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MSI K8N Diamond Plus Motherboard Review

Our review of the latest high-end socket 939 motherboard from MSI, based on nForce 4 SLI X16 chipset and coming with a hi-quality vacuum tube-based on-board audio!

Home » MSI K8N Diamond Plus Motherboard Review

Main Specifications

Contents

  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. More Features
  • 3. Hi-Fi Audio
  • 4. Main Specifications
  • 5. How We Tested
  • 6. Overall Performance
  • 7. Processing Performance
  • 8. 3D Performance: 3DMark2001 SE
  • 9. 3D Performance: 3DMark03
  • 10. 3D Performance: 3DMark05
  • 11. 3D Performance: Doom 3
  • 12. 3D Performance: Quake III
  • 13. Overclocking
  • 14. Conclusions

MSI K8N Diamond Plus main features are:

  • Socket: 939.
  • Chipset: NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI X16 (SLI x16, PCI Express x16).
  • Super I/O: Winbond W83627THF.
  • Parallel IDE: Two ATA-133 ports.
  • Serial IDE: Four SATA-300 ports controlled by CK804 south bridge (RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD) and two SATA-300 ports controlled by Silicon Image SiI3132 chip (RAID 0 and 1).
  • USB: 10 USB 2.0 ports (four soldered on the motherboard and two available on one I/O bracket that comes with the motherboard; four ports are left over).
  • FireWire (IEEE 1394a): Three ports controlled by VIA VT6306 chip, one in standard size soldered on the motherboard and two available through a I/O bracket that comes with the motherboard (one regular sized and one miniature).
  • On-board audio: Produced by Creative SoundBlaster Live CAO106 DSP chip (eigth channels, 24-bit resolution, 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio), with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs soldered on the motherboard
  • On-board video: No.
  • On-board LAN: Yes, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one controlled by MCP04 south bridge together with Marvell 88E1115 PHY chip and the other controlled by Marvell PCIe Gigabit 88E8053 chip.
  • Buzzer: Yes.
  • Power supply: ATX12V v2.x (24-pin).
  • Slots: Two x16 PCI Express slots, two x1 PCI Express slots, one x4 PCI Express slots and two PCI slots.
  • Memory: Four DDR-DIMM sockets (up to 4 GB up to DDR400/PC3200).
  • Number of CDs that come with this motherboard: 1 CD.
  • Programs included: MSI utilities.
  • Extra features: Hi-fi on-board audio with vacuum tube pre-amplifier.
  • More Information: Msicomputer.com.
  • Average price in the US*: USD 205.00.

* Researched on Shopping.com on the day we published this review.

Continue: How We Tested

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