MSI P4N Diamond Review --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

Introduction

With both NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition and Intel's own 955X Express vying for the high-end Pentium Extreme Edition market, MSI it seems, has taken a stand. Although they have released motherboard models based on both platforms, the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition based P4N Diamond has been chosen as their flagship. It is currently the only board in the whole LGA775 product line to bear the Diamond label and only the second board to be included in the ultra high end Diamond family. The first (K8N Diamond) is also based off NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI chipset, but for the Socket 939 Athlon 64 CPUs. With that said, you can be sure MSI will be pulling out all the stops to make the P4N Diamond the ultimate board for the Intel platform.

The MSI P4N Diamond motherboard based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition.

The board pimps quite an extensive package which includes the following:-

4 x SATA data cables

2 x SATA power converter cable (dual plugs)

1 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA data cable

1 x floppy drive data cable

1 x SLI high-speed digital link interface bridge

MSI Dual-Net card and antenna

IEEE 1394a (2 ports) bracket

External SATA (2 ports) bracket

MSI D-Bracket 2

I/O shield

SATA RAID driver diskette

Driver CD

Hardware installation guide

MSI P4N Diamond Technical Specifications

CPU Support	Supports 90nm LGA775processor package Supports Intel PentiumProcessor Extreme Edition Supports Intel PentiumD Smithfield processors Supports Intel Pentium4 / Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors Intel Hyper-ThreadingTechnology ready
Chipset	NVIDIA nForce4 SLIIntel Edition SPP 400 - 1066MHzfrontside bus NVIDIA DualDDR2Memory Controller One x16 PCIExpresslink for graphics card.? SupportsScalableLink Interface Technology (SLI) fordual PCIe x8 interfaces Supports up tofour PCIExpress x1 lanes NVIDIA nForce4 SLIIntel Edition MCP Supports up to tenUSB 2.0 ports Supports four SATAII ports Dual-channel UltraATA-133 IDE controller Supports up to sixPCIslots
Memory	NVIDIA DualDDR2architecture 4 x 240-pin DIMMsockets support max. 4GB DDR2400/533/667 non-ECC memory Slot independantdual-channel mode NVIDIA QuickSync NVIDIA DASP 3.0
Storage	NVIDIA nForce4 SLIIntel Edition MCP 4 x Ultra ATA33/66/100/133 (data transfer rate up to133MB/sec.) 4 x SATA II(Serial ATA II 3.0Gbps interface) NVIDIA MediaShieldTechnology Supports RAID 0,RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5,JBOD Supports RAIDMorphing Silicon Image Sil3132SATA II RAID controller 2 x SATA II(SerialATA II 3.0Gbps interface) Supports RAID 0,RAID 1 Supports externalSATA devices through SATA Extender bracket
Audio	Onboard Creative SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit controller 24-bit / 48~96KHzaudio quality 100db SNR clarity Up to 7.1 channelsurround sound, Dolby Digital ready Supports S/PDIFdigital interface Coaxial, OpticalS/PDIF out on back I/O port
Networking	Dual Gigabit LAN ports NVIDIA Gigabit LANco-supported by Marvell Alaska 88E1111PHY chip (Transceiver) Marvell Yukon88E8053 PCI Express Gigabit LAN MSI Dual Netadapter card IEEE 802.11g54Mbps Wireless LAN with software AP capabilities Bluetooth Class 2V1.2 compliant
IEEE 1394 (FireWire)	VIA Fire II VT6306Host Controller 3 x 1394aports @ 400Mbps speed
I/O Interface	1 x Floppy connector 2 x Ultra ATAIDE connectors 6 x SATA IIconnectors 10 x USB 2.0 ports (4x rear, 2 x bracket, 2 x header) 3 x IEEE 1394a ports(1 x rear, 2 x header) 2 x RJ45 Gigabit LANports 1 x Optical S/PDIFOutput 1 x Coaxial S/PDIFOutput 8-Channel Audio I/Oports 1 x CD-IN 1 x 9-pin serial port 1 x parallel port(SPP/EPP/ECP) 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2mouse port 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2keyboard port
Expansion Slots	2 x PCIe x16 slots,PCI Express Bus specification v1.0acompliant 1 x PCIe x1slot, PCIExpress Bus specification v1.0acompliant 2 x 32-bit PCI slots,PCI 2.3 compliant
Special Features	D.O.T. Express(Dynamic Overclocking Technology) CoreCell 2 Live Update 3 DigiCell CoreCenter
PCB	ATX Form Factor, 12"x9.6"(30.5cm x 24.4cm)

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