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MSI K9N DIAMOND Mainboard Review

System Configurations, Software and Benchmarks Used

This review was severely hampered by a few technical hiccups we encountered along during the proceedings, however many thanks to Diskeeper Europe, MSI and Western Digital Technical Support teams who helped finally resolve the issue. Huge thanks to you all. Therefore this meant we had in the end very tight time constraints to complete the review as we did hope to show 64 Bit results with the emphasis now focusing heavily upon this Operating System. Next time round!

Test System Used

1 X Akasa Mirage 62 Chassis
1 X Akasa ALLInONE Controller
1 X Akasa EVO BLUE (AK922) HSF utilising Akasa Pro Grade 460 Thermal Compound
1 X AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 6000+ Socket AM2 CPU
1 X MSI K9N Diamond Mainboard
2 X 1GB PC2 8500 Corsair XMS2 Memory Modules
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Intake Fan
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Exhaust Fan
2 X Western Digital Caviar® SE16 250GB SATA Hard Drives configured to Raid 0

The mainboards bios settings were left at default The mainboard automatically found the new CPU and the new 800FSB memory. It adjusted the clock speed settings and voltages to facilitate these new equipment parts to maintain the higher functionality which the board has to offer.

Hardware Suppliers for the Review

MSI for the supply of the Mainboards shown, Corsair, for the supply of their spanking new Dominator memory, Western Digital for the SATA Hard Discs, Man and Machine and AMD Graphics for the supply of the AMD FireGL V7200 professional graphics card and finally but by no means least; Akasa for the major peripherals required for this review . Our thanks to all involved in making this an interesting but exciting review. The CPU - our thanks to the donor of this superb chip, and before anyone says it, no it did not come from AMD.

Corsair’s new memory really has hit home, expensive in some areas for some, but the performance and stability that we encountered over this last month has been magnificent. Ranting on once more stability in the high-end is of a paramont and for those inclined and feel the need for speed, we can say that this memory on these boards can be well tweaked – Mission Control we have lift off!!!

Systems Integrators, OEM’s and VAR’s should contact all companies directly for pricing and availability of all components. Members of the public should contact their respective suppliers requesting the parts directly.

Diskeeper can be purchased from most leading Distributors and software retail outlets. Or those of you wishing a try before buy, a 30 day trial version maybe downloaded direct from Diskeeper Europe. We highly recommend the use of this software as performance increase can be quite considerable in many places.

Benchmarks, Software Used and Conclusions (32 Bit Mode)

To complete all of the tests on the system has taken some considerable time to complete. A test/render has been completed many times over different periods of the system uptime. Maintaining the fair play rules we did not manipulate any of this mainboards functionality and left it at its default settings in which it was supplied. All tests have been conducted at 1280 X 1024 @ 70Hz in 32 bit colour. Results that have been shown on this review are from the application/benchmarks first run in accordance with the fair play rules.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
Diskeeper 2007 Professional Premium Edition
Sandra 2007 SP1
HD Tach 3
PCMark 2005 Advanced with build 1.2.0
3D Mark 2006 Advanced with build 1.1.0
Autodesk® 3ds Max® 8 with SP3
Cinebench 9.5
SPECapc^SM for 3ds Max™ 8
SPECviewperf® 9.0.3

The plethora of benchmarks available in this arena; one could spend all day in producing results if the time permitted, paralysis by analysis! Sadly the clock ticked hard and fast against us therefore we did only have a very short time in which to complete this basic but factual review. On its next outing we will have time to complete 64 Bit tests and to balance the power, results from the NVIDIA QUADRO FX3500 to appease you who are looking for them. If you cannot fully make out the charts and visuals which we have shown below, please e-mail – administrator at 3d professor dot org and we shall send over in priority of receipt the picture you are looking for.

Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - Mainboard Pictures
Page 3 - System Configuration, Benchmarks and Software Used
Page 4 - SiSoftware 2007 SP1 and Hard Drive Tach 3.0.1.0 - Journalists Edition
Page 5 - PCMark 2005 Advanced with build 1.2.0 and 3D Mark 2006 Advanced with build 1.1.0
Autodesk® 3ds Max® 8 with SP3
Page 6 - Cinebench, SPEC Benchmarks and Conclusions

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