iXBT Labs - Computer Hardware in Detail

Platform

Video

Multimedia

Mobile

Other

Latest News


 « Previous Day News Archive  

The secret of MSI K8N Diamond

And again we took a look at another NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI based motherboard. But such cool feature as SLI is now pushed aside, because K8N Diamond from Micro-Star International might shatter some desktop audio market stereotypes.

Our colleagues from t-break published these interesting photos of this board. At that the photographer was impressed not by a couple of PCI Express x16, but a large chip in the bottom left corner:


Is it really "CREATIVE"? Let´s take a closer look:


Yes, it is. The chip is marked CREATIVE CA0106-DAT. It´s the same DSP chip as those used in Creative Audigy LS and Live! 24bit soundcards. To the left of CA0106-DAT you can see Wolfson WM8775 ADC, further to the left there´s Cirrus Logic sign — a DAC, most likely. Perhaps, MSI didn´t try to invent a wheel again, but kept to the reference design of Audigy LS/Live! 24bit. Still, higher-quality electrolytic capacitor might improve the sound path a bit.

We asked ourselves if it´s not another Photoshop joke. After visiting the official website of MSI we found photos and specs of K8N Diamond.


On the same place onboard you can see a large chip with a big sticker on it. Looking into the specs we found what we needed:


Well, there´s a strange trend outlining: Creative starts shipping its DSP chips to third parties (something unheard of before). In particular, to motherboard makers that add them to the latest NVIDIA solutions. And Californian company seems to cease its SoundStorm initiative by not implementing additional hardware audio features and thus making motherboard manufacturers use chips from Creative. Nevertheless, there´s a lot of rumours in the Web circulating around improved discrete SoundStorm 2 that might become a base for standalone soundcards. It´s hard to tell if these will compete with Creative´s solutions, but considering the latest trend (Creative searching for new income sources) and NVIDIA´s huge potential...

 « Previous Day News Archive  

Write a comment below. No registration needed!




blog comments powered by Disqus

  Most Popular Reviews More    RSS  

AMD Phenom II X4 955, Phenom II X4 960T, Phenom II X6 1075T, and Intel Pentium G2120, Core i3-3220, Core i5-3330 Processors

Comparing old, cheap solutions from AMD with new, budget offerings from Intel.
February 1, 2013 · Processor Roundups

Inno3D GeForce GTX 670 iChill, Inno3D GeForce GTX 660 Ti Graphics Cards

A couple of mid-range adapters with original cooling systems.
January 30, 2013 · Video cards: NVIDIA GPUs

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1

An external X-Fi solution in tests.
September 9, 2008 · Sound Cards

AMD FX-8350 Processor

The first worthwhile Piledriver CPU.
September 11, 2012 · Processors: AMD

Consumed Power, Energy Consumption: Ivy Bridge vs. Sandy Bridge

Trying out the new method.
September 18, 2012 · Processors: Intel
  Latest Reviews More    RSS  

i3DSpeed, September 2013

Retested all graphics cards with the new drivers.
Oct 18, 2013 · 3Digests

i3DSpeed, August 2013

Added new benchmarks: BioShock Infinite and Metro: Last Light.
Sep 06, 2013 · 3Digests

i3DSpeed, July 2013

Added the test results of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 and AMD Radeon HD 7730.
Aug 05, 2013 · 3Digests

Gainward GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB Golden Sample Graphics Card

An excellent hybrid of GeForce GTX 650 Ti and GeForce GTX 660.
Jun 24, 2013 · Video cards: NVIDIA GPUs

i3DSpeed, May 2013

Added the test results of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770/780.
Jun 03, 2013 · 3Digests
  Latest News More    RSS  

Platform  ·  Video  ·  Multimedia  ·  Mobile  ·  Other  ||  About us & Privacy policy  ·  Twitter  ·  Facebook


Copyright © Byrds Research & Publishing, Ltd., 1997–2011. All rights reserved.