Channel prepares to launch MSI Z77 MPower at £179

One of the most successful MSI mainboard ranges of recent times was the Big Bang. While very appealing in terms of pure specification, the boards were priced high and not accessible to everyone. Now MSI's engineers have taken a step back, pulled out the best features from Big Bang and used them to create something far more affordable. KitGuru dons an anti-static wrist band to investigate.

On 9th July 2010, almost exactly 2 years ago, KitGuru Labs went into 20 pages of deep investigation of MSI's X58 Big Bang board. Weighing in at a whopping £270, our conclusion was that it was the best board available at the time. Impressive stuff. But there's still the matter of the two hundred and seventy gold coins with the queen's head on them.

August 2012 promises to see the launch of a more affordable high-end option from MSI, as the company prepares to launch its Z77 MPower products. According to MSI, this range has been designed hand-in-hand with some of the world's most extreme overclockers. The approach has been to ‘over-engineer' every important part of the product – from power phases to cooling to its OC friendly layout.

When we first got up close and personal with these boards at Computex, we noted that the hardware was just the beginning. It's the way the MSI warranty covers the board for overclocking use that's likely to bring a new wave of clockers to the MSI brand. Especially those that fancy a go at LN2, but were worried about warranty support evaporating as fast as the liquid gas.

KitGuru says: The price information we have received tells that MPower will be taking an aggressive nose-to-nose stance with boards like the Sabretooth. The proof, as they say, is the the Lab-bing – so please place yourself in ‘standby mode' until we bring you our independent judgement on MSI's affordably priced MPower.

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