NVIDIA's SLI: Part 1 - Motherboards

MSI K8N Diamond

There are several motherboards that MSI have designed around the NForce4 SLI chipset - the K8N Diamond is MSI's premium SLI motherboard, coming with a plethora of onboard features and a comprehensive bundle, while maintaining the solidity of the Platinum series SLI motherboard. There are two versions of the K8N Diamond - one comes with a wireless PCI card, this version does not include the add-in card. MSI have been a company that has always been very close to the soul of many overclockers, with their dedication to extreme performance and cutting edge technology that has set their brand apart from past market leaders.

Main Feature Overview:

• Support for all AMD Athlon 64 socket 939 processors;
  
• NVIDIA NForce4 SLI MCP;
  
• 200MHz FSB;
  
• Phoenix AwardBIOS;
  
• 4x 184-pin DDR memory slots supporting up to 4GB;
  
• 2x PCI-Express x16 slots, 3x PCI expansion slots;
  
• 2x ATA133 ports, 2x SATA II ports controlled by Sil3132 Controller, 4x SATA II ports;
  
• 6 (plus 4)x USB 2.0 ports;
  
• 1 (plus 2)x IEEE 1394 Firewire ports;
  
• 8-Channel Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit audio chip with S/PDIF RCA and optical based output ports;
  
• 1x NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet Controller & 1x Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet Controller.

The Bundle:

The K8N Diamond has a bundle that includes extras like the kitchen sink, among the usual suspects. While not quite as complete as what DFI offer, it's another very comprehensive bundle.

There is the usual array of cables included; interestingly, there are two rounded floppy cables and two rounded ATA133 cables - this may well not be the case in the retail package, as there's only one floppy port located on the motherboard. There are also four SATA cables included. The cable selection should provide enough hard drive connections for a wide user base, whether you have a single drive, or multiple drives in your hard drive array. The ATA133 and floppy cables are sleeved with red plastic, while the SATA cables are coloured orange.

On top of the cables, there are the usual motherboard driver and utility CD's. The interesting addition to the K8N Diamond package is membership to MSI's Diamond Club. This extends the whole idea of customer service one step further, with a Diamond VIP forum, where Diamond Club members can post questions that will act as a high priority support line with a dedicated MSI engineer available to answer the questions.

There is also the option to download exclusive performance motherboard BIOS's that are unavailable to other MSI customers. This is part of the premium that comes with buying an MSI Diamond product. There are many more inclusions, but you would be best to check out the Diamond Club website for full, up-to-date details on the latest offers and promotions.

There are also several accessories included; we've already mentioned the Diamond Club membership. Along with that, there is the SLI interlink connector, an I/O back panel, two additional USB 2.0 ports, and two IEEE 1394 Firewire ports. The additional ports come on two PCI blanking plates - USB 2.0 on one and Firewire on the other.