MSI has added to its professional range with a series of X299 motherboards

MSI has unveiled a range of new X299 motherboards directed at content creators and supporting Intel’s highly anticipated, upcoming 10^th generation Cascade Lake-X processors. The new series of motherboards are expected to debut this month.

MSI seems to be focusing a lot of attention on content creators recently and as such has announced a range of motherboards for Intel’s Cascade Lake-X HEDT CPUs, based on the current X299 chipset. A trio of motherboards will have one thing in common, they will all be aimed at the professional and content creator market.

The flagship motherboard in the series will be the MSI Creator X299 which features an all-black PCB colour scheme and Mystic RGB lighting illuminating the PCH and I/O heatsinks. A 12-phase power delivery solution has been deployed in the Creator X299, with 90 A power stages and power being fed from three 8-pin EPS power connectors. A beefy looking aluminium block heatsink has been included to keep VRM temperatures under control.

A total of eight DDR4 DIMM slots are implemented in the Creator X299, supporting quad-channel memory and up to 256 GB capacity. As far as expansion goes, there are four PCIe 3 x16 slots and three slots for M.2 connectivity. All PCIe slots feature metal armour for durability which extends to the DIMM slots too. There is a total of eight SATA ports on the board and two front-panel USB 3.2 connectors along with a U.2 port below the SATA ports.

Further to the Creator X299 are two PRO series boards in the line-up. The MSI X299 PRO 10G and MSI X299 PRO, both feature 8 phase power delivery solutions covered by large heatsinks with integrated heat pipes. Dual 8-pin EPS power connectors provide the boards with power and like the Creator X299, the PRO motherboard can support up to 256 GB memory with up to 4200 MHz (OC+) speed.

The PRO boards offer good expansion options just like the X299 creator, with three PCIe 3.0 X16 slots, two M.2 ports and six SATA III ports. Again, there are two front USB 3.2 headers along with two USB 2.0 front panel headers. A large aluminium heatsink covers the PCH and features the same design characteristics as the VRM heatsink.

What sets the 10G apart from the PRO is an included add-in-card, which is powered by the Aquantis AQC107 controller. Both PRO boards feature an integrated I/O cover but unlike the X299 creator, they don’t get a pre-installed I/O shield. However, the PRO boards are bundled with an M.2 Xpander-Z card which adds a further two M.2 ports with active cooling.

The creator X299 is expected to cost around $500 or more when launched, with the PRO models likely to come in around $200-$300. An official launch date is yet to be announced by MSI but it is expected to be sometime this month.

KitGuru says: MSI has been releasing some interesting products aimed at professionals and content creators lately. With the addition of these X299 motherboards for Intel's highly anticipated 10th generation processors increasing their professional lineup further.

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