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There is no doubting that the MSI Big Bang XPower is one of the most impressive motherboards on today's market. They have accepted no compromises and from the ground up they have designed the product to cater to the most demanding of enthusiast user.
The bundle supplied is extremely thorough, with a plethora of manuals and extras to cater for every user skill level, we particularly liked the overclocking guide. Many companies allow for bios overclocking but include so many warnings with their literature that many inexperienced users will be immediately unsure if it is worth the risk …. not MSI, they really do want to promote the features and are trying to educate people by explaining how it all works.
The OC Genie button is a great touch and many people will be happy with the automated end result as it pushes the system hard, but not right to the limit.
The build quality is as high as we have seen with attention to detail in all areas, from the inclusion of Hic Capacitors, onboard LED readouts and heavy duty passive cooling. If you are an enthusiast with a love for multiple monitors then the support for up to 6 graphics cards is going to be surely appealing. When compared with the class leading eVGA X58 board it performed to a slightly higher level while consuming less power, a intoxicating combination.
All this luxury and power comes at a cost of £270 inc vat in the UK, but we actually feel this is good value for money as there are no weaknesses with the product whatsoever.
In closing, the MSI Big Bang XPower is probably the finest motherboard we have tested to date and is verifying our theory that 2010 is the year of MSI. If you have deep pockets then make sure to pair this board up with the incredible R5870 Lightning.
KitGuru says: A quality product with unparallelled overclocking capabilities and support for every featureset on the market. Overclocking is also a cinch.
Discuss in our forum over here
bugger me with a bargepole, thats bloody impressive.
MSi really are pulling out all the stops recently to get seen in high end circles. I think its working !
Looks like a mega product again from MSI. price is high but I expected that after reading the review.
Love the design, they look to have covered everything from design to connectivity. the OC genie is a great idea and I was surprised to hear it worked well, thats a bit of a shocker.
Very good review Zardon, thank you.
That bundle is crazy good, so much in it, no wonder it costs so much. Seems a good price I think its cheaper than the asus rampage board just released.
Seems to be low stock levels of this everywhere, must be popular or a low build rate for MSI.
hard to get in some parts of the world, so ive heard, yah.
They need to realise a board like this for the 1156 platform also. that platform has such crappy boards throughout the ranges.
Good review and I was interested to see the power drain was lower than competiting products. thats always a good sign.
MSI are underrated in the motherboard market, but I love to see them creating these products to go head to head with ASUS and the top level players on the market right now. This looks to be better than the Ramage from what ive seen on kitguru and other review sites.
Its a really good looking board, I hate all the ordinary capacitors we normally see around the CPU socket, but those HIc capacitors are a huge selling point, for me anyway.
I think AMD motherboards are better equipped, but this one really helps Intel 1366 buyers. so much on it and a great variety of high quality components onboard.
I currently own a gigabyte board which i love, but I want to move to 1366, I think this would be top of my list, its well priced considering the quality throughout.
Its impresive, but I feel ASUS still have the quality edge. the rampage board is the cream of the crop.
@ Derek, normally I would agree, but I cant see there being any better 1366 motherboard on the market right now. MSI are really doing their homework before releasing these products.
excellent, really excellent. way out of my price range, but I can dream
MSI rock, they really do, I loved the review of the R5870 card on kitguru last month. all their changes arent just for show or talk,. they really make a difference
Very good product, the price isnt as bad as I thought, I had surmissed it would be £320.
No real weaknesses indeed. even the sata ports are in the right places. so many makers (yes im looking at you intel), put sata ports right under a long graphics card which is useless, even with a 90 degree designed connector.