Wow, could this be the Dual core mobo we've been waiting for?

[HexiumVII]

I'm been looking to upgrade, but haven't found the perfect board. Then I saw this and was like HOLY CRAP. I could care less about the PCIX as I'm boycotting SLi/Crossfire (seriously, they now milk double the money than the $400-$600 they charge high end). The rest of you can go balls out with 4 video cards. But built in X-Fi and true Hardware RAID has me salivating. The only thing is that it doesn't seem to overclock as well as the Asuses. Hopefully the X-Fi wouldn't be ruined the the mobo built in headers and DACs (are the Azalias any good?). Total of 9 SATA is also quite impressive as i've been relying on SCSI for my insane amount of drives. Hopefully they won't delay this much longer as its suppose to be out along with the next gen batch of 680is.

a bit more info on Toms Limpware Guide

 

[schneiderguy]

integrated x-fi, nice :Q

 

[AstroDogg]

Multiple Dacs in a computer audio device that would be truely awesome. Five would be just about worth the money they charge but are you sure its not a single DAC?

 

[caboob]

I think I've found my next board.

My current setup features SLI'd 7900GTXs which leave only 1 usable PCI slot for my SCSI RAID card. As such I had to forgo an X-Fi card. With the onboard X-Fi on this MSI board, I dont have to try and free up another slot. I was considering water cooling the vid cards so I could uncover another PCI slot.

 

[HexiumVII]

though probably not a "true" X-Fi, hopefully it will sound at least as decent as the Audigy 1 in my comp right now.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I'd like to hear about the qualified memory list, and then if the PCIe 16x ports support cards other than graphics cards, such as RAID cards....

 

[hardwareking]

according to the specs its supposed to be the same chip used in the xifi extreme music sound card.So its good.Finally a motherboard withdecent onboard sound.Now we just have to see the driver support.
And according to newegg its cheaper than the ASUS striker extreme and Gigabyte nforce 680i DQ6 motherboard.
It'll be interesting to see the OC performance

 

[SunnyD]

Yay, more integrated stuff to go bad on a motherboard!

 

[krotchy]

Just to make it clear:

PCIX = PCI extended.... Server grade 64 bit bus @33/66/100/133MHZ
PCIe = PCI Express = 1,4,8,16x slots...

There are no PCIX video cards that I know of.

 

[StopSign]

Originally posted by: HexiumVII
I could care less about the PCIX as I'm boycotting SLi/Crossfire (seriously, they now milk double the money than the $400-$600 they charge high end).

What's that supposed to mean...?

 

[AstroDogg]

Originally posted by: StopSign

Originally posted by: HexiumVII
I could care less about the PCIX as I'm boycotting SLi/Crossfire (seriously, they now milk double the money than the $400-$600 they charge high end).

What's that supposed to mean...?

It means he only looks at the Max FPS numbers of SLi and non-SLi setups

 

[Countryman]

I'm confused, why would you need 4x PCIe x16?

 

[Ichigo]

X-Fi is so broken, it's not worth it, especially with Vista. And I don't understand why you're complaining about the price when you have a so-called "gaming laptop".

 

[AstroDogg]

Originally posted by: Countryman
I'm confused, why would you need 4x PCIe x16?

Well since you can't run SLi @ 16X by 16X, a third card @ 8X for multi-display destops, and a physics card @ 8X. I'm confused too. I mean whats the point. When the 680i has only 48 express-lanes and the 650i has just 19 lanes. 16+16+8+8=48 unforunatly express-lanes are use for other things on the board also, Not leaving enough for 4 PCI slots in my rig.
On the other hand If you have anything less than 2 extreemly overclocked 8800's in SLi you do not need 16X+16X SLi mode. At 8x+8x+8x+8x you can run [SLi 8X, a muti-display card 8X, and a physics card 8X or a Hardware Raid card 8X] or [a single video card @ 8X, physics card 8X, and 2-Hardware Raid cards 8Xeach, or SLi 8X and two types of physics cards 8x each] This is assuming the board allows you to run SLi 8X and not automatically engaging 16X+16X when inserting the SLi MODE card.
I guess the only real application for this is 4 video cards suporting 10 video monitors. I have no Idea how many displays Vista will support nor do I care really. All I got to say about Vista is buy it when its 7 or 13 months old when its the cheapest and put it away for another year until it becomes usable with a fair amount of the issues worked out. If we were truely smart we'd all switch to Linux right now, But I'm stupid and lazy you see. For atleast the next year I have no intention of even seeing Vista. ROLF that reminds me of those laptops they were selling with 512MB ram and Vista Installed. OMG how crazy is that. Opps I got side-tracked somewhere between crushing popcans from my bench and eating this NASTY bacon cheeseburger from Hardees that has mayo on it YUKK!..

 

[AstroDogg]

Originally posted by: Ichigo
X-Fi is so broken, it's not worth it, especially with Vista. And I don't understand why you're complaining about the price when you have a so-called "gaming laptop".

Ichigo What do you mean it's broken can you explain yourself here? Just come along say it snapped and hop skip jump along about your marry way don't convience me.

The P6N Diamond 100% supports Vista(as the plan goes). The big hold-up of this board is the Vista drivers and the timings of the X-Fi chip. That and I hope some feedback from issues from other 680I boards, But looking at MSI's two 650i boards I'd say they have this well under-hand.
RUNBAMBIRUN

 

[sxr7171]

It means that he cares a lot about PCIX in a consumer level board while he doesn't care about PCI-E since he'd rather take AGP and has no intention to use SLI or Crossfire.

 

[AstroDogg]

Originally posted by: sxr7171
It means that he cares a lot about PCIX in a consumer level board while he doesn't care about PCI-E since he'd rather take AGP and has no intention to use SLI or Crossfire.

HUH? You psychic?

I'm not 100% sure on this, but PCI-X is to replace the PCI slots. Not the PCI-E 16x Video Slot. So how can someone not care about PCI-E?

EDIT
Ok I get it he never meant PCIX he probley doesn't know it is something else. He must have meant PCI-e 16x. It just really confused me as I do wish this board had PCI-X in the expansion slot above the second 16x SLi card slot, and the dual SLi 16x used slots 3 and 7.

 

[AstroDogg]

I don't think anyone is really interested in running four video cards. It wouldn't make much sense unless your doing video conferencing from a board table and the furthest monitor is 20ft away or you have more than 32 clients connected in a video conference.
I have gathered as an assumption from some early Jan. board specs and the latest early release board, that the board will support these PCI-E 16X slot configurations 8X-16X-1X-16X, 8x-16x-8x-8x and 8X-8X-8X-8X.
There is some spectulation of the first option as it has been printed as 1X-16X-1X-16X I've also seen 8X-16X -__-16X where one of the slots is useless. I'm not sure if the extra 8x would fail leave enough expresslanes from the 46 offered by the 680i chipset for MSI's implementation of Sata, eSata and the one and only 1X slot on the board. My best guess would be is you can use it as any of the options listed. I do have hands-on experience with four slot PCi-e 16x boards and this makes sense to me in my findings, but if the sata, esata and the 1X slot use more than 6 expresslanes it will not be possible to use 2-16X cards along with an 8x card or 2-4X cards. If anyone knows for sure please add info. I can't see MSI deniing us dual 16X SLi and support for another 8X card with two 16x slots left to use. Its really just a matter of MSI leaving enough express lanes and some colorful switching options weather it be in the bios automatic or on the board.

This brings me to another question will the boards support dual 16X SLi and dual hardware raid 4X cards in a 4X-16X-4X-16X configuration for a card like this. http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr2310.htm or http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr2320.htm

I really don't know much about Physics cards so my question would be will they be 4X or 8X? Or are they going to stay PCI only? If the above configuration does work and the cards are 4X then you could run an 8 channel hardware raid card and a physics card or two different types of physics cards or two hardware raid cards, while running dual 16X SLi.

Why does it always seem no matter what there is never plenty to go around?