MSI K8N Diamond

[Taz]

Scan are advertising the following board: MSI K8N Diamond nForce4 SLi S939 Dual DDR2 400 PCI-E Creative 7.1C DolbyEX Audio Wless Lan+Bluetooth.

Link: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=170232

I was wondering whether this board actually comes with the WiFi-Bluetooth card and antenna (as per the product title). I've read on several other boards that it doesn't and the MSI UK site also says that the WiFi-Bluetooth is only for certain countries.

This board is selling at £145.41. If the WiFi-Bluetooth is not included then this board is in fact identical to the MSI K8N SLi Platinum, which is selling for £124.14.

Could one of the Scan people confirm this one way or another as i've asked the same question on the Scan site but got no reply. I really hope the WiFi is included otherwise people will be wasting £20 for no reason! From all the apparent issues with the Asus A8N-SLi, this board seems to be a reasonable alternative and Scan seem to have a monopoly on stock levels for this board at the moment as I cannot find it in stock anywhere else.

[Carlh]

Taz,

I shall check this tomorrow when I am in the office as soon as I know I shall update

[Carlh]

Ok,

I have checked the board and the current stock we have doesnt have the PCI wireless card bundle included.

We have spoke with MSI today and they are checking at there end and shall get back to us as soon as they have an update for us.

As soon as i hear I shall let you all know

[Taz]

Charlh, thanks for confirming what I thought. I read on various other forums that MSI no longer ship the WiFi/Bluetooth bundle with this board. This makes the Diamond board identical to the Platinum board. Hence, I think that Scan (and other retailers who will be in exactly the same position) sell both boards at the same price as they are identical boards (unless someone wishes to correct me of course!).

I'm not blaming Scan as I think all retailers have been stung by MSI on this one. However, a customer buying this board is going to be mightily peeved when he finds out that there are bits missing!

[tfboy]

I'm not blaming Scan as I think all retailers have been stung by MSI on this one. However, a customer buying this board is going to be mightily peeved when he finds out that there are bits missing!

Tez, I totally agree. I have to say MSI's website isn't exactly intuitive in telling the difference between the two boards. There's only a section for the wifi card bit on the diamon version to differentiate between them!

Carl, if the Platinum and Diamond only differ by the optional wifi card, is the rest of the packaging identical? I've looked at the MSI's website for the manuals for each model and they state an identical motherboard model name (MS-7100 (v1.0) ATX Mainboard).

If the contents of the packaging is the same, i.e. same supply of cables, CDs, etc, then is the box labelled differently? I only ask because Scan's website mantions out of stock of the diamond but in stock of the platinum which in effect are the same product.

[Carlh]

I have checked both the packaging etc.

With the Diamond model you get a better bundle of cables, better onboard creative audio and you also get a Diamond membership card which apparently entitles you to the latest bios updates and "performance downloads"

Obviously I havent seen what these downloads are as I havent purchased this board, this is the information I have been passed from suppliers.

Regards,

[tfboy]

I have checked both the packaging etc.

With the Diamond model you get a better bundle of cables, better onboard creative audio and you also get a Diamond membership card which apparently entitles you to the latest bios updates and "performance downloads"

Obviously I havent seen what these downloads are as I havent purchased this board, this is the information I have been passed from suppliers.

Regards,

Sorry for digging this up again but I thought the physical motherboard was identical between the two versions and only the wireless card / cable bundle changed. Are you sure the sound is different? I thought both provided the same Sound blaster chip.

[tfboy]

Bump!

Also, the plot thickens! Another difference between the Platinum and Diamond seems to be the Silicon Image SATA2 RAID controller which is on the latter but not the former. It is confusing because both models have the same number (MS-7100), but there's another code which appears in the manual - G52-M7100XA for the Diamond version and G52-M7100XB for the Platinum.

So apart from the sound card question, if the diamond does not come with the dual net card, the only other extra you're getting is the SI Raid controller