In the early 2006, the K8N Diamond Plus on Socket939 platform by MSI.
That board with high quality hardware audio, heat pipe and real good overclock ability with high performance, good on cost/performance ratio.
MSI K9N Diamond was born to be Diamond After AMD transfer to AM2 platform.
Build with NVIDIAs finest nForce590 SLI chipset based, support EPP technology and DDRII memory.
[BREAK=Packaging and First Look]
Diamond series means top class.
Take a first look on BOX design.
“The Diamond heart†MSI Diamond logo still the main theme in front.
Inside stuff
High-end product bundle with many cables and disks.
[BREAK=Motherboard Overview]
K9N Diamond Mobo overview
The left down corner
2X PCI Express X16
2X PCI Express X1
2X 32-bit Master PCI Bus slots
Build in Sound Blaster Audigy SE HW audio, still be the best quality MoBo audio. High quality 24bit/192kHz sampling rate, 106dB with EAX ADVANCED HD environment surround audio with the fibre-optical and S/PDIF output.
Right down corner
The red button for Clear CMOS.
6 SATAII port, support RAID 0 or 1,0+1, 5 and JBOD disk array mode
Up right corner
4 DDRII DIMM slot
1 IDE port and 24pin power connector.
Up left corner
CPU Socket and PWM design
North Bridge/ South Bridge with pipeline heatsink design.
Slow fan works quiet.
Use all Japan capacitor.
IO port
Dual Gigabit LAN design
1394/ fibre-optical out put and 4 USB2.0 port.
[BREAK=Testing and Performance]
Test platform setup
CPU:AMD AM2 Althon64 X2 4800+
MB: MSI K9N Diamond
DRAM:Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C3
VGA:ELSA 730GT 256B3 DTV
HD:Seagate 7200.7 80GB
POWER:Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
Cooler:Tower112
DDRII 803 CL3 3-3-9 1T 2.2V stable and good performance
CPU default 2.4GHz, DDRII 800 with CL=3,3,3,9 1T setup
SIS Sandra bandwidth turbo up to 9018MB/S
This is the best record with default setup on both AMD and Intel platform I have
ever seen so far.
CPU FSB up to 345Mhz stable.
Its also the best record AM2 motherboard when I use same 4800+ X2 processors to overclock.
Diamond series always match their Diamond quality, powerful multimedia function, also with good overclock ability.
This Mobo will give AM2 platform some impact to encourage the momentum.
[BREAK=BIOS Features]
BIOS intro
Main page
Chipset link bandwidth
Frequency and voltage page.
CPU extra voltage.
Up to more 0.3V for overclock.
AM2 support DDRII 400/533/667/800
Memory configuration setup page.
Multiple adjust and basic voltage.
Many detail voltage adjust
NVIDIA tech. page.
The 590 SLI support EPP technology setup also in this page.
Boot up screen
[BREAK=Further Testing and Impressions]
Test plasform setup
CPU:AMD AM2 Althon64 X2 4800+
MB: MSI K9N Diamond
DRAM:Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C3
VGA:ELSA 730GT 256B3 DTV
HD:Seagate 7200.7 80GB
POWER:Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
Cooler:Tower112
The UI of build in Audige SE hardware audio
Memory 1GBX2 DDRII 1083 CL4 4-4-12 2.3V stable
ELSA 7300GT DDR3 SLI overclock test.
3DMARK2003
3DMARK2005
3DMARK2006
[BREAK=Final Testing and Conclusion]
MSI K9N Diamond
Positive points:
1.Full and deluxe package
2.Copper pipeline chipset heatsink with FAN.
3.4 phase PWM design with JAPAN capacitors.
4.Build in best mobo audio with SB Audigy SE hardware audio.
5.CPU FSB can up to 345MHz
6.Only need 2.2V to reach DDRII 800 1T CL=3,3,3,9
Negative points:
1.No big advantage compare with K8N Diamond Plus.
2.Top memory voltage is only 2.3V, not enough.
3.DDRII overclock should up to 1120~1160MHz to get better performance.
4.Wish we can have build in eSATA and debug signal design.
I recommend this product for under 215USD.
Good on spec design and overclock ability, the only discount is memory overclock ability and not enough spec. improve.
But according to the cost/performance and multimedia, this still a recommend product.
That board with high quality hardware audio, heat pipe and real good overclock ability with high performance, good on cost/performance ratio.
MSI K9N Diamond was born to be Diamond After AMD transfer to AM2 platform.
Build with NVIDIAs finest nForce590 SLI chipset based, support EPP technology and DDRII memory.
[BREAK=Packaging and First Look]
Diamond series means top class.
Take a first look on BOX design.
“The Diamond heart†MSI Diamond logo still the main theme in front.
Inside stuff
High-end product bundle with many cables and disks.
[BREAK=Motherboard Overview]
K9N Diamond Mobo overview
The left down corner
2X PCI Express X16
2X PCI Express X1
2X 32-bit Master PCI Bus slots
Build in Sound Blaster Audigy SE HW audio, still be the best quality MoBo audio. High quality 24bit/192kHz sampling rate, 106dB with EAX ADVANCED HD environment surround audio with the fibre-optical and S/PDIF output.
Right down corner
The red button for Clear CMOS.
6 SATAII port, support RAID 0 or 1,0+1, 5 and JBOD disk array mode
Up right corner
4 DDRII DIMM slot
1 IDE port and 24pin power connector.
Up left corner
CPU Socket and PWM design
North Bridge/ South Bridge with pipeline heatsink design.
Slow fan works quiet.
Use all Japan capacitor.
IO port
Dual Gigabit LAN design
1394/ fibre-optical out put and 4 USB2.0 port.
[BREAK=Testing and Performance]
Test platform setup
CPU:AMD AM2 Althon64 X2 4800+
MB: MSI K9N Diamond
DRAM:Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C3
VGA:ELSA 730GT 256B3 DTV
HD:Seagate 7200.7 80GB
POWER:Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
Cooler:Tower112
DDRII 803 CL3 3-3-9 1T 2.2V stable and good performance
CPU default 2.4GHz, DDRII 800 with CL=3,3,3,9 1T setup
SIS Sandra bandwidth turbo up to 9018MB/S
This is the best record with default setup on both AMD and Intel platform I have
ever seen so far.
CPU FSB up to 345Mhz stable.
Its also the best record AM2 motherboard when I use same 4800+ X2 processors to overclock.
Diamond series always match their Diamond quality, powerful multimedia function, also with good overclock ability.
This Mobo will give AM2 platform some impact to encourage the momentum.
[BREAK=BIOS Features]
BIOS intro
Main page
Chipset link bandwidth
Frequency and voltage page.
CPU extra voltage.
Up to more 0.3V for overclock.
AM2 support DDRII 400/533/667/800
Memory configuration setup page.
Multiple adjust and basic voltage.
Many detail voltage adjust
NVIDIA tech. page.
The 590 SLI support EPP technology setup also in this page.
Boot up screen
[BREAK=Further Testing and Impressions]
Test plasform setup
CPU:AMD AM2 Althon64 X2 4800+
MB: MSI K9N Diamond
DRAM:Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C3
VGA:ELSA 730GT 256B3 DTV
HD:Seagate 7200.7 80GB
POWER:Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
Cooler:Tower112
The UI of build in Audige SE hardware audio
Memory 1GBX2 DDRII 1083 CL4 4-4-12 2.3V stable
ELSA 7300GT DDR3 SLI overclock test.
3DMARK2003
3DMARK2005
3DMARK2006
[BREAK=Final Testing and Conclusion]
MSI K9N Diamond
Positive points:
1.Full and deluxe package
2.Copper pipeline chipset heatsink with FAN.
3.4 phase PWM design with JAPAN capacitors.
4.Build in best mobo audio with SB Audigy SE hardware audio.
5.CPU FSB can up to 345MHz
6.Only need 2.2V to reach DDRII 800 1T CL=3,3,3,9
Negative points:
1.No big advantage compare with K8N Diamond Plus.
2.Top memory voltage is only 2.3V, not enough.
3.DDRII overclock should up to 1120~1160MHz to get better performance.
4.Wish we can have build in eSATA and debug signal design.
I recommend this product for under 215USD.
Good on spec design and overclock ability, the only discount is memory overclock ability and not enough spec. improve.
But according to the cost/performance and multimedia, this still a recommend product.
and no 1T command rate for am2 setups right ?