MSI X38 Diamond preview

Looks nice, Hopefully It will have the missing DDR2 Dimm slots installed and working.

no floppy connector?

No, they still have it :( Look along the board's bottom

SECRET FUNCTION?!

wow that would be interesting if it ended up with 6 dimm slots, and ya Im curious about this secret function as well...

included Skype daughterboard

please tell me this is just like extra headphone/mic jacks or something and not some dedicated memory/silicon for running skype

I believe its a a modem which you can plug your normal telephone into and then use it on skype, not certain though.

It's pictured (and explained a little) at the bottom of this page (that's the P35 Diamond): http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/06/05/computex_2007_pre_show_tour/8

i wonder why MSI is keep using the roller coaster cooler, sure it looks good, but why don't they just do some honest BIOS options and some digital PWM?

and why have they got the silly skype card? im sure if a customer wants one, they'd buy a proper VoIP phone

Wouldn't it make more sense to move the pci slot to the bottom of the board and move the 2 yellow slots up? with 2 dual slot gfx cards in you would have no access to a standard pci slot

Any price estimates?

Originally Posted by wuyanxu
i wonder why MSI is keep using the roller coaster cooler, sure it looks good, but why don't they just do some honest BIOS options and some digital PWM?

and why have they got the silly skype card? im sure if a customer wants one, they'd buy a proper VoIP phone

The BIOS options are there, they just aren't DFI standard. Digital PWM costs more and isn't necessarily better - the v1s gave a greater vDroop but the v2s are meant to be better and you do get finer requirements out of it - but if your engineers and manufacturing lines are used to using the normal stuff, and it works for most people, why change?

Almighty - Yes, imo it would.

Skype card - lots of people use Skype so it's a branding thing although I've yet to look into how it works exactly or if it saves you any money.

No price commitment yet either.

the main problem with early digital PWM doesn't seem to have been vdroop so much as they run very hot

Well I've been told by more than one that vDroop was an issue on some boards.

Yay! No Jmicron crap, I'd rather see Marvel stuff, But If the Si stuff is half as good as the Marvel stuff when overclocking I'll live with It. :D

I think that slot is not missing! There is a Secret on this! also LOL on Skype thing! Any ways SKYPE is blocked programme in UAE :( so this motherboard Skype thing is useless, That copper cooling make it look silly! Aline motherboard, Dam Funny!

Thanks for the Review.

Hey, don't cpmplain about the skype card. It'd add about $3 to the total, and all it really is is a modem that seems to be able to prod ethernet ports or something else of the like while the machine is off. Besides, looked at SkypeOUT rates VS conventional Long Distance lately?

He can't - it's blocked where he lives. :P