AM2 Motherboards-Part 4: ATI Crossfire Xpress 3200
by Wesley Fink on August 21, 2006 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
MSI K9A Platinum: Basic Features & Board Layout
It's unusual to find an AMI BIOS on an MSI motherboard, but it is an indication that MSI has listened to ATI in designing their K9A Platinum. ATI shipped their Reference board with an AMI BIOS, and while an Award BIOS was also available we found the AMI was generally the better overclocker. It is a little surprising then to find the BIOS options for overclocking much more limited than those found on the ATI RD580 Reference board.
The strangest option of all is the inability to set specific HyperTransport speeds or multipliers. There are only two choices here. "Normal" works fine in most situations, including moderate overclocking. "For Overclocking" is the choice for extreme overclocking. As you will see, despite the lack of more refined HT options, the K9A is still a great overclocker.
Another limitation is the range of memory voltages available on the MSI. Where the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe provides a range to 2.5V with very fine adjustments, the MSI only extends to 2.3V in big jumps. With new high-performance DDR2 memory now supporting up to 2.5V under warranty, and most of the best memory needing 2.2 to 2.4V for best performance, 2.3V is just not enough.
MSI does not add additional SATA ports to the four already provided by SB600. It also has, in general, a more mainstream feature set than the high-end ASUS M2N32-SLI or the Foxconn C51XEM2AA. You won't find an 8-phase or 12-phase design here. This suggests the K9A may actually sell for up to $50 to $70 less than the top-of-the-line ASUS when it ships later this week. If this lower price does prove a reality it will be easier to forgive a less robust set of adjustments on the K9A.
The first thing you will notice about the K9A is the passive cooling. Both the RD580 North Bridge and SB600 South Bridge are cooled with heat sinks. Since the ATI chipset runs very cool there is not even the need for elaborate heat pipes or larger heatsinks like ASUS uses on the nForce 590SLI based ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe. Power transistors are also cooled with large passive heatsinks. Despite the fact that no active cooling is used, the chipset ran cool in our testing - even when pushed to overclocks above 300.
Layout of the slots still allows, in the worst case of two double width video cards, room for both a PCIe X1 device and a PCI device. With three slot spacing between X16 slots, there is plenty of room for exotic GPU cooling. Dual-Channel DDR2 mounts in different-colored slots with two sticks - one DIMM each in Orange and Green DIMM slots. This "spaced dimm" arrangement is best for keeping the memory cool, though we prefer the logic of both dimms in a dual channel occupying the same color dimm slots.
The 24-pin ATX connector is at the upper right edge of the board, which is the preferred location. The 4-pin 12V connector, however, is between the AM2 Socket and the rear I/O panel near the center of the board. This is not the best location for cabling, but it is one used by many boards. A board-edge location is always better to keep cables out of the way. Probably the worst location of all the cables is the 4-pin Molex next to the upper X16 PCIe slot. You only need to connect this when using CrossFire, but it is an awkward location.
SATA ports are often an issue on recent boards, but MSI has given careful thought to their SATA connectors. The location at the extreme right edge of the board at the bottom of a normally short PCIe slot seems ideal. SATA ports can be a real hassle when they are at the back of a video slot, since many top-line video cards are very long and get in the way of SATA ports too near an X16 slot.
SB600 only supports one floppy connector and one IDE connector. Both ports are well-located at the upper-right edge. MSI does not provide a secondary JMicron chip with an additional IDE like many competing boards. The additional six USB headers and Firewire header are all easily accessible connections in most cases with their lower right edge location.
Rear I/O connectors include PS2 mouse and keyboard ports, parallel and serial, 5 programmable mini-jacks for high-definition audio, 2 Gigabit Ethernet connectors, one IEEE1394a Firewire port, and both optical and coaxial S/PDIF out.
Overall the K9A Platinum is not loaded with extra bells and whistles like many top-end boards, but it does support all of the important options most enthusiasts demand. The SATA ports are now 3Gb/s SATA 2 thanks to SB600.
| MSI K9A Platinum | |
| CPU Interface | Socket AM2 |
| Chipset | ATI RD580 (Crossfire Xpress 3200) ATI SB600 |
| Bus Speeds | 200 to 400 in 1MHz Increments |
| Memory Speeds | DDR2 at 400, 533, 667, 800 |
| PCIe Speeds | 100 to 200 in 1MHz Increments (Separate Adjustments for x16 and x1 PCIe slots) |
| AI Tuning | Manual, Auto, Standard, AI Overclock, AI N.O.S. |
| Core Voltage | Auto, 1.20V to 1.450V in 0.0025V increments PLUS 3.3% to 23.3% BOOST over Voltage setting (3.3% increments, Maximum Voltage 1.788V) |
| PEG Link Mode | Auto, Disabled, Normal, Fast, Faster |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, 5x-25x in 1X increments |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.8V to 2.3V in .05v to .1v increments |
| NB Voltage | 1.80v to 2.15v in 0.5v increments |
| DDR2 Termination Voltage | 1.5v, 1.6v |
| HyperTransport Voltage | 1.20v to 1.50v in 0.5v increments |
| 1T/2T Memory | Auto, 1T, 2T |
| Advanced Memory Timings | 8 Options |
| DRAM Timing Control | 4 Options |
| HyperTransport Frequency | 1000MHz (1GHz) |
| HyperTransport Multiplier | Normal, "For Overclocking" |
| AMD Cool'n'Quiet | Disabled, Enabled |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered ECC/non ECC Memory to 16GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 2 PCIe X16 2 PCIe X1 2 PCI Slots |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | 4 SATA2 3Gb/s Drives by SB600 (RAID 0,1,1+0,JBOD) |
| Onboard IDE/IDE RAID | One Standard ATA133/100/66 (2 drives) |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 10 USB 2.0 ports supported by SB600 2 1394a Firewire by VIA VT6307 |
| Onboard LAN | DUAL PCIe Gigabit by Realtek RTL8111B and RTL8110SC |
| Onboard Audio | Azalia HD Audio by Realtek ALC883 8 channel codec |
| BIOS Revision | AMI 504 - June 14, 2006 |
It's unusual to find an AMI BIOS on an MSI motherboard, but it is an indication that MSI has listened to ATI in designing their K9A Platinum. ATI shipped their Reference board with an AMI BIOS, and while an Award BIOS was also available we found the AMI was generally the better overclocker. It is a little surprising then to find the BIOS options for overclocking much more limited than those found on the ATI RD580 Reference board.
The strangest option of all is the inability to set specific HyperTransport speeds or multipliers. There are only two choices here. "Normal" works fine in most situations, including moderate overclocking. "For Overclocking" is the choice for extreme overclocking. As you will see, despite the lack of more refined HT options, the K9A is still a great overclocker.
Another limitation is the range of memory voltages available on the MSI. Where the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe provides a range to 2.5V with very fine adjustments, the MSI only extends to 2.3V in big jumps. With new high-performance DDR2 memory now supporting up to 2.5V under warranty, and most of the best memory needing 2.2 to 2.4V for best performance, 2.3V is just not enough.
MSI does not add additional SATA ports to the four already provided by SB600. It also has, in general, a more mainstream feature set than the high-end ASUS M2N32-SLI or the Foxconn C51XEM2AA. You won't find an 8-phase or 12-phase design here. This suggests the K9A may actually sell for up to $50 to $70 less than the top-of-the-line ASUS when it ships later this week. If this lower price does prove a reality it will be easier to forgive a less robust set of adjustments on the K9A.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The first thing you will notice about the K9A is the passive cooling. Both the RD580 North Bridge and SB600 South Bridge are cooled with heat sinks. Since the ATI chipset runs very cool there is not even the need for elaborate heat pipes or larger heatsinks like ASUS uses on the nForce 590SLI based ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe. Power transistors are also cooled with large passive heatsinks. Despite the fact that no active cooling is used, the chipset ran cool in our testing - even when pushed to overclocks above 300.
Layout of the slots still allows, in the worst case of two double width video cards, room for both a PCIe X1 device and a PCI device. With three slot spacing between X16 slots, there is plenty of room for exotic GPU cooling. Dual-Channel DDR2 mounts in different-colored slots with two sticks - one DIMM each in Orange and Green DIMM slots. This "spaced dimm" arrangement is best for keeping the memory cool, though we prefer the logic of both dimms in a dual channel occupying the same color dimm slots.
The 24-pin ATX connector is at the upper right edge of the board, which is the preferred location. The 4-pin 12V connector, however, is between the AM2 Socket and the rear I/O panel near the center of the board. This is not the best location for cabling, but it is one used by many boards. A board-edge location is always better to keep cables out of the way. Probably the worst location of all the cables is the 4-pin Molex next to the upper X16 PCIe slot. You only need to connect this when using CrossFire, but it is an awkward location.
SATA ports are often an issue on recent boards, but MSI has given careful thought to their SATA connectors. The location at the extreme right edge of the board at the bottom of a normally short PCIe slot seems ideal. SATA ports can be a real hassle when they are at the back of a video slot, since many top-line video cards are very long and get in the way of SATA ports too near an X16 slot.
SB600 only supports one floppy connector and one IDE connector. Both ports are well-located at the upper-right edge. MSI does not provide a secondary JMicron chip with an additional IDE like many competing boards. The additional six USB headers and Firewire header are all easily accessible connections in most cases with their lower right edge location.
Rear I/O connectors include PS2 mouse and keyboard ports, parallel and serial, 5 programmable mini-jacks for high-definition audio, 2 Gigabit Ethernet connectors, one IEEE1394a Firewire port, and both optical and coaxial S/PDIF out.
Overall the K9A Platinum is not loaded with extra bells and whistles like many top-end boards, but it does support all of the important options most enthusiasts demand. The SATA ports are now 3Gb/s SATA 2 thanks to SB600.
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mike6099 - Thursday, September 21, 2006 - link
The review does not list the ASUS M2N32-SLI as having raid 5. however, at newegg it lists that it does. does the ASUS M2N32-SLI indeed have raid 5 capability?dougcook - Friday, September 8, 2006 - link
Be careful with the MSI K9A. If you get one, you'll probably want to get a better chipset cooler for it.I bought an MSI K9A board (after reading this review). The 570 chipset seemed about right for me. Everything seemed ok (some things seemed a bit cheap, but nothing really unusual). There were reports about it being incompatible with some memory, so I was careful there and got the good stuff. I got it all installed and it looked like it was running fine...
For one day (until I actually tried to use it).
The first real thing I did was burn a few CDs. In the middle of the 3rd CD, the Northbridge overheated and the machine turned itself off. This happened 2 more times, and then the machine failed to boot at all (even after giving it time to cool off). I wasn't overclocking, and the box had decent ventilation. The CPU's temperature was fine, the GPU's temperature was fine, the case temperature was fine, but the chipset temperature was through the roof. I had to return the motherboard.
This may not happen for everybody, but looking on NewEgg, it seems that this has happened to many other people. The MSI northbridge does not have an adequate heatsink and is likely to burn up. Save the time and get something better. I got the equivalent ABit 570 SLI motherboard, and I've been very happy so far. I hear good things about the ASUS 570 as well.
Stele - Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - link
Great article! If only there were more Xpress 3200 boards on the market now... perhaps Anandtech would do a further roundup when that is the case?Good to see that most motherboard manufacturers are keeping that 24-pin ATX connector well at the edge. So far the only outstanding exception to this practice seems to be EpoX...
As for the 4-pin 12V connector, well, it may not be the best place to be for airflow and cable routing reasons, but that location is actually part of the ATX form factor specifications, which clearly states that the 12V connector should be "next to Voltage Regulator" (ATX Specification v2.2, pg 8). Motherboard designers likely just followed that to make life easier. Specifications aside, it also makes much engineering sense as it keeps traces short - crucial to maintain the quality of power supplied to something as important as the CPU VRM. Besides, airflow considerations are less of an issue with respect to four strands of wire.
IMHO perhaps the one improvement the designers could do while keeping with the spirit of the specifications would be to put the connector on the other side of the VRM, nearer the motherboard edge, though still at the I/O side of the motherboard instead of at the edges nearer the 24-pin ATX connector.
lopri - Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - link
Boy, do I love this article! Thanks to Wesley for this great review. Usually in previous AT motherboard reviews, many difficulties/bugs that end-users experience were often overlooked. (Warm-boot, Cold-boot, Vdroop(?), etc.) I sort of understood it as a result of working with motherboard manufacturers (It's been mentioned that they get BIOS updates on a daily basis), but I used to think AT's motherboard reviews were somewhat different from end-users' experience of retail products.This review feels much realer and it sounded almost like what I went through with a couple of the boards that I bought after reading AT reviews. I'm very glad and grateful, and hope AT keeps this critical viewpoints for future reviews, especially for motherboards.
lop
Le Québécois - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
When you are talking about the SB600 featuresShouldn't it be: Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon FX, Sempron... To my knowledge Amd have Athlon 64 X2 ;) and even if the FX-60 (939) and the FX-62(AM2) have 2 core AMD still call them simply by FX and not FX X2.
JarredWalton - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
Edited. Basically, SB600+RD580 supports all current 939/AM2 AMD CPUs. Not sure about SB460, as Wes specifically didn't list dual core and Opteron parts there. I would guess it does, but I will leave that edit to him just to be safe.Furen - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
=)He just meant that FX X2 doesn't exist. There are A64s X2s and A64 FXes but even the dual-core parts are plain FXes.
mendocinosummit - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
So, awards were handed out despite the fact that ASUS and other top mobo manus don't have ATI boards yet? Am I to assume that this is the end of the mobo lineup? I would really like to see at least two more boards featuring a ATI chipset; especially since the ECS board will basically be a flop at launch.Gary Key - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
We also have a few mATX AM2 boards along with a couple of value solutions that we will be reviewing shortly. There is still the upcoming DFI 590SLI AM2 board to review also. :)yyrkoon - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
Will you guys be testing any of the ABIT boards ? For me personaly, so far, my choice is the ABIT AN9 32x (non fata1ity). I like this board because it offers the SIL 3132 controller, and has an eSATA socket in the I/O section. This is, I'm hoping to use this board with a SATA port multiplier, for some external RAID 5 goodness :)