Installation, Setup and BIOS

Installing the P6N Diamond was fairly easy. No problems here. However, like the previous MSI P6N Platinum motherboard, I found it difficult to install the 8-pin power connector for the motherboard. It's located near the processor socket, right next to the heat-pipes. You need to have extra nimble hands to guide the cable through. See the photos below.

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After installing our large heatsink and fan, there wasn't a lot of room around the processor socket or the DIMMs slots. Extra ventilation will probably be required. 

Click to enlarge

The rear ATX panel includes the usual connections for PS/2 mouse and keyboard. You'll also find SPDIF out, 1 eSATA connector, 1 firewire, dual gigabit enthernet ports, 4 USB ports and audio connectors.

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The BIOS was easy to use. Here, you can adjust various options including CPU frequencies, FSB, and of course voltages for memory, chipset and processor itself. Memory timings can also be adjusted.

The BIOS also offers the D.O.T. overclocking feature ... but I find it not aggressive enough, so we decided  to adjust the settings manually. Or if you prefer, you can set your BIOS settings to auto for maximum compatibility.