Diamond in the rough
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The specs
To get things started, let's have a look at the board's specifications.
| CPU support | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Pentium D, Pentium XE, and Celeron D processors (Pentium D 820 in single-core mode only) |
| North bridge | NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition SPP |
| South bridge | NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition MCP |
| Interconnect | HyperTransport (1.6GB/sec) |
| Expansion slots | 2 PCI Express x16 1 PCI Express x1 2 32-bit/33MHz |
| Memory | 4 240-pin DIMM sockets Maximum of 4GB of DDR2 400/533/667 SDRAM |
| Storage I/O | Floppy disk 2 channels ATA/133 with RAID 0, 1, 0+1 support 4 channels Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 support 2 channels Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1 support via Silicon Image 3132 |
| Audio | 8-channel HD audio via Creative P17 |
| Ports | 1 PS/2 keyboard 1 PS/2 mouse 1 serial 1 parallel 4 USB 2.0 with headers for 6 more 1 RJ45 10/100/1000 1 RJ45 10/100/1000 via Marvell 88E8053 1 Firewire via VIA VT6306 with headers for 2 more 1 analog front out 1 analog bass/center out 1 analog surround out 1 analog rear out 1 analog line in 1 Coaxial digital S/PDIF output 1 TOS-Link digital S/PDIF input |
| BIOS | AMI |
| Bus speeds | FSB: 100-350MHz in 0.25MHz increments DRAM: 200-450MHz PCI-E: 100-148MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Voltages | CPU: auto, +0.0125-0.4V in 0.0125V increments DDR: 1.8-2.4V in 0.05V increments NB: 1.475-1.7 in 0.025V increments |
| Monitoring | Voltage, fan status, and temperature monitoring |
| Fan speed control | CPU fan |
The P4N Diamond is anchored by an nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset, and the board owes much of its functionality to the NVIDIA core logic. At the north bridge, the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition serves up a dual-channel DDR2 memory controller, 19 PCI Express lanes, and SLI support. CPU support is a little problematic, though. NVIDIA hasn't validated the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition for use with the Pentium D 820, and nForce4 boards only recognize one of the processor's two cores.
NVIDIA's official line on the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition's lack of Pentium D 820 support is that there is little point to validating a high-end chipset for a budget processor. However, with NVIDIA now pimping a new nForce4 SLI X16 chipset to high-end customers, the vanilla nForce4 SLI has become more of a mainstream chipset—a mainstream chipset that lacks support for Intel's most attractive mainstream processor. Now more than ever, the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition needs to support the Pentium D 820.
But I digress.
Returning to the chipset, the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition's north bridge connects to the south bridge with a HyperTransport link that offers 1.6GB/sec of bandwidth. With all of the chipset's PCI Express lanes up in the north bridge, that should be plenty of pipe for the south bridge's bandwidth-intensive network and storage controllers. On the networking front, the south bridge sports a hardware-accelerated Gigabit Ethernet controller with a built-in firewall, while storage buffs are treated to a pair of ATA/133 channels and four Serial ATA ports capable of 300MB/sec transfer rates. RAID enthusiasts should also be impressed with the fact that NVIDIA's RAID software can span multiple arrays across both ATA and SATA drives.
The nForce4 SLI Intel Edition's integrated networking and storage controllers are arguably the most impressive around, but they're apparently not enough for the P4N Diamond. MSI also packs the board with PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet and Serial ATA RAID chips from Marvell and Silicon Image, respectively. Both chips sit on their own PCI Express connections, so they won't be constrained by limited PCI or interconnect bandwidth.
Some may consider the P4N Diamond's extra GigE and SATA chips a little excessive, but few should argue with MSI's decision to forgo the nForce4 chipset's dated AC'97 audio controller in favor of an on-board Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit. The Live! doesn't promise wondrous hardware acceleration for 3D audio, but it does support high-definition sampling rates and resolutions.
