MSI K8N diamond plus

[liquid51]

I'm having some issues possibly related to the mobo (interesting and, more importantly, annoying gaming issues) and am also in the market for a sound card (asus a8n32-sli onboard sound is terrible!). So I was thinking about scooping up an MSI K8N diamond plus (overstock or ebay). It would give me an opportunity to see if the mobo is indeed my problem and provide onboard creative audigy sound.

My only concern is the fact that I don't see much info about the board except for a couple positive reviews dated back to january. Also, everybody and their mother is still selling the asus a8n32-sli, but I can't find the MSI board anywhere other than a few no-name e-shops and used boards on ebay.

Is there some reason why I should avoid this board? Or did MSI only produce limited quantities because AM2 was on the horizon?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[5uperGlu3]

the reason you are not finding this board is because MSI quit making it, they went to the k9n AM2 platform. as far as the onboard audio, i cannot comment on that because i have only had my xFi, but i read some reviews saying it was very good. so no, there is no reason that you should stay away from this mobo, unless you don't want socket 939 anymore. as far as overclocking, this board will hang with the best of them. i had an asus a8n32x and i RMAed it for the MSI, no regrets. the asus bois died during a flash. so i had a new bios chip overnighted to me and that still didn't fix the problem, was probly just a bad apple. if you want to stay with your 939 proc and keep your DDR, this mobo will serve you well, i hit 300Mhz with little effort. anything over 305Mhz and i'd get BSODs. also, i cannot comment on the raid of this mobo becuase i never used it. MSI did do well with the cmos clearer though...instead of a jumper that is right under the pci-x slot like your asus, the MSI used a push button. its located in a very easy to reach spot even with cards plugged into all the slots. this mobo comes highly recommended. let me know if this helps or if you have any other ?'s

 

[liquid51]

thanks a lot man, thats just what I was hoping to hear. I was eyeing up an xFi as well, but I'll definately make do with this if it lives up to it's reviews. Especially if I get it on the cheap. Good to know about the OC-ability, thats always a plus . And I'll just wing it on the raid. I use raid 0, so hopefully it won't give me trouble.

Thanks again man, this helps a lot!

 

[5uperGlu3]

yw

 

[5uperGlu3]

btw, what scores are you getting in 3Dmark05/06 with that comp you have? our computers are close except for the vid cards and that would give me some idea as to how much better the 7900s are from my 7800s, thanks

 

[liquid51]

I haven't actually benched yet since the SLI has been running. I'm trying to resolve some of these issues first. I actually just bought the mobo off ebay. Hopefully it solves those issues. I'll try and churn out some 3Dmark scores once it's up and running. Here's to hoping the raid works A-ok and the onboard audio is as good as I've read. I still might end up with an xFi, but this should hold me over for a good while