K, 5.25 in.], [1.2M, 5.25 in.], [720K, 3.5 in.], [1.44M, 3.5 in.], [2.88M, 3.5 in.]. System Information Press <Enter> to enter the sub-menu, and the following screen appears. This sub-menu shows the CPU information, BIOS version and memory status of your system (read only).
BIOS Setup Advanced BIOS Features Full Screen LOGO Display This item enables you to show the company logo on the bootup screen. Settings are: [Enabled] Shows a still image (logo) on the full screen at boot. [Disabled] Shows the POST messages at boot. Quick Booting Setting the item to [Enabled] allows the system to boot within 10 seconds since it will skip some check items.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Primary Graphic’s Adapter This setting specifies which graphics card is your primary graphics adapter. PCI Latency Timer This item controls how long each PCI device can hold the bus before another takes over. W hen set to higher values, every PCI device can conduct transactions for a longer time and thus improve the effective PCI bandwidth.
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BIOS Setup Boot Sequence Press <Enter> to enter the sub-menu and the following screen appears: 1st/ 2nd/ 3rd Boot Device The items allow you to set the first/ second/ third boot device where BIOS attempts to load the disk operating system. Boot From Other Device Setting the option to [Yes] allows the system to try to boot from other device.
M S-7380 M ainboard Integrated Peripherals USB Controller This setting allows you to enable/disable the onboard USB controller. USB Device Legacy Support Select [Enabled] if you need to use a USB-interfaced device in the operating system. Onboard LAN Controller This item is used to enable/disable the onboard LAN controller. LAN Option ROM This item is used to decide whether to invoke the Boot ROM of the LAN controller.
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BIOS Setup On-Chip ATA Devices Press <Enter> to enter the sub-menu and the following screen appears: On-Chip IDE Controller This item allows you to enable/ disable IDE Controller. PCI IDE BusMaster This item allows you to enable/ disable BIOS to use PCI busmastering for read- ing/ writing to IDE drives.
M S-7380 M ainboard Power Management Setup Important S3-related functions described in this section are available only when your BIOS supports S3 sleep mode. ACPI Function This item can activate the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface) Function. If your operating system is ACPI-aware, such as W indows 2000/ XP, select [Enabled].
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BIOS Setup Re-Call VGA BIOS From S3 W hen ACPI Standby State is set to [S3], users can select the options in this field. Selecting [Yes] allows BIOS to call VGABIOS to initialize the VGA card when system wakes up (resumes) from S3 sleep state. The system resume time is shortened when you disable the function, but system will need an VGA driver to initialize the VGA card.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Resume By PCI Device (PM E#) W hen set to [Enabled], the feature allows your system to be awakened from the power saving modes through any event on PME (Power Management Event). Resume By PCI-E Device W hen set to [Enabled], the feature allows your system to be awakened from the power saving modes through any event by PCI-E device.
BIOS Setup H/W Monitor Chassis Intrusion The field enables or disables the feature of recording the chassis intrusion status and issuing a warning message if the chassis is once opened. To clear the warning message, set the field to [Reset]. The setting of the field will automatically return to [Enabled] later.
D.O.T. Control D.O.T. (Dynamic Overclocking Technology) is the automatic overclocking function, ’s newly developed CoreCell included in the MSI Technology. It is designed to detect the load balance of CPU while running programs, and to adjust the best CPU frequency automatically. W hen the motherboard detects CPU is running programs, it will speed up CPU automatically to make the program run smoothly and faster.
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BIOS Setup [General] 5th level of overclocking, increasing the frequency by 10%. [Commander] 6th level of overclocking, increasing the frequency by 15%. Important Even though the Dynamic Overclocking Technology is more stable than manual overclocking, basically, it is still risky. We suggest user to make sure that your CPU can afford to overclocking regularly first.
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M S-7380 M ainboard CAS Latency(CL) W hen the Memory Timings sets to [Manual], the field is adjustable.This con- trols the CAS latency, which determines the timing delay (in clock cycles) before SDRAM starts a read command after receiving it. tRCD W hen the M emory Timings sets to [Manual], the field is adjustable.
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BIOS Setup 1T/2T M emory Timing This item controls the SDRAM command rate. Select [1T] makes SDRAM signal controller to run at 1T (T=clock cycles) rate. Selecting [2T] makes SDRAM signal controller run at 2T rate. Adjust PCI-E Frequency (MHz) This field allows you to select the PCI-E frequency (in MHz).
M S-7380 M ainboard CPU and Memory Clock Overclocking The D.O.T. Control/ FSB Clock/ Memory Clock are the items for you to overclock the CPU and the Memory. Please refer to the descriptions of these fields for more information. Important This motherboard supports overclocking greatly.
BIOS Setup USER SETTINGS Save Settings 1/ 2 These items are used to save the settings set by yourself to CMOS. Load Settings 1/ 2 These items are available after you save your settings in Save Settings 1/ 2 items , and are used to load the settings from CMOS.
M S-7380 M ainboard Load Fail-Safe/ Optimized Defaults The two options on the main menu allow users to restore all of the BIOS settings to the default Fail-Safe or Optimized values. The Optimized Defaults are the default values set by the mainboard manufacturer specifically for optimal performance of the mainboard.
BIOS Setup BIOS Setting Password W hen you select this function, a message as below will appear on the screen: Type the password, up to six characters in length, and press <Enter>. The password typed now will replace any previously set password from CMOS memory. You will be prompted to confirm the password.
Appendix A Realtek ALC888 Audio The Realtek ALC888 provides 10-channel DAC that si- multaneously supports 7.1 sound playback and 2 chan- nels of independent s tereo s ound output (multiple streaming) through the Front-Out-Left and Front-Out- Right channels.
M S-7380 M ainboard Installing the Realtek HD Audio Driver You need to install the HD audio driver for Realtek ALC888 codec to function properly before you can get access to 2-, 4-, 6-, 8- channel or 7.1+2 channel audio operations. Follow the procedures described below to install the drivers for different operating systems.
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Realtek ALC888 Audio 3. Click Next to install the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver. Click here 4. Click Finish to restart the system. S el ec t t hi s option Click here...
M S-7380 M ainboard Software Configuration After installing the audio driver, you are able to use the 2-, 4-, 6- or 8- channel audio feature now. Click the audio icon from the system tray at the lower-right corner of the screen to activate the HD Audio Configuration. It is also available to enable the HD Audio Configuration by clicking the Realtek HD Audio M anager from the Control Panel.
Realtek ALC888 Audio Sound Effect Here you can select a sound effect you like from the Environment list. Environment Simulation You will be able to enjoy different sound experience by pulling down the arrow, several kinds of sound effect will be shown for selection. Realtek HD Audio Sound Manager also provides five popular settings “Stone Corridor”, “Bathroom”, “Sewer pipe”, “Arena”...
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M S-7380 M ainboard Equalizer Selection Equalizer frees users from default settings; users may create their owned preferred settings by utilizing this tool. 10 bands of equalizer, ranging from 100Hz to 16KHz. Save Reset The settings are saved 10 bands of equalizer permanently for future would go back to the de- fault setting...
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Realtek ALC888 Audio Frequently Used Equalizer Setting Realtek recognizes the needs that you might have. By leveraging our long experience at audio field, Realtek HD Audio Sound Manager provides you certain optimized equal- izer settings that are frequently used for your quick enjoyment. [How to Use It] Other than the buttons “Pop”...
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M S-7380 M ainboard Mixer In the Mixer part, you may adjust the volumes of the rear and front panels individually. 1. Adjust Volume You can adjust the volume of the speakers that you pluged in front or rear panel by select the Realtek HD Audio rear output or Realtek HD Audio front output items.
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Realtek ALC888 Audio W hen you are playing the first audio source (for example: use W indows Media Player to play DVD/VCD), the output will be played from the rear panel, which is the default setting. Then you must to select the Realtek HD Audio front output from the scroll list first, and use a different program to play the second audio source (for example: use Winamp to play MP3 files).
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M S-7380 M ainboard 3. Playback control Playback device Tool Mute This function is to let you freely decide which ports to output the sound. And this is essential when multi- streaming playback enabled. - Realtek HD Audio Rear Output - Realtek HD Audio Front Output M u te You may choose to mute single or multiple volume controls or to completely mute...
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Realtek ALC888 Audio 4. Recording control Recording device Tool Mute -Back Line in/Mic, Front Lin in -Realtek HD Audio Input M u te You may choose to mute single or multiple volume controls or to completely mute sound input. Tool - Show the following volume controls This is to let you freely decide which volume control items to be displayed.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Audio I/O In this tab, you can easily configure your multi-channel audio function and speakers. You can choose a desired multi-channel operation here. a. Headphone for the common headphone b. 2CH Speaker for Stereo-Speaker Output c. 4CH Speaker for 4-Speaker Output d.
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Realtek ALC888 Audio Connector Settings Click to access connector settings. Disable front panel jack detection (option) Find no function on front panel jacks? Please check if front jacks on your system are so-called AC’97 jacks. If so, please check this item to disable front panel jack detection. M ute rear panel output when front headphone plugged in.
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M S-7380 M ainboard S/PDIF Short for Sony/Philips Digital Interface, a standard audio file transfer format. S/PDIF allows the transfer of digital audio signals from one device to another without having to be converted first to an analog format. Maintaining the viability of a digital signal prevents the quality of the signal from degrading when it is converted to analog.
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Realtek ALC888 Audio Test Speakers You can select the speaker by clicking it to test its functionality. The one you select will light up and make testing sound. If any speaker fails to make sound, then check whether the cable is inserted firmly to the connector or replace the bad speakers with good ones.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Microphone In this tab you may set the function of the microphone. Select the Noise Suppres- sion to remove the possible noise during recording, or select Acoustic Echo Cancelltion to cancel the acoustic echo druing recording. Acoustic Echo Cancelltion prevents playback sound from being recorded by mi- crophone together with your sound.
Realtek ALC888 Audio 3D Audio Demo In this tab you may adjust your 3D positional audio before playing 3D audio applica- tions like gaming. You may also select different environment to choose the most suitable environment you like. A-17...
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M S-7380 M ainboard Information In this tab it provides some information about this HD Audio Configuration utility, including Audio Driver Version, DirectX Version, Audio Controller & Audio Codec. You may also select the language of this utility by choosing from the Language list. Also there is a selection Show icon in system tray.
Realtek ALC888 Audio Hardware Setup Connecting the Speakers W hen you have set the Multi-Channel Audio Function mode properly in the software utility, connect your speakers to the correct phone jacks in accordance with the setting in software utility. n 2-Channel M ode for Stereo-Speaker Output Line In Line Out (Front channels) No function...
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M S-7380 M ainboard n 4-Channel M ode for 4-Speaker Output Line In Line Out (Front channels) Line Out (Rear channels) No function No function A-20...
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Realtek ALC888 Audio n 6-Channel M ode for 6-Speaker Output Line In Line Out (Front channels) Line Out (Rear channels) Line Out (Center and Subwoofer channel) No function A-21...
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M S-7380 M ainboard n 8-Channel M ode for 8-Speaker Output Line In Line Out (Front channels) Line Out (Rear channels) Line Out (Center and Subwoofer channel) Line Out (Side channels) Important To enable 7.1 channel audio-out function on Vista operating system, you have to install the Realtek Audio Driver.
nVidia RAID Appendix B nVidia RAID NVIDIA brings Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technology—which is used by the world’s lead- ing businesses—to the common PC desktop. This tech- nology uses multiple drives to either increase total disk space or to offer data protection. For all levels, RAID techniques optimize storage solutions by using multiple disks grouped together and treating them as a single storage resource.
M S-7380 M ainboard Introduction System Requirement Operating System Support NVRAID supports the following operating systems: W indows XP/ 2000 & Vista RAID Arrays NVRAID supports the following types of RAID arrays described in this section: RAID 0: RAID 0 defines a disk striping scheme that improves the disk read and write times for many applications.
nVidia RAID RAID Configuration Basic Configuration Instructions The following are the basic steps for configuring NVRAID: Non-Bootable RAID Array 1. Choose the hard disks that are to be RAID enabled in the system BIOS. (Refer the bios section for details.) 2.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Understanding the “Define a New Array” Window Use the Define a New Array window to • Select the RAID Mode • Set up the Striping Block • Specify which disks to use for the RAID Array Depending on the platform used, the system can have one or more channels.
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nVidia RAID Using the Define a New Array Window If necessary, press the tab key to move from field to field until the appropriate field is highlighted. • Selecting the RAID Mode By default, this is set to [Mirroring]. To change to a different RAID mode, press the down arrow key until the mode that you want appears in the RAID Mode box—either [Mirroring], [Striping], [RAID5], [Spanning], or [Stripe Mirroring].
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M S-7380 M ainboard Completing the RAID BIOS Setup 1. After assigning your RAID array disks, press F7. The Clear disk data prompt appears. 2. Press Y if you want to wipe out all the data from the RAID array, otherwise press N.
Please follow the instruction below to make an nVIDIA Serial ATA RAID driver for yourself. 1. Insert the MSI CD into the CD-ROM drive. 2. Click the “Browse CD” on the Setup screen. 3. Copy all the contents in the :\\nVidia\ System \ C72+M CP55\ IDE\ WinXP\ sataraid to a formatted floppy disk.
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M S-7380 M ainboard 4. Press Enter to continue with W indows XP Installation. Be sure to leave the floppy disk inserted in the floppy drive until the blue screen portion of W indows XP installation is completed, then take out the floppy. 5.
nVidia RAID NVIDIA RAID Utility Installation Installing the NVIDIA RAID Software Under Windows (for Non-bootable RAID Array) The existing W indows IDE Parallel ATA driver (as well as the Serial ATA driver if SATA is enabled) must be upgraded to use the NVIDIA IDE Parallel ATA driver (as well as the NV Serial ATA driver if SATA is enabled).
M S-7380 M ainboard Initializing and Using the Disk Array The RAID array is now ready to be initialized under W indows. 1. Launch Computer Management by clicking “Start” --> “Settings” --> “Control Panel” then open the “Administrative Tools” folder and double click on “Computer Management”.
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nVidia RAID 5. Check the disk in the list if you want to make the array a dynamic disk, then click Next. The Completing the Initialize and Convert Disk W izard window appears. 6. Click Finish. The “Computer Management” window appears. The actual disks listed will depend on your system, and the unallocated partition is the total combined storage of two hard disks.
M S-7380 M ainboard RAID Drives Management There is an application called NVRAIDMAN which helps you perform the following tasks of nVDIA RAID. • Viewing RAID Array Configurations View an array configuration (mirrored, striped, mirror-striped, JBOD, or any sup- ported combination) •...
nVidia RAID Setting Up a Spare RAID Disk You can designate a hard drive to be used as a spare drive for a RAID 1, RAID 0+1 or RAID 5 array. The spare drive can take over for a failed disk. NVRAID supports two types of spare drives: •...
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M S-7380 M ainboard Assigning a Dedicated Disk To mark a disk as dedicated, or reserve it for use by a specific array, Step 1: Mark the Disk as a Free Disk 1. Enter the system BIOS setup and make sure that the drive that you want to mark as free is RAID enabled.
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nVidia RAID 3. Click Next. The RAID Array Selection page appears. 4. From the Free Disk Selection page, select one of the two free disks available. This would be the disk that will be designated to the mirror array. 5. Click Next. The Completing the NVIDIA Spare Disk Allocation page appears.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Removing a Dedicated Disk Once a dedicated disk has been assigned to a particular array, it can be removed at any time. To remove the disk, right click on the dedicated disk and select “Remove Disk...” to remove it. In the previous example, simply right click on the ST380011A drive and select “Remove Disk...”.
nVidia RAID Morphing From One RAID Array to Another In a traditional RAID environment, when a user wants to change the current state of a disk or a current array to a new RAID configuration, the process of reconfiguring the new array involves multiple steps. The user must back up the data, delete the array, re-boot the PC, and then reconfigure the new array.
M S-7380 M ainboard From New Array Disk Requirements m >= n2 m > n RAID 0 Number of RAID 0 disks must be equal to or greater than half the number of RAID 0+1 disks. RAID 1 ** Not a valid combination ** RAID 0+1 RAID 0+1 ** Not a valid combination **...
nVidia RAID 2 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear: 3 Connect the RAID disk that you want to use with any given RAID array. 4 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear: 5 Click Finish. Initializing a RAID Array Initializing a RAID array erases all the data that is stored on that array, and writes all zeros to the disks.
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M S-7380 M ainboard 1 From the NVRAIDMAN window, right click on any available free disk and select Create Array as show in Figure below. 2 The Create Array W izard opens. Follow the W izard to create a Mirror array. 3 At the Create Array W izard Welcome screen, click Next.
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nVidia RAID 8 Click OK. The Clearing System Data screen appears again with the Initialize Array check box checked as shown below. 9 Click Next, then click Finish at the Completing the NVIDIA Create Array W izard screen. The NVRAIDMAN windows shows the created RAID array as shown below. The Initialization Process As you can see from the screen shot above, the initialization process has started and it will be completed in a short period of time.
M S-7380 M ainboard Rebuilding a RAID Array Rebuilding is the process of restoring data to a hard drive from other drives in the array. This applies only to fault tolerant arrays such as RAID 1, RAID 0+1, as well as a RAID 5.
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nVidia RAID 4. Click Next. The Disk Selection page appears. 5. Select the drive that you want to rebuild by clicking it from the list, then click Next. The Completing the NVIDIA Rebuild Array page appears. 6. Click Finish. The array rebuilding starts after a few seconds, and a small pop-up message appears towards the bottom right corner of the screen as shown in the figure below.
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M S-7380 M ainboard During the rebuilding process, the NVRAID Management utility screen shows the status under the System Tasks and Details sections. M ore About Rebuilding Arrays • Rebuilding Occurs in the Background The rebuilding process is very slow (it can take up to a day) and occurs in the background so as not to affect the performance of the system.
nVidia RAID Synchronizing a RAID Array Synchronizing an array will force a rebuild of redundancy or parity. The operation is applicable to any fault tolerant array such as RAID 1, 0+1 and RAID 5. • For RAID1 and RAID 0+1, “sync” results in copying the data to the redundancy disk, •...
Appendix C JMicron RAID Introduction This appendix will assist users in configuring and enabling RAID functionality on platforms The JMicron RAID solution supports RAID level 0 (striping), RAID level 1 (mirroring), RAID level 10 (striping and mirroring) and JBOD (Concatenate). Important...
M S-7380 M ainboard Introduction JMicron JMB363 offers RAID level 0 (Striping), RAID level 1 (Mirroring and Duplexing), RAID level 10 (A Stripe of Mirrors) and JBOD (Concatenate). RAID 0 breaks the data into blocks which are written to separate hard drives. Spreading the hard drive I/O load across independent channels greatly improves I/ O performance.
JMicron RAID JMicron RAID BIOS Utility Be sure to set RAID mode for the JMicron 36x ATA Controller in BIOS before configuring the JMicron BIOS utility. After that, save the configuration and exit. During boot up (POST), press CTRL+J to enter the JMicorn BIOS RAID utility. The RAID Utility menu screen will be displayed.
M S-7380 M ainboard Creating RAID set 1. Select “Create RAID Disk Drive”. Then press <Enter>. 2. Then in the Name field, specify a RAID set name and then press the <Enter> to go to the next field. 3. Choose a 0-Striped, a 1-Mirror, or a JBOD-Concatenate combination set and then press <Enter>...
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JMicron RAID 4. In the Hard Disk Disk List menu, use <Space> key to select the disks you want to create for the RAID set, then click <Enter> key to finish selection. 5. Then select the block value (stripe value) for the RAID array by using the “upper arrow”...
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M S-7380 M ainboard 6. Then select the capacity of the RAID set in the Size field. The default value is the maximum capacity of the selected disks. Then press <Enter> to the Confirm Crea- tion field. 7. The Creation field will display a message to ask you to confirm the creation. Then press <Y>...
JMicron RAID Deleting RAID set 1. Select “Delete RAID Disk Drive”. Then press <Enter>. 2. In the RAID Disk Driver List menu, use <Space> key to select the RAID set you want to delete. Then press <Del> key. 3. Press “Y” to accept the deletion when a deletion message is appeared.
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M S-7380 M ainboard Revert HDD to non-RAID Select Revert HDD to non-RAID and press <Enter>. In the Hard Disk Driver List menu use <Space> key to select the disks you want to revert then click <Enter> key. The following screen appears, press <Y> key to remove any RAID structures from the drives.
JMicron RAID Solving a Mirror Conflict A Mirror conflict occurs when both disks in a RAID 1 (Mirror) configuration are unplugged from the system in turn, then plugged in again. Since both disks contain exactly the same data, the system will be unable to determine which of the two is the source drive.
M S-7380 M ainboard Rebuilding a Mirror drive W hen one of the disk in a RAID 1 (Mirror) configuration is unplugged from the system, then plugged in again, a dialogue box appears to ask you to rebuild the Mirror drive. Press <Y> to confirm; otherwise, press <N>. This option allows you to rebuild the Mirror drive later and synchronize the data between two hard disks.
Please follow the instruction below to make an “JMicron RAID Driver” for yourself. 1. Insert the MSI CD into the CD-ROM drive. 2. Click the “Browse CD” on the Setup screen. 3. Copy all the contents in the \\nvidia\IDE\JMicron\JM B363\Floppy32 (for 32-bit OS) or \\nvidia\IDE\JM icron\JM B363\Floppy64 (for 64-bit OS) to a formatted floppy disk.
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M S-7380 M ainboard † Existing Windows Vista/XP/2000 Driver Installation 1. Insert the MSI CD into the CD-ROM drive. 2. The CD will auto-run and the setup screen will appear. 3. Under the Driver tab, click on JMicron JMB363 Drivers.
JMicron RAID JMicron Raid Configurer There is an application called JMRaidTool which helps you perform the following tasks of JMicron RAID. • Viewing RAID Array Configurations View an array configuration (mirrored, striped) • Creating RAID Arrays • Deleting a RAID Array •...
M S-7380 M ainboard Create RAID JMRaidTool supports the creation of RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD. 1. Left-click the “Create Raid” button. 2. A CREATE RAID W IZARD dialogue will display on the screen, following the descrip- tion of every step to complete the creation. Create RAID from Existing Disk You can combine the Existing Disk (Source disk may content OS and Data) with other HD (must be larger than source Disk) to be RAID.
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JMicron RAID Remove RAID There are two ways you can choose to remove RAID. Way 1 1. Right-click the name of the disk array you want to delete and the “Remove” menu will appear. Select the “Remove Raid” of the pop-up menu. 2.
M S-7380 M ainboard Way2 1. Left-Click the “Remove Raid” icon on the toolbar. 2. A “REMOVE RAID” wizard dialogue will display on the screen, following the de- scription of every step to complete the deletion. Rebuild RAID RAID 1, 0+1 can be rebuilt while RAID 0, JBOD cannot be rebuilt. There are two ways you can choose to rebuild RAID.
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JMicron RAID 2. Select “Rebuild Raid”. 3. A “REBUILD RAID W IZARD” dialogue will display on the screen, following the description of every step to complete the rebuilding. Way 2 1. If the disk array needs to rebuild then the rebuild button will be enabling on the toolbar.
M S-7380 M ainboard 2. Left-Click the “Rebuild Raid” button on the toolbar. 3. A “REBUILD RAID W IZARD” dialogue will display on the screen, following the description of every step to complete the rebuilding. Solve Mirror Conflict If the conflict occurs, it will show the “REBUILDING RAID W IZARD” dialogue to ask you if you want to rebuild RAID, following the description of every step to rebuild the RAID.
Dual Core Center Dual CoreCenter, the most useful and powerful utility that MSI has spent muc h researc h and ef forts to develop, helps users to monitor or configure the hard- ware status of MSI Mainboard & MSI Graphics card in windows, such as CPU/GPU clock, voltage, fan speed and temperature.
Activating Dual Core Center Once you have your Dual Core Center installed (locate the setup source file in the setup CD accompanying with your mainboard, path: Utility --> MSI Utility --> Dual Core Center), it will have an icon in the system tray, a short cut icon on the desktop, and a short cut path in your “Start-up”...
Dual Core Center Main Before using this utility, we have to remind you: only when installing the MSI V044 (V044 has to install with the version 8.26 or newer driver)/ V046 or V060 graphics card can activate the full function of this utility. If you install a graphics card of other brand, only hardware status of the MSI mainboard would be available.
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M S-7380 M ainboard AV/ Game/ Office/ Silence/ Cool MSI provides five common settings for different environments. The settings had been set to optimal values to reac h better performanc e in eac h environment. Click the button you need.
Dynamic Overclocking Technology is an automatic overclocking function, included in ’s newly developed Dual CoreCenter Technology. It is designed to detect the the MSI loading of CPU/ GPU while running programs, and to over-clock automatically. When the motherboard detects that the loading of CPU is exceed the default threshold for a time, it will speed up the CPU and fan automatically to make the system run smoother and faster.
M S-7380 M ainboard Clock In the Clock sub-menu, you can see clock status (including FSB/ CPU clock of mainboard and GPU/ memory clock of graphics card) of your system. And you can select desired value for overclocking. There will be several items for you to select for overclocking after you click button.
Dual Core Center Voltage In the Voltage sub-menu, you can see voltage status (including Vcore, memory, GPU voltage... etc.) of your system, and you can select desired value for overclocking. It will show several items to select for overclocking after you click the button.
M S-7380 M ainboard FAN Speed In the FAN Speed sub-menu, you can read fan status of your system. Select higher speed for better cooling effect. There are several sections for you to change the fan speed to a section after clicking button.
Dual Core Center Temperature In the Temperature sub-menu, you can see temperature status of your system. On the underside, it shows the graphs of the temperatures. Only the curves of the item which the button is lit up with red color will be shown.
M S-7380 M ainboard User Profile In the User Profile sub-menu, click the setting button that besides the user profile bar, and the next screen will appear. Here you can define the clock/ fan speed/ voltage by your need, click the button to choose a value quickly, or click the plus / minus sign button to...
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Dual Core Center Use the draw bar to set the max system temperature. W hen the system temperature exceeds the threshold you defined, the system will pop up a warning message and shut down the system. Use the draw bar to set the minimal fan speed. When the fan speed is lower than the threshold you defined, the system will pop up a warning message.
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