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MSI K8N SLI Platinum
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Review :
MSI K8N SLI Platinum
Date : 28/08/05
Reviewed By : ThePanther
PCI Express video cards have been
around for a while and PCI express components are on the way. Couple
this with the move to 64-bit CPU's and your going to require a new
generation motherboard. The MSI K8N SLI Platinum gives you all these
option with dual graphics card capability thrown in. |
This platinum
version of the K8N is the third revision of
the K8N motherboard. This time Micro Star
International have gone with the Nforce 4 SLI
chipset. This chipset allows for a dual
graphics card configuration (SLI capable cards
only, other restrictions may apply) as well as
offering support for PCI express components
and supporting the Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX
CPU's. As always with the flagship products in
each range the K8N platinum is packed with
features and high quality hardware.
One of the major
upgrades from other motherboards in this range
and others over the past few years is the
onboard audio, MSI has gone with a hardware
solution instead of the usual AC'97 audio
CODEC. Looking at the rest of the board we
have the 2 PCI express 16x slots for SLI
purposes, 3 standard PCI slots and a PCI
express 1x for the up coming PCI express
components. This slot is shared with one
standard PCI slot so still 3 PCI slots in
total. Memory wise you will be able to expand
upto a maximum of 4Gb through 4 DIMM slots
each capable of taking 266/333/400 MHz DDR
DIMM's.
Storage
controllers are an Ultra DMA 66/100/133
capable of connecting up to 4 IDE devices
(hard disks, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and writers etc)
Plus there is also a Serial ATA II controller
which can handle 4 S-ATA hard disks. Serial
ATA II can support transfer rates of upto
300Mb/s. Gigabit LAN, 10 USB ports and an
IEEE1394 port are also included.
Software
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Live Update
3 is an all in one software updater
that will automatically alert you to
updated versions of your MSI utilities,
drivers and your BIOS |
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Core Cell
consists of 4 parts that help either
protect or enhance your system
Speedster is an overclocking utility,
that gives you control of core system
speed setting to get the most out of your
CPU and graphics card as well as the
motherboard itself.
PowerPro is a power saving
utility that gives you control over
shutting down components after certain
amounts of idle time. This helps to
control power wastage as well as reducing
the effects of heat within the system.
LifePro provides temperature and
fan control to keep a stable system and to
warn of of potential heat problems
BuzzFree is a noise management
program that works alongside the Fan
management, when the system is idle or the
CPU is not working hard the fan speed and
therefore noise can be reduced. |
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Core Center
is a slightly more powerful piece of
software that handles many of the features
that Core Cell uses. Extra overclocking
features are available such as altering
the voltages and having more overclocking
available of the AGP, PCI and memory. It
also monitors the temperatures or all
devices its hooked up to. |
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D.O.T or
Dynamic Overclocking Technology is now
part of the Core Cell software available
with MSI motherboards. This piece of
software overclock your system dynamically
by calculating the CPU load. This way you
only need to overclock when the system
requires it. This keeps the risk of burn
out down and prolongs the life of your
system. |
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ActiveMOS
is designed to lower the temperature of
the motherboard by lowering the
temperature of the inductors, capacitors
and MOSFETS. |
Chipset
Features
Scan Line Interleave - SLI - This
technology is getting very popular now. SLI
allows you to run two SLI enabled graphics
cards (same model) together to greatly
increase the speed of your graphics
processing. This technology splits the
workload between the two cards and effectively
doubles the graphics processing power, taking
away of coarse the overheads of the cards
communicating with each other. For more on SLI
check out our
SLI article
1GHz HyperTransport Link - The 1GHZ
HyperTransport link allows communication
between the integrated circuits on the
motherboard at upto a massive 1GHz for
explosive performance keeping up with today's
most demanding technologies.
Serial ATA II - The second revision of
the S-ATA standard doubles the speed of data
transfer. The data stream can now reach
300Mb/s
PCI Express - Now becoming more
standard than a feature PCI express is the
latest system bus. Its mainly for graphics
cards at the moment but the Nforce 4 SLI
chipset does support the PCI-e 1x slot for PCI
express components other than graphics cards
Motherboard Specifications
 CPU
• Supports Socket 939 for
AMD® Athlon™ 64 FX /
Athlon™ 64 processor
• Supports up to 3500+,
3800+ Athlon 64 FX 53, or
higher CPU
Chipset
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NVIDIA® nForce4 SLI
Chipset
- HyperTransport link to
the AMD Athlon 64/Athlon
64 FX CPU
- HyperTransport
supporting speed up to
1GHz (2000MT/s)
- Supports 2 x PCI Express
x16/x1 interface
- Two independent S-ATA
controllers, for four
drives
- Dual Fast ATA-133 IDE
controllers
- IEEE 802.3 NVIDIA MAC
for 1000BASE-T
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Main
Memory
• Supports dual channel
DDR 266/333/400, using
four 184-pin DDR DIMMs.
• Supports a maximum
memory size up to 4GB.
• Supports 2.5v DDR SDRAM
DIMM.
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Slots
• Two PCI Express x16
slot (supports PCI Express
Bus specification v1.0a
compliant)
• One PCI Express x1 slots
(by share) (support
PCI Express Bus
specification v1.0a
compliant)
• Three 32-bit v2.3 Master
PCI bus slots (support
3.3v/5v PCI bus
interface).
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On-Board
IDE
• An IDE controller
on the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM
with PIO,
Bus Master and Ultra
DMA133/100/66 operation
modes.
- Can connect up to 4 IDE
devices
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On-Board
S-ATA
• NV
RAID supports 4 S-ATA II
ports (S-ATA 1 to 4).
Transfer rate is up to
300MB/s.
NV RAID
(Software)
• Supports up to 4 S-ATA +
2 ATA133 Hard drives
- RAID 0 or 1, 0+1, JBOD
is supported
- RAID function available
for ATA133 + S-ATA HD
drives or 2 S-ATA HD
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Audio
•
Creative sound
Blaster Live 24-bit
onboard audio
- 24-bit / 96KHz audio
quality
- 100db SNR clarity
- Up to 7.1 CH Surround
Sound, Dolby Digital ready
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LAN
• LAN supports
10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet
by nForce4 SLI
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IEEE1394
• VIA 6306 chipset
- Supports up to three
1394 ports. (Rear panel
x1, front x2)
- Transfer rate is up to
400Mbps
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On-Board
Peripherals
On-Board Peripherals
include:
- 1 floppy port supports 2
FDD with 360K, 720K, 1.2M,
1.44M and 2.88Mbytes
- 1 serial port
- 1 parallel port supports
SPP/EPP/ECP mode
- 1 Audio jack(5-in-1),
coaxial/fiber SPDIF out
- 1 IrDA pinheader
- 1 D-Bracket2 pinheader
- 10 USB 2.0 ports (Rear x
4 / Front x 6)
- 2 RJ45 LAN jacks
- 3 IEEE 1394 connectors
(Rear x 1/ Front x 2)
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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.
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Dimension
• 30.4cm(L) x 24.4cm(W)
ATX Form Factor
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Useful Links
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Buy MSI K8N SLI Platinum |
Buy it With Micro Direct
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