"With the positive results I achieved with on the last 780i board I tested still fresh in my mind, I was looking forward to pushing the MSI P7N Diamond to the absolute limit. Unfortunately, the limit came rather quickly. I tried using the official BIOS and two of the available beta releases, and found that my overclocking efforts were severely hampered by an inability to lower the multiplier on my Q6600 processor. In fact, this same CPU has achieved rock-solid stability with its FSB set at 491MHz - but on the MSI P7N Diamond, stability stopped at 391MHz. The 780i boards are tough nuts to crack, but this one was just too tough, and did not produce much fruit for my labor. After spending a week trying to gain some semblance of stability, I found it at 391 x 9. Voltages up and down the spectrum were adjusted, and I even tried leaving them set to Auto just for kicks. Did the board overclock? Sure it did, but not to the extent I am used to seeing. It may be that a more mature BIOS is the key to unlocking all of the potential of the P7N Diamond."
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Review: OCC
May 19, 2008, 03:10 PM
