Mobo – MSI P6N Diamond

Intro:

The P6N Diamond motherboard has all the features that most want in an upper-end system.  Socket775, 1333 FSB, DDR-800, Quad 16x PCIe, etc.  It even goes a bit farther, by adding a couple things that most boards lack.

What I found:

Boasting the latest, a 1333MHz FSB is decent in itself, since this is the next generation of systems.  The newer versions of Intel’s Core2 Duo CPUs are the 6×50 series; these have the 1333 FSB capability.

The P6N Diamond uses nVidia’s 680i (C55) Chipset northbridge, which has gotten mixed reviews on the various hardware sites.  I tend to like it for the tweaking power, though I do admit that there are problems with it, depending on the motherboard.  (That’s normal)    Also on the board is nVidia’s nForce 430i (MCP55) chipset southbridge.

I/O includes up to 10 USB 2.0 ports, up to 2 IEEE1394a, floppy, PS2, etc…all the usual stuff.

The usual 4 DDR2 slots give you support for up to 8GB of system memory at up to 800MHz.  The speed ability goes further with tweaking in the BIOS.

There are 6 internal SATA-II and 1 external eSATA ports.  The internal ports are in the standard flat-on-board layout, with port #6 on the board being linked with the eSATA on the back panel.  (A good way to use the #6 port is for a front panel eSATA connection…)  The onboard SATA along with the single PATA port allow use of the nVidia nForce RAID for up to 8 drives.  The board allows for RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD.

The P6N Diamond has dual nVidia gigabit LAN onboard.  This is great for multiple networks or internet connection sharing.

The 4 PCIe ports are nice for over-achievers.  I’ve yet to see anyone actually USE all four for graphics setups.  They are clocked in the standard quad PCIe fashion of x16×16x8 or x8+x8+x16+x8 speed.  There are 1 PCIe 1x and 2 PCI slots as well.  To be honest, I’d rather see 1 less PCIe slot and one MORE PCI slot.  I’ve been rather disappointed with the lack of PCIe support in hardware vendors.  There are some, but they are few and far between.

Also on the board is, and this is the best feature, an onboard PCIe version of the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme 8-channel audio.  This is, by far, the best on-board audio I’ve heard yet.  VERY clear and precise sound, especially for gaming and watching movies with surround sound.

Ultimately, the board was simple to install and configure.  I did find that the “tweakability” in the BIOS was about as good as it gets.  It was easy as cake to get up and running with my Core2 Quad 6600.

We’ll have more on this board after it’s been running for a week or so.  See ya then…