MSI P4N Diamond & Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI

Overclocking:

Unfortunately we found the NVIDIA chipset didn’t enjoy overclocking as much as we’d have hoped. On the MSI our 3.73EE CPU would do 1200MHz CPU bus no problem and beyond that up to almost 1300MHz on Intel chipset based boards, however we were only able to get the MSI with NVIDIA chipset up to 1180MHz fully stable. Above this we got random lock-ups within short time of booting into Windows. The Gigabyte GA-8N SLI wasn't much more responsive than the P4N Diamond.

We found adding a fan to the southbridge generally helps with stability but overall the chipset isn’t as friendly out of normal operating parameters as Intel's 955X chipset, or even the 12 month old 925X for that matter. We managed to pull a set of results from the Gigabyte board at the ever so slightly faster speed of 1200MHz bus speed, but it still wasn’t prime95 stable, like the MSI, when overclocked to something worth noting.

Final Thoughts...

Both of these motherboards are very appealing to anyone considering an Intel-based gaming rig - they're packed with great features and with a performance at the very top end on all accounts. Watercooled, the potential is huge, as Prescott processors can go far when kept cool enough, so coupled with a pair of NV4x/G70 video cards in SLI you could have both a fantastic workstation and gaming rig in one. A low profile waterblock for the southbridge would ease some of the heat worries that we have related to the C19 southbridge. Having said that, adding an extra 80mm fan above the southbridge didn’t seem to help cool it down all that much.

The Creative onboard High-Definition audio used by MSI with the inclusion of EAX 4 HD is a definitely a plus for gamers, with Dolby Digital EX, Creative’s CMSS and up to 7.1 channel sound makes it a good choice for home theatre and home audio enthusiasts who want an all in one workstation, movie player, gaming rig, RAID server and HD surround sound music player.

Gigabyte still use the best 7.1 channel AC’97 audio codec in the ALC850 but it doesn't have High-Definition audio support. Also, considering the fact that NVIDIA's SLI technology is aimed at gamers, not having EAX - which is used virtually everywhere in gaming - on an SLI motherboard is a significant loss. However, spending many, many of your hard earned pounds on two SLI-ready video cards means you’re likely to have budgeted and spent a fraction of the cost of this on a better PCI soundcard anyway.

As mundane as it may sound I really like Gigabytes SATA cables with the clips so they will never, ever come out unless you want them too. Not only that but Gigabyte seem to supply more in the box than MSI do, so you could either argue you get more for your money from the Gigabyte board or MSI actually realise that you probably have left-overs from your previous motherboard that you can reuse, so saved a bit of cost to the consumer by including less?

MSI’s digital SLI bridge is a useful addition too. Even though you rarely ever change the PCB over it’s just less hassle for us lazy folk to not have to dig around in a dark case swapping over a fiddly little card like you have to with the Gigabyte. Having said that, if you’ve got the skill to install an LGA775 CPU without damaging any of the spring-loaded socket pins, you will be able to flip the card selector with ease.

Undoubtedly we were disappointed with our overclocking experiences but can only assume it’s not necessarily MSI’s or Gigabytes fault considering their past performance making numerous motherboards that overclock well; but NVIDIA’s fault for producing a chipset that makes the Prescott look cool.

However, in the face of all this it’s still find it hard to fault NVIDIA considering it’s their first generation DDR2 and Pentium 4 chipset, compared to having produced a 5th generation AMD and 3rd generation Athlon 64 in the NForce 4. The general rule of thumb for all chipset manufacturers is that first generation chipsets should be taken with a pinch of salt, like the NForce 3 150 for AMD Athlon 64 or the NForce 1 for AMD Athlon for example, but considering their very powerful stock performance it’s still hard to complain. OK, overclockers and enthusiasts may be turned off at the poor overclocking results but lets face it - they would probably have bought an AMD Athlon 64 SLI system already, so you’re left with a larger general market who don’t tend to ever indulge in overclocking but want a state of the art SLI chipset and powerful Intel gaming computer/RAID server/home theatre/workstation.

Which one to buy? At an extremely slight nose ahead the MSI gets the vote, because I like it’s digital SLI switch, as I’m lazy and prone to loosing things, I don’t like the fact I have to press Ctrl+F1 every time to unlock BIOS features on the Gigabyte and I like MSI's inclusion of the High-Definition Creative audio and EAX 4 HD over the embedded AC’97 that NVIDIA have chosen to implement in to the chipset.

If you are looking to build an Intel-based platform for hardcore overclocking and powerful gaming at the same time, you might be better looking at the 955X chipset with a single 7800 GTX, as NVIDIA's NForce 4 SLI Intel Edition chipset doesn't appear to be the be all and end all in terms of overclockability. There is no doubt that these two motherboards are two of the fastest gaming-orientated motherboards supporting Intel's full range of desktop processors at the moment. We are anticipating that ATI's CrossFire platform will give these motherboards a run for their money if and when it appears on the market with stable drivers.