Intel Motherboards: Can a Diamond beat a Royal Flush?

Final Words

The MSI P4N Diamond and Gigabyte GA-8I955X are excellent products and reside at the upper echelon of each company's product line. Either board will, in some form or fashion, satisfy most computer enthusiasts who utilize Intel processors. Both boards are feature-laden with options that are very useful and include some that make for good marketing purposes.

Although the boards are very similar in several ways, they each cater to a different user, even though both are being marketed with the same message. These boards are strictly for the high-end user and as such, should be looked at with extra scrutiny. With that in mind, we offer the following comments.

In the processor area, if you use or plan to use a dual core processor, then the optimal solution at this time is the Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal. It offers superior compatibility with the entire Intel Pentium D processor series, and full dual-core capabilities in all overclocking modes. However, if you do not plan on utilizing the Pentium D 820 processor or overclocking via the multiplier method then the MSI P4N should be given serious consideration when utilizing a Pentium D 830 or 840 series processor. Just keep in mind that the current NVIDIA nForce4 Intel Edition chipset does not support the value Pentium D 820 in dual-core mode and overclocking by multipliers will also disable the second core on other Intel dual-core processors. NVIDIA assures us this will be fixed in future chipsets.

In the video area, if you're a gamer looking for SLI, then the MSI P4N is your only choice. It fully supports NVIDIA SLI with two NVIDIA video cards. In the near future, Intel will release a revised chipset that will also fully support SLI operation.

In the on-board audio area, both boards offer excellent solutions with the Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal offering full support for High Definition Azalia audio along with extensive features for the home audio user. The MSI P4N Diamond offers an even better option for the gamer with the Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit solution. Both systems will fill the bill for most users, but serious gamers or audiophiles will want to seek better solutions.

In the storage area, both boards offer a plethora of options. MSI's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition Chipset offers the most native options and class leading performance. However, Gigabyte offers similar storage solutions along with Firewire 800 support that is not available on the MSI board. Both boards have exceptional capabilities with SATA II, flexible RAID options, PATA and full NCQ support. If your system requires a myriad number of drives, then the MSI P4N Diamond is the better board for you, but the Gigabyte's storage performance is also excellent.

In the performance area, both boards offered very good performance levels. Superior memory, disk, and overall application performance was offered by the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset on the MSI P4N Diamond. If this type of performance is a priority, and it should be, then this is the board for you.

In the end, a Diamond does indeed beat a Royal Flush, but in this case, Gigabyte is holding the high ace. These high-end boards are best suited for the capabilities of the Intel Pentium D processor, and because of its full compatibility, the Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal is the one and only choice.