MSI Launches X38 Diamond Motherboard

[malware]

Micro-Star International (MSI), one of the leaders in mainboard manufacturing, is launching today its latest X38 Diamond mainboard based on Intel X38 Express chipset and DDR3 structure.




45nm & DDR3 Ready Guarantee Outstanding Performance
The new MSI X38 Diamond mainboard supports the latest FSB1333 and 45nm multi-core Intel processors to bring the most powerful performance at the end of 2007. The X38 Express chipset will replace the 975X in the enthusiast segment. MSI X38 Diamond has combined the basic advantage and complete-tweaking BIOS design to emerge as the best mainboard ever. It is also equipped with several overclocking-friendly design such as TroubleShoot Poster, instant button, and others to match the precise demand of overclockers.

Exclusive Dual-Channel PWM
In order to provide the most stable environment for overclocking, MSI X38 Diamond comes with a revolutionary "Dual-Channel PWM" (PWM: Pulse Width Modulation; controlling analog circuits to provide a CPU's power), its advanced design by 2 pairs shielded choke and MOSFET base on the basic 4-phase PWM, providing the best convert rate of CPU power to make the highest power efficiency. "This original and revolutionary design by MSI will lead the mainboard's power design in reference phases to provide better power supply. It's today's most advanced technology to look after both overclocking and power efficiency." said Vincent Lai, marketing director of MSI. Exclusive Cooling Solution "Circu-Pipe"

The new MSI X38 Diamond is equipped with enhanced fanless cooling design "Circu-Pipe" and water-cooling revision in the future. The new Circu-Pipe provides the best cooling solution with its fin-typed heatsink around the heat-pipe not only reduces heat efficiently but also saves space. It also resolves the heat generated by PCIe extender chip, providing the best total thermal solution for the whole system.

Beside these impressive improvements, the new MSI X38 Diamond have numerous exclusive features as well including Quad graphics slots, X-Fi Xtreme Audio, MSI SkyTel VoIP, all Made-in-Japan solid capacitors, and so on that will definitely bring enthusiasts to experience extreme PC computing.

Specifications:

• Intel X38 Express Chipset Based
• Supports Intel Core 2 Extreme/Quad/Duo Processors
• Supports FSB 1333/1066/800MHz
• Supports Dual Ch. DDR3-1333/1066/800
• Dual-Channel PWM design
• New Circu-Pipe
• 4x PCI Express x16 slots (2x runs x4 speed)
• supports PCIe 2.0 & ATI CrossFire
• 2x eSATA2 Support Matrix RAID & Port
• Multiplier @ back I/O
• Supports 7.1Ch. X-Fi Xtreme Audio
• Supports MSI SkyTel VoIP function
• Supports dual Gigabit LAN

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[ktr]

I like the integrated audio, but what the hell is with the location of the floppy disk header...

 

[KennyT772]

Almost no one uses a floppy drive anymore, hence the only time needed is for bios flashing (if you don't have a flash drive). I don't see an issue with it other than lazy planning.

 

[ktr]

If the manufactures cares (most of the time they dont), you can flash the bios via windows. My gigabyte board and this and it is an awesome feature.

 

[panchoman]

cant you use winflash to flash the bios from windows?

 

[kwchang007]

Wow that's an amazing heatsink.

 

[jocksteeluk]

the floppy drive is still widely used and having the port on the board gives the used an option, personally i still use a floppy drive.

 

[tkpenalty]

Use a USB floppy instead. Anyway one thing that will definately hurt the board's useability, the PCI Slot position is dreadful. A dual GPU setup would render all the only PCI slot on the motherboard virtually useless. This means that this motherboard is somewhat a lemon for people who want a dual GPU setup, yet want to also use a good sound card, i mean it would be better if those PCI-E1x slots were just PCI slots (Remember that those 16x yellow slots can use 1x perpherials).

 

[Disparia]

Heh, I love it for exactly those reasons

- Would rather not have floppy and ide ports, so there's more room for SATA, but at least the floppy port is out of the way.

- If I went Crossfire, I'd still end up with 3 usable PCIe slots because the PCI is covered.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Ok, a couple of points some of you have missed.
1. The onboard sound is a Realtek ALC888T for the Diamond and an ALC888 for the Platinum version, no more onboard X-Fi.
2. The X-Fi Xtreme Audio part is a PCIe x1 card which takes up one of the slots.
3. The MSI SkyTel VoIP thingie requires the ALC888T chip to be enabled and even though the card connects via a small cable to the motherboard, it only fits in the PCI slot on the board, hence making the PCI null and void or the SkyTel card unusable in a CrossFire setup.
4. The board has a PCI Express switch, which as far as I can tell means that if you use the two yellow slots you end up with x16, x8, x4 and x4 in terms of PCI Express bandwidth per slot, again a very odd decision.

Great design.... Not!

 

[btarunr]

Jeez...the chip below the southbridge...isn't that an IDT 8-lane PCI-Express hub?

Looks okay, though it looks hugely copied from the Asus ROG line. With increase in PCIe slots on mainboards there's no synchronous increase in the number of PCIe based devices in the market. I won't be able to use a PCI XFi Xtreme Gamer, a PCI PhysX card and a Killer NIC simultaneously on this board. Sure there's a PCIe XFi Xtreme Audio but that doesn't have the XFi processor on-card.

 

[WarEagleAU]

I am a huge fan of their circu pipe design technology. That is just cool.