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MSI P6N Diamond

Review - MSI P6N Diamond Motherboard, Nvidia nforce 680i SLI chipset
Date  - 30/01/07
Page -
1

Summery -
A slightly delayed entry to the 680i group of motherboards is the P6N diamond from MSI. Due for release in December, this motherboard is hitting the shelves in Q2 of 2007. The MSI offering gives outstanding features for a great price. Just take a look at 4 PCI express 16x slots that can be set in 16x/16x/8x or 16x/8x/8x/8x modes and onboard sound using creative's SoundBlaster X-FI audio chips.
 


MSI Reminds you :
- Because of the limitations of chipset, this MB does not support Win98/ME.
- SLI Technology only supports 32-bit and 64-bit Windows XP
- For the best performance and commitment of convenience, please visit MSI approved memory module vendor list (MSI AVL), which provides the easiest, up-to-date memory configurations

CPU
 
Supports Socket 775 for Intel Core2 Quad, Core2 Extreme, Core2 Duo, Pentium 4 (Prescott, P4EE), Pentium D, Pentium XE/Celeron D processors in LGA 775 package
Supports FSB 533/800/1066/1333* MHz (FSB 1333 requires FSB 1333 CPU and manual FSB adjustment in the BIOS)
Supoprts Intel 05B/05A and 04B/04A processors
Supoprts EIST techonology
Supports Intel Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology
Supports Intel Dual Core Technology to 1333MHz and up
   
Chipset
 
NVIDIA® nForce 680i SLI (C55) Chipset
Supports FSB 800MHz, 1066MHz & 1333MHz* (FSB 1333 requires FSB 1333 CPU and manual FSB adjustment in the BIOS)
Support Dual channel DDR2 533/667/800 memory interface up to 8GB
Support Dual PCI Express 16X interface with either 1x16 + 1x8 or 2x8 operation.
   
NVIDIA® nForce 430i (MCP55) Chipset
Integrated Hi-Speed USB 2.0 controller, 480Mb/sec, 10 ports
5 Serial ATAII ports w/ transfer rate up to 3Gb/s and support RAID (0,1, 0+1 & 5)
1 channel Ultra ATA 133 bus Master IDE controller up to 2 IDE drives
Support Dual PCI Express 16X interface with 1x16, or 2x8 operation
PCI Master v 2.3, I/O ACPI 2.0 Compliant
   
FSB
 
Support FSB 800MHz, 1066MHz & 1333MHz* (FSB 1333 requires FSB 1333 CPU and manual FSB adjustment in the BIOS)
   
Main Memory
 
Supports dual channel DDR2 533/667/800 and up, using four 240-pin DDR2 DIMMs
Supports the memory size up to 8GB
Supports 1.8v DDR2 SDRAM DIMM
  Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR2 voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability.
Example: Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 PC6400 operates at 2.0V, 4-4-4-12.
For more information about specification of high performance memory modules, please check with your Memory Manufactures for more details.
For the best performance and commitment of convenience, please visit MSI approved memory module vendor list (MSI AVL), which provides the easiest, up-to-date memory configurations
   
Slots
 
Four PCI Express X16 slots (supports PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant) (The 4 PCI Express interface will operate at either X8+X8+X16+X8 or 16X+16X+8X mode)
One PCI Express X1 slot
Three 32-bit Master PCI Bus slots (Support 3.3V/5V PCI bus interface)
   
On-Board IDE / SATA
 
Single IDE controllers on the NVIDIA nForce 430i chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes
- Can connect up to 2 IDE devices
NV RAID supports 5 SATA II ports (SATA1-5). Transfer rate is up to 300MB/s
NV RAID
- Supports up to 5 SATA
- RAID 0 or 1, 0+1, 5, JBOD is supported
- RAID function work w/ SATAII H/D
   
External eSATA RAID
 
2 SATAII port by Sil3531 (1 on back panel, 1 on board)
Supports RAID 0 or 1
   
Audio
 
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme HD Audio
24 bit/ 96kHz 7.1 playback
> 108db signal to noise ratio
24bit / 96kHz recording
X-Fi Crystalizer, CMSS-3D Virtual, CMSS-3D Headphone technology
Up to 7.1 CH Surround Sound, Dolby Digital ready
   
LAN
 
Supports 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by NVIDIA
   
IEEE 1394
 
VIA 6308P chipset
Supports up to 2 x 1394 ports
Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps
   
BIOS
 
The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface(DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.
Supports boot from LAN, USB Device 1.1 & 2.0 and SATA HDD
   
On-Board Peripherals
 
1 floppy port supports 1 FDD with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M and 2.88Mbytes
1 audio jack (5-in-1), coaxial/optical SPDIF out
10 USB 2.0 ports (Rear x 4 / Front x 6)
2 RJ45 LAN jack
1 D-Bracket 2 pinheader
2 IEEE 1394a connectors (Rear x 1 / Front x 1)
1 CD-in pinheader
1 eSATA port
   
Dimensions
  11.96 in. (L) x 9.61 in. (W) ATX Form Factor
   
Mounting
  9 mounting holes

Useful Links For the MSI P6N Diamond Motherboard

 

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