the AMD K8 infrastructure leads the performance of CPU about 2 years, and we used to define Single/ Dual Channel memory by Socket 939/754.

In the 2nd half of year 2006, AMD introduces the new pin definition, which is called Socket AM2, has the 2 major differences;

The Socket AM2 will all support Dual Channel DDR2; and from the low-end Sempron to high-end FX. In this time, AMD achieve a united goal in infrastructure.





Let’s take a look of the leading role this time- the MSI K9N SLI Platinum, it’s somewhat different from the engineer sample released on internet before.








the left-lower part of board.
The space between 2 PCI Express slots is very sufficient.
With 3 PCI v2.3 slots
Dual Gb LAN, 7.1 ch. HD Audio, and IEEE 1394 chip.











the right-lower part of board.
6 SATA2 ports, support RAID 0, 1, 0+1
6 USB 2.0 ports
and Clear CMOS button










the right-upper part of board.
4 DDR2 slots
IDE port and 24-pin power socket













the part around CPU
there is heat sink on the MOSFET
the fastener base is different, but still can use 939/754 coolers, have to test to know the real usage situation.











the back I/O
it has 4 USB 2.0 ports, dual LAN ports and 7.1ch. audio jack.











it’s nForce 570 SLI chipset base, still the single chip












the thermal solution of system chip
it use the copper bottom and wide range heat sink to reach the quiet requirement.











Testing platform
CPU:AMD AM2 Althon64 X2 4800+
MB: MSI K9N SLI Platinum
DRAM: Wind DDRII 667 512MBX2
VGA: ELSA 6600GT
HD: Seagate 7200.7 80GB
POWER: ONYX 520W



CPU-Z at default 200MHz system bus and DDR2-800




the BIOS introduction of MSI K9N SLI Platinum is coming soon.
The performance benchmark is under testing for its limit, and cannot release the result right now.
The detail of performance test will come after.
Whatever, AM2 stands for the forward step of AMD, and we’ll look forward it available to the market.