Thoughts, HEXUS.awards & HEXUS.right2reply
The MSI K9N SLI Platinum took our usual barrage of tests without any trouble, so it shouldn't prove too much trouble for anyone familiar with PC installations to get this board up and running. There are still a few software issues, however, such as NTune not fully functioning, and the latest 90-series ForceWare drivers causing issues in SLI, but time is a great healer of such issues, providing NVIDIA and MSI play the game.
We feel that a bit more thought (and money) could be spent on the chipset and VRM cooling for this board. It doesn't need to cost a fortune or make a complete racket, but we'd be happier if the heatsinks weren't quite as hot to the touch.
Performance at the stock speeds used in our tests show that this board is just as happy grinding away at the latest games with high-end hardware sat in it, despite the 'one-down-from-the-top' nForce 570 SLI chipset. It came out slowest in most tests, but by a margin hardly worth mentioning.
It's when you look at the board from the point of view of an enthusiast that it starts to lose some of its appeal. Some tweaking can be done in the BIOS, but it's not enough to lure in the hard overclocker.
Price-wise, at the time of writing this board sits just below £95 including VAT, at a popular UK retailer. That puts it somewhere in the middle of the nForce 570 SLI offerings, and, of course, below the nForce 590 SLI boards. The bundle's adequate, but there's nothing in there to push the cost up much. It's a fitting price, then.
The bottom line? MSI's K9N SLI Platinum and the nForce 570 SLI live up to their 'performance gaming' moniker. If you like your hardware shiny and new (that's AM2), but you're not up for much extreme tweaking and overclocking, then MSI's K9N SLI Platinum will have all the features you need to be a happy little game-player.
HEXUS Awards
In light of the MSI K9N SLI Platinum's ability to perform almost identically with its nForce 570 SLI, compared with nForce 590 SLI solutions, we have decided to give it the HEXUS.award for gaming speed.
