TechReport has posted a review on the MSI's K8N Diamond Plus (Socket 939) motherboard. Like most enthusiast boards, the K8N Diamond Plus comes loaded with features, including dual Gigabit Ethernet options, two flavors of Serial ATA RAID, and a BIOS filled with tweaking, overclocking, and even fan speed controls. MSI has also fitted the board with a Sound Blaster Audigy chip that promises support for EAX Advanced HD and better audio quality than typical motherboard audio implementations.

With a street price as low as $180, the K8N Diamond Plus sells for about as much as other nForce4 SLI X16-based motherboards on the market. Its features are pretty comparable, as well, with most manufacturers relying on the same auxiliary Silicon Image Serial ATA RAID and Marvell Gigabit Ethernet chips. The K8N Diamond Plus does have a few unique tricks up its sleeve, though. It's the only Socket 939 board we've seen that supports up to three PCI Express x16 graphics cards, and even if the third card can't contribute to SLI, it could be useful for those seeking more than four monitor outputs. The K8N is also the first board we've seen with a Creative Audigy SE onboard, although the chip's lack of hardware acceleration for 3D audio limits its appeal.

Apart from the Audigy SE's lack of hardware acceleration for 3D audio-an omission that's hard to harp on given the complete lack of hardware-accelerated 3D audio on Athlon 64 motherboards-our only real gripe with the K8N Diamond Plus is the board's active chipset cooler. The nForce4 chipset has a reputation for running a little hot, but other manufacturers have managed to reel in its thermals with passive cooling designs, and we wish MSI could do the same. At the very least, it would be nice if the cooler didn't encroach on the area around the CPU socket.