Conclusions
Contents
As you can notice by reading our results there is almost no performance difference between socket 939 motherboards. This occurs because Athlon 64 has an embedded memory controller, so the chipset doesn’t play any drastic role on performance on this platform. The decision on what socket 939 motherboard one should buy must be based on extra features, price and overclocking.
MSI K8N Diamond Plus offers the maximum number of features and technologies available nowadays for the socket 939 platform.
The possibility of running the two x16 PCI Express slots at full bandwidth under SLI mode is excellent for those having very high-end NVIDIA video cards running games at the maximum resolution and image quality settings. Those that don’t have a very high-end VGA won’t feel any performance difference compared to motherboards based on nForce 4 SLI.
Its Soundblaster Audigy on-board audio together with its vacuum tube pre-amplifier will please the users that enjoy high quality sound for sure.
We have two criticisms to K8N Diamond Plus. One is regarding its layout, where the chipset cooler is too close to the CPU, what can prevent the installation of bigger CPU coolers. The second one is regarding the lack of heatsinks on the MOSFET transistors from the voltage regulator.
Its price is higher than nForce4 SLI motherboards, but it is at the same level of competing motherboards based on nForce4 SLI X16 but with fewer features, like ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe.
If you want a motherboard with an attractive look, amazing number of features and exclusive accessories and also with a tremendous overclocking capability, MSI K8N Diamond Plus is an excellent choice.
