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MSI Big Bang-XPower LGA1366 Motherboard Review

When Intel released the six-seeded Core i7-980 Extreme unleashed a while back, took a few motherboard manufacturers to travel the opportunity to refresh some of their X58-based motherboards and added in the latest technologies such as SATA and USB 3.0 6Gbps in the process.

MSI has this and much more, and started the Big Bang XPower powerful MSI, a board with a sheet that holds the settlement its name there.

MSI Big Bang-XPower LGA1366 Motherboard Review

The feature list for the Big Bang XPower makes for impressive reading, high-end components in the power delivery (MSI call something “Military Class”) system, six DIMM slots for up to 24GB of triple channel DDR3 memory, dual Gigabit Ethernet, six PCI-E slots (two x16 and two x8 and two x4 speed), advanced quantum wave audio and overclocking features than you can wave a stick at, including MSI OC Dashboard, an external device for monitoring and fine tuning settings on the Big Bang XPower.

Although MSI Big Bang XPower comes with six PCI-E slots, only the first and fourth slots are full x16 speed run, if you have two cards in a CrossFire or SLI setup.

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If you really want to impress your friends, you can all six but then the rates drop x8/x4/x4/x8/x4/x4 fill. To power all these cards, there is a six-pin power connector sits just above the first slot PCI-E.

A view of the Big Bang XPower and you can see MSI medium-sized enterprises with the Board – the build quality is really first class. The X58 Northbridge and the great power circuit of passive heat sinks of thicker than normal 8mm heatpipes (MSI claims that to increase the thermal efficiency of thicker pipes and thus aid cooling) cooled connected.

MSI Big Bang-XPower LGA1366 Motherboard Review

MSI Big Bang XPower is very well equipped with plenty of room around the CPU socket, which is mounted for some rather large third party cooler can be set – you might need it when the fulness of the MSI overclocking options have the board overcome.

The six presets – remember the X58 a triple-channel memory chipset support – only locks on the other side of the slot, so they do not interfere with the massively-cooled graphics card, the XPower Big Bang cries out for.

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If you have any doubt that the Big Bang XPower is a power user board, there are two eight-pin 12V connector, which are handy placed near the board’s Edge. There is also an edge mounted block adjacent to the SATA ports that will use a voltage meter to check the real-time voltage to various components such as CPU, memory and chipset enables both bridges.

The base of the board contains a small box that OC Genie (automatic overclocking) button and four touch-sensitive surfaces, holds power, reset and two OC Direct controls.

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Verdict

Yes, it’s pretty expensive, although it, to its credit, has tried MSI, keep the price low, but it is basically a niche product for enthusiasts. It could even be the basis for a decent job because you do get a lot of motherboard for your money.

Asus Rampage III Extreme Intel X58 Review

The Republic of Gamers motherboard from Asus always have the power of kings was their product catalog, and as such has always had a pretty high price premium to beat them. They are not only great performance products, they also come with all the bells and whistly things you wish could, in a board. In short, the ROG mobos are the money’s-no-object parts that you throw in your computer if you never ask how much they cost. The vast X58-based Rampage Extreme III (R3E), then definitely fits, but it’s not a board that you can just throw in a PC to instantly make it faster.

Asus Rampage III Extreme Intel X58 Review

It is designed to be the overclockers’ motherboard of choice. We do not just talk the kind of person who wants a few extra FPS in your favorite shooter, oh no. This board is for people with a preference for liquid nitrogen and names as sno.lcn and Sf3d designed.

The R3E has a specific mode stops LN2 overclocking jumper zero temperatures when the cold-boot the CPU bug contribution at such low temps helps. In general, you should warm to the CPU before implementation, but the LN2-mode allows the heavy liquid nitrogen Overclocker continue.

There are also specific points for the measurement of voltage, which is done in separate bits of the system, from the CPU to PCIe and beyond.

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It is completely new capabilities for remote overclocking also have this again ROG Connect system of connection to a separate laptop and control and monitoring of the rig’s specifics from there.

There is now also a Bluetooth connection, to boot, monitor reset, and overclock from a compatible mobile phone can be. Granted, you either have a Windows Mobile 6.1/6.5 2.0 or Android device, but it is an interesting evolution from the BIOS screen.

Asus Rampage III Extreme Intel X58 Review

But this is an incredibly niche market because there are very few of us who really need this kind of extreme overclocking capabilities. This is not a mass market board, which is a board brought in high-end, prefabricated, pre-overclocked systems, worth thousands. This is a board to win Overclocking events, the numbers higher than for other producers to to associate humans with the fastest Asus motherboards, to make on the planet and hope that the trickle-down effect keeps people loyal.

Well, if you is our experience of this board then it might only be representative. There is nothing special to begin stock speeds, but to play and the board moves away from the competition.

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We paired with a correspondingly expensive chip, the Core i7 980X Six-core monster, and we were a 1GHz overclock plus without a sweat. The board has Intel Extreme we tested the chip with the last issue hardly get to 3.9GHz without tipping over when the R3E hit 4.4GHz in no time.

If the X58 overclockers’ board, the Rampage Extreme III want is where it’s at. But you have to remortgage the house and sell the children, if you want the kind of setup to do it justice …

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ASUS P6X58D Premium Motherboard Review

Asus has unusually slow on providing affordable next-generation X58 motherboard, the only product, with its center-to-USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps offer the flagship P6X58D Premium. Although he is a excellent board with almost all high-end feature that you can imagine, puts its 240 price tag is beyond affordability for most users. This allows other manufacturers were able to nibble away at the market leadership of the P6T Series since the X58 chipset launch has enjoyed.

Fortunately, Asus has addressed this situation with today’s launch of the E-P6X58D. Designed to offer the price segment currently filled by the P6T to occupy this new board all the features of its predecessor with increased voltage regulation circuit, a new color and the all-important next-generation storage interfaces.

ASUS P6X58D Premium Motherboard Review

Layout and Bundle

Comparing the P6X58D-E Premium and P6X58D side by side it like a game of “Spot the difference”. All this makes that the latter such a large premium board is present and correct, with the only major omission as a second Gigabit LAN controller. The on-board reset button has also been omitted, but the two PCBs are otherwise seemingly identical. If one considers only a small proportion of users are likely to use a second controller, this is a wise omission, bringing the board up to a more affordable 160 – 180 price range depending on the exchange rate. A small change has been made on the pipe configuration, but this is not something you can see what we have significant effect either overclockability or cooling capacity.

Inside the box you get the usual array of motherboard accessories. Two packs of lockable SATA cables are joined by the handy ASUS Q-Connector Pack and a manual, driver disk, I/O shield and a Triple-SLI bridge. This is not obvious, but generous Par for the course for an X58 board at that price.

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In relation to the allocation of P6X58D-E is excellent in general. The majority of the SATA ports are angled at 90 degrees to users of dual-graphics support while the other two are sitting at the bottom edge of the road. The memory ports are at a level where they will not interfere with the primary video card, as long as it positioned enough room around the CPU socket for even the largest 3rd-party cooler. Slot as Asus is clearly looking to the future than conventional PCI slots in the background appear to PCI Express. Three full-length slots are provided for the Triple Crossfire or SLI configurations, while a single 1x slot sits at the head of a board for a sound card. If you have a single slot graphics card you have access to two PCI slots have, but it is likely you have only one available. It is nice to see Asus has chosen to both IDE and Floppy support from this board Lop, which are both functions that are unnecessary in a 2010 PC.

Move the rear I/O panel and you’ll find plenty of connection options. It is by far not as we saw here a few motherboard manufacturers have recently been overcrowded, but the essentials have all been covered. Six USB ports are provided (two of which are USB 3.0), together with a Firewire port. Home theater enthusiasts are well provided with coaxial and optical audio connectivity and find a rear-mounted CMOS clear button, which saves you the trouble of recording your case if you overclock a little too far.

ASUS P6X58D Premium Motherboard Review

Performance

The performance of P6X58D-E test, we compared it against the P6T, the board of this new model was developed to replace eventually. We have also compared against the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R, which the Chamber provides the strongest competition.

The Board has the performance exactly in line with the results that we normally expect only from a first-class X58 product that fits both the Gigabyte and the P6T for speed. Where the E-P6X58D really stretches his legs in its overclocking capabilities. We are also happy to report no memory compatibility issues with the Board correctly set the SPD timings for our Crucial, Corsair and G. Skill parts and running with full stability. The Board also to our 24-hour torture test running Prime 95′s SmallFFT test and Orthos in blend mode at 100%, while looping 3DMark Vantage.

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BIOS and Overclocking

The P6X58D-E’s BIOS immediately be familiar to any who has experience with the P6T Series. The layout and tweaking options are essentially the same, and you receive the same number of tensions. If we were picky, we would be a more accurate control of the DRAM voltage than the 0.2 V steps provided, however, prefer our overclocking results will be to dispel any suspicion of mediocrity, as we in a position to a fully stable (24 hours Prime 95 and Linpack), the basic clock speed of 220MHz have been taken. This is sufficient to take good D0 Core i7 920 at 4.6GHz, are beyond the capabilities of the chip, unless you use a phase change unit. We were incredibly impressed by the robustness of the voltage control – overclock this board as a board will cost far more than it does. Our settings for the overclock were as follows;

  • AI overclockTuner: Manual
  • CPU Ratio Setting: 19
  • Intel Speedstep Tech: Enabled
  • Xtreme Phase Full Power Mode: Auto
  • DRAM Frequency: 1760MHz
  • UCLK Frequency: Auto
  • QPI Link Data Rate: Auto
  • CPU Voltage Control: Manual
  • CPU Voltage: 1.325V
  • CPU PLL Voltage: 1.9V
  • QPI/DRAM Core Voltage: 1.325V
  • IOH Voltage: Auto
  • IOH PCIE Voltage: Auto
  • ICH Voltage: Auto
  • PICE ICH Voltage: Auto
  • DRAM Bus Voltage: 1.66V

As you can see we can not have to mess around with many other stresses than those associated with the CPU and memory, giving the Board of Directors ‘Auto’ modes are very adept at the correct values, if you raise the base clock. This is extremely refreshing, as we fine-tune with each value on other boards, this kind of overclocking have become accustomed. If you are looking for a motherboard, to extract the maximum performance out of your Core i7, the P6X58D-E is a superlative choice. In view of the Board competitive price of this benefit is even more exceptional.

ASUS P6X58D Premium Motherboard Review

Other BIOS Features of interest

Also in the BIOS is the useful tools section. Here you can save back to 8 individually nameable profiles in the BIOS OC Profile menu and up to a Pen Drive. In the Tools menu, the EZ-Flash application that you update the BIOS from virtually any type of storage media – hard disk may be included. Finally, you will activate the system or disable the swish Express Gate Pre-boot Linux environment, where you can surf the Internet using the popular IM software and upload photos should be your primary operating system to develop questions.

Software

The usual bunch of Asus software is handy with the PC Probe monitoring software and applications, the BIOS contains a welcome return update. A special mention should be the new Asus TurboV application, the newcomers from the familiar Windows environment can overclock. Compared to other applications of this kind TurboV is smooth and easy to use and allows control of the main tensions and clock frequencies. What do you do can not set different memory timings and multipliers from this application so enthusiasts will still give the BIOS for the full range of tweaking options. Nevertheless, we found it practically for minor tweaks.

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Verdict

All in all, the Asus P6X58D-E is exactly what we were looking for in a replacement P6T. Its performance is excellent and the facilities offered are overclocking a game for boards cost much money. The P6X58D-E owes much of its heritage from the P6X58D Premium is a better board because of this. Users, which should for a fantastic and cheap next-generation X58 Motherboard review in any event this product out – it makes the most of flagship products from other manufacturers, but all of redundant.