MSI Big Bang XPower 2 Intel X79 Motherboard Pictured
MSI sent over more pictures of their upcoming Intel X79 Express chipset powered motherboard series that is worth taking a look at.
From left to right you have the X79A-GD65 8D, X79A-GD65, X79A-GD45 and then the micro-ATX X79MA-GD45. These are your standard series boards and you can see several more pictures of each of these four boards in our forums by clicking the link at the very bottom of this post. The MSI motherboard that we want to talk a little more about is the MSI Big Bang XPower 2.
The board looks solid, but why did MSI copy the bullet themed heatsink like they use on the GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER motherboard series? I really think these companies can come up with new and innovative ideas without having to copy each other!
The MSI X79MA-GD45 (MS-7738 V1.1), this board offers all the connectivity possible on a board with such a tight footprint. The LGA2011 socket is powered by a 9-phase VRM. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, two on either sides of the socket, powered by 2-phase VRM. Expansion slots include two each of PCI-Express 3.0 x16 and PCI-Express 2.0 x1. 2-way SLI and CrossFire are supported. SATA connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s (white), four SATA 3 Gb/s (black). There are no eSATA ports, but four USB 3.0, two on the rear panel, two by internal header, driven by Renesas-made controllers. The rest of the connectivity is fairly standard: 8+2 channel HD audio driven by Realtek ALC892 CODEC with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs, single gigabit Ethernet driven by Realtek 8111E, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. One of the front-panel USB 2.0 headers is designed for charging portable devices even with the system shut down (yet plugged in). The board will be driven by UEFI firmware, we’re getting to see some nifty features for overclockers such as voltage measurement points across a wide range of voltage domains.
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