Onboard Devices
| Chipset | nForce 780a SLI |
| PCIe 2.0 Bridge | nForce 200 |
| Voltage Regulator | Six Phases |
| BIOS | VP.0B4 (04/072008) |
| 200 MHz HT Clock | 200.0MHz (+0.0%) |
| Clock Generator | ICS 9DB403DGLF |
| Connectors and Interfaces | Row 6 - Cell 1 |
| Onboard | 3x PCIe x16 (Modes: x16/x16/ or x16/x8/x8) |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | 1x PCIe x1 |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | 2x PCI |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | 3x USB 2.0 (2 ports per connector) |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire |
| Row 12 - Cell 0 | 1x Serial Port header |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | 1x Floppy |
| Row 14 - Cell 0 | 2x Ultra ATA (2 drives each) |
| Row 15 - Cell 0 | 6x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s |
| Row 16 - Cell 0 | 1x Fan 4 pins (CPU) |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | 4x Fan 3 pins (System/Power) |
| Row 18 - Cell 0 | 1x Power Button |
| Row 19 - Cell 0 | 1x Reset Button |
| Row 20 - Cell 0 | 1x CLR_CMOS Button |
| IO panel | 2x PS2 (keyboard + mouse) |
| Row 22 - Cell 0 | 2x RJ-45 Network |
| Row 23 - Cell 0 | 4x USB 2.0 |
| Row 24 - Cell 0 | 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire |
| Row 25 - Cell 0 | 2x Extrernal SATA (eSATA) 3.0Gb/s |
| Row 26 - Cell 0 | 1x DVI Video |
| Mass Storage Controllers | Row 27 - Cell 1 |
| nForce 780a SLI | 6x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 capable) |
| Row 29 - Cell 0 | 1x Ultra ATA 133 (2-drives) |
| JMicron JMB363 PCI-E | 1x Ultra ATA-100 (2-drives) |
| Row 31 - Cell 0 | 2x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0,1, JBOD) |
| Network | Row 32 - Cell 1 |
| Realtek RTL8111C PHY | 1x Gigabit LAN Connection |
| Realtek RTL8211BL PCI-E | 1x Gigabit LAN Connection |
| FireWire | Row 35 - Cell 1 |
| VIA VT6308P | 2x IEEE-1394a (400 Mbit/s) |
The components list looks a little shorter than the typical high-end motherboard, but that’s only because MSI forwent any onboard audio solution to instead provide a discrete sound card.
MSI added another heat pipe sink to the space normally consumed by analog audio ports. Two eSATA ports bring the board into the modern era, while to PS/2 ports help those who prefer legacy peripherals.
Missing are any analog video outputs for the onboard graphics controller, as DVI to VGA adapters require a DVI-I connector (and associated hardware) rather than the provided DVI-D. MSI does include an HDMI adapter, and the chipset provides HDMI audio support.
Located along the motherboard’s lower rear edge, the JMicron JMB363 is responsible for the additional Ultra ATA connector, along with eSATA connection on the port panel. Its location provides an excuse for that of the extra Ultra ATA connector, since this particular interface is easily affected by electromagnetic interference when longer trace lengths are used.
Two IEEE1394 FireWire ports are connected through a VIA VT6308P controller. Because this ancient interface is far slower than internal busses, the controller’s use of one of the chipset’s five PCI interfaces isn’t a problem.
NVidia’s latest chipsets have an onboard networking controller, so MSI addresses one of its two Gigabit Ethernet ports with a simple PHY. Realtek’s RTL8111C does the job.
The second network port is controlled by Realtek’s RTL8211BL, which uses PCI-Express to provide full bi-directional bandwidth.
High-end users typically prefer a discrete audio solution rather than integrated codec, so MSI includes a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio card with all of its recent Diamond series motherboards. MSI updated this version with an aluminum RFI shield.
