Thursday, October 11th 2007
MSI Launches X38 Diamond Motherboard
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:
Source:
MSI
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
11 Comments on MSI Launches X38 Diamond Motherboard
- 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.
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! :banghead:
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.