MSI XPower X58 Retail-Grade Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

MSI's newest high-end LGA1366 motherboard comes at a time when there are new offerings by several motherboard makers boasting of support for USB 3.0, SATA 6 Gb/s, and support for the Core i7 "Gulftown" six-core processors out of the box. Another feature is having more than four PCI-Express x16 slots, which is becoming a trend. The lure here is being able to run four graphics cards in multi-GPU, with enough expansion room left for a fifth graphics card for processing physics, and that ATI and NVIDIA have multi-head display technologies in the making. First pictured in late January, the XPower X58 is MSI's socket LGA1366 platform addition to the Big Bang series of high-end products. The production version has a cooling system which uses heatsinks over the CPU VRM areas and X58 chipset, which are connected by a thick 8 mm heatpipe which MSI refers to as "SuperPipe". The ICH10R southbridge is cooled by an independent, slightly larger heatsink.

On offer are six PCI-Express x16 slots, a strong CPU VRM driven by a 16-phase PWM circuit which draws power from two 8-pin power connectors and uses DrMOS chips and High-C capacitors, a 3-phase memory power circuit, overclocker-friendly features such as consolidated voltage measure points, OC Genie, OC Dashboard module, a voltage-measure kit called V-kit, and Easy OC DIP switch. While the ICH10R gives out six SATA 3 Gb/s ports, an additional controller gives two 6 Gb/s ports (colour-coded white). Audio is care of a bundled PCI-Express x1 audio card called the MSI QuantumWave that includes THX TruStudio PC Suite, and support for Creative EAX 5.0 HD. Connectivity includes dual gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports next to a number of USB 2.0 ports, power-eSATA, FireWire, and a connector for the OC Dashboard module. The MSI XPower X58 should be released soon.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Thanks to Fitseries3 for the tip.

 

[Fitseries3]

Thanks to Fitseries3 for the tip.

oh.. no problem. thank you for posting it.

 

[theubersmurf]

Thought they might be the ones to release an X58 with a Lucid Logix chip.

 

[Lionheart]

I wish all mobo's were like this, I just bought a rampage extreme II about 3 weeks ago for overclocking which went well and for crossfire, but the layout of whole northbridge and PCI E slots is stupid, I mean I can do crossfire or SLI but not without sufficated the first card oh well I learnt my lesson.

 

[majestic12]

Ooh I want one! That motherboard looks really nice.

 

[Kitkat]

retail grade lol

 

[Maban]

Looks like it goes down to 8/4/4/8/4/4 if they are all occupied.

 

[DarthCyclonis]

Lucid chip is supposed to be on the "Big Bang Fusion". We will see.

 

[Hunt3r]

is an Evga P55 FTW only that the MSI

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

6 PCI-E and not a single PCI?

 

[Assassin48]

It says you can run 4 gpus but how would they be populated ?

if most of the gpus are dual slot

 

[FreedomEclipse]

It says you can run 4 gpus but how would they be populated ?

if most of the gpus are dual slot

Lets put it this way - After buying this mobo which no doubt not gonna be cheap - whose gonna be able to afford 4 high end GPUs to go with it?? secondly theres hardly any point in having that many GPUs as it also makes issues with drivers even worse & in general 4xGPUs dont really offer the performance you paid hundreds or thousands for just for those 4 cards.

4 or more single slot mid range cards such as 9600GT/GSO or 9800GT/GTS is do able if you were going for a folding rig - but it seems like such a waste to spend so much money on a board like this just for folding when it has so much to offer.

 

[eidairaman1]

now only if the Fastest Video Cards needed a single slot fan to run

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Thought they might be the ones to release an X58 with a Lucid Logix chip.

Nope, they(Lucid Logix) are a driver nightmare.

 

[Frizz]

All these years and still stuck with the small motherboard layouts? :/ ..... this board is definition of overkill.

I wonder when motherboards with longer layouts will come... to accommodate 3-4 dual slot GPU's while having room for at least 1 PCI/PCIx slot. These boards totally doesn't consider someone with a sound card and wireless connection.

 

[Zubasa]

All these years and still stuck with the small motherboard layouts? :/ ..... this board is definition of overkill.

I wonder when motherboards with longer layouts will come... to accommodate 3-4 dual slot GPU's while having room for at least 1 PCI/PCIx slot. These boards totally doesn't consider someone with a sound card and wireless connection.

Why?
You can put a pci-e sound card in a x16 slot and it will work.
Same goes with wlan cards.

 

[Frizz]

Why?
You can put a pci-e sound card in a x16 slot and it will work.
Same goes with wlan cards.

Wow for real? I thought it was a slot just meant for GPU's that is my bad, thank you my eyes are open now

 

[Disparia]

Nice clean board, decent colors. But I'm thinking of grabbing the Asus P7F7-E instead. Would allow triple double-slot + an open single-slot (RAID controller) and the audio is on-board (I'm not much of an audiophile).

6 PCI-E and not a single PCI?

I know! Awesome!!!

 

[WarEagleAU]

why six pcie x16 lanes for space? They could just maneuver the slots to make room for 4 gpus and really a 5th for physx is overkill/not needed. They could run tri xfire and tri sli with a 4th for phyx. Should still have one pci slot at least and 1 x1/x4 slot.

 

[pr0n Inspector]

All these years and still stuck with the small motherboard layouts? :/ ..... this board is definition of overkill.

I wonder when motherboards with longer layouts will come... to accommodate 3-4 dual slot GPU's while having room for at least 1 PCI/PCIx slot. These boards totally doesn't consider someone with a sound card and wireless connection.

Too few non-ATX cases.

 

[Thrackan]

What's this thing labeled "PWRCONN1"?

 

[theubersmurf]

Nope, they(Lucid Logix) are a driver nightmare.

I'm going to take it then that they haven't hammered out their driver issues. Do yo actually have a board with a Lucid Logix chip in it?

 

[Maban]

It says you can run 4 gpus but how would they be populated ?

if most of the gpus are dual slot

8/0/8/8/8/0

http://www.techpowerup.com/img/10-03-25/139c.jpg

What's this thing labeled "PWRCONN1"?

It's to measure voltages with a multimeter.

 

[MikeX]

@Thrackan
PWRCONN1 = power connector one
Donno what goes with that, maybe connector for the OC Dashboard module?