NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI for AMD Round Up: GIGABYTE, MSI and ASUS

Name: NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI for AMD Round Up: GIGABYTE, MSI and ASUS - Page 4
Brand: NVIDIA

by Jeff Bouton — Monday, October 23, 2006, 12:00 PM EDT

Specifications and Retail Package - MSI K9N Diamond

MSI K9N Diamond Motherboard - Specifications and Retail Package

Good Features But Light on Extras

CPU
Supports 64-bit AMD Athlon 64 / Athlon 64FX / Athlon 64 X2 processor (Socket AM2)
Supports Athlon 64 CPU: 3500+, 3800+
Supports Athlon 64FX CPU: FX-62
Supports Athlon 64 X2 CPU: 3800+, 4000+, 4200, 4400+, 4600+, 4800+, 5000+, 5200+

Chipset
NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI SPP Chipset
HyperTransport link to the AMD Athlon 64/Athlon 64FX/Athlon 64 X2 CPU
NVIDIA LinkBoost Technology
Supports 1 PCI Express x16 interface

NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP Chipset
Supports 1 PCI Express x16 / 2 PCI Express x1 connection
Independent SATAII controllers, for six drives
Single Fast ATA-133 IDE controller

Main Memory
Supports dual channel DDR2 533/667/800, using four 240-pin DDR2 DIMMs.
Supports the memory size up to 8GB
Supports 1.8v DDR2 SDRAM DIMM
Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR2 voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability.
Example: Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 PC6400 operates at 2.0V, 4-4-4-12.
For more information about specification of high performance memory modules, please check with your Memory Manufactures for more details.

Slots
Two PCI Express X16 slot (supports PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant)
Two PCI Express X1 slot
Two 32-bit Master PCI Bus slots, one orange slot reserves as communication slot.
Support 3.3V/5V PCI bus Interface

On-Board IDE/SATA
An IDE controller on the nVIDIA nForce 590SLI chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes.
Can connect up to 2 IDE devices
NV RAID supports 6 SATA II ports (SATA1-6). Transfer rate is up to 300MB/s.
NV RAID (Software)
Supports up to 6 SATA
RAID 0 or 1, 0+1, 5, JBOD is supported
RAID function work w/ SATAII H/D

Dimension
11.96 in (L) x 9.61 in(W) ATX Form Factor

BIOS
The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface (DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.
Supports boot from LAN, USB Device 1.1 & 2.0 and SATA HDD

Audio
Creative sound Bluster Audigy SE H/W audio
24-bit / 96KHz audio quality
100db SNR clarity
Up to 7.1 CH Surround Sound, Dolby Digital ready

LAN
Supports dual LAN jacks
Dual LAN supports 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by nForce 590 SLI

IEEE1394
VIA 6307 chipset
Supports up to 3 x 1394 ports
Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps

On-Board Peripherals
1 floppy port supports 1 FDD with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M and 2.88Mbytes
1 serial port
1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
1 audio jack (5-in-1), coaxial/fibre SPDIF out
10 USB 2.0 ports (Rear x 4 / Front x 6)
2 RJ45 LAN jack
1 D-Bracket 2 pinheader
3 IEEE 1394 a connectors (Rear x 1/ Front x 2)
1 CD-in pinheader
1 IrDA pinheader

Mounting
9 mounting holes

The MSI K9N Diamond came with an adequate collection of extras included in the package, but lacked anything unique to set it apart from the other models. The User's Guide and Quick Installation flyer were well organized and covered all aspects of the K9N Diamond thoroughly. The Drivers CD came with all the necessary drivers and software except for the audio drivers, which were provided on a separate CD. MSI's standard tab driven menu system organizes the software components in an easy to follow fashion.

The package came with a total of six SATA cables as well as a rounded IDE and Floppy cable. MSI only included a single molex to SATA power adapter, which was disappointing. In the least, two or three Y-adapters would have been preferred, much like the ASUS package. An SLI bridge clip was provided as well as a retention bracket that sported ventilation holes. Two D-Brackets were also provided with the first designed to work with the USB headers on the main board for an additional two USB ports. There was a second bracket for IEEE 1394 expansion, bringing the board's total to three ports. MSI rounds out the package with a rear I/O shield to match the rear port configuration.