windwithme's Test Setup
CPU	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
Mainboard	MSI K9A Platinum
Memory	2*512MB PATRIOT XBL DDRII 1000
Video	ELSA 6600GT
Other	Seagate 7200.7 80 GB AcBel 550W PSU

Surprisingly I could set the Command Rate to 1T using DDR2 800, normally when setting higher memory speed the AMD CPU limits CMD rate to 2T.



With this particular sample from MSI 315Mhz HTT was reached, this exceeds my overclocking results with previous nVidia nForce5 chipsets which maxed out at 306~312Mhz.



Overclocking the system to the limit, with the CPU at 3ghz and memory running at DDR2 1000 speed with CL4 4-4-4-8 2T timings the memory bandwidth in Sisoft Sandra 2007 is close to 10.000Mb/s.



On this ATI chipset I could push the memory to 1080Mhz at CL4 4-4-8 2T timings!



I’ve spend quite some time with this new platform from ATI/AMD and found it be quite a thrilling experience, with good overall performance and easiness of overclocking.

PRO
Sufficient and overclocking friendly BIOS features
Adequate DDR2 timing options available
Low heat output of north/southbridge chip allows for passive (silent) cooling.
MSI uses high quality Japanese capacitors for power.
Crossfire support through dual 16x PCIe ports
Can use 1T CMD rate at high memory speeds up to DDR2 800

CON
Over 300Mhz HTT occasionally boot issues after system reset. (Cold reboot resolves this issue)
Compared to nForce5 not many storage device controllers (4x SATA vs 8x SATA)
Onboard sound could be improved

It was almost unavoidable that AMD was going to adopt DDR2, with higher speeds at lower voltage it’s definitely a better choice for socket AM2, and the price difference is only minimal compared to S939. The MSI K9A Platinum will provide the enthusiast with an excellent Crossfire enabled platform which offers good performance and overall build quality.

Question/Comments: forum thread