MSI Big Bang Trinergy review -
Introduction
When MSI launched their first wave of P55 motherboards the results where nothing other than stunning. In fact the enthusiast segment MSI P55 GD80 we reviewed at the time was loaded with devotee features and options. There where a couple of wishes left undesired though, especially the 8x--8x PCIe lanes configuration for SLI and CrossfireX users was a thorn in the eyes of many of you.
As such, MSI went back to the drawing board, came up with a solution and decided to further improve the MSI P55 GD80 concept. The end result is called the Big-Bang series motherboards -- yes we'll try to not make any jokes on choice of wording on 'Big Bang'.
The new Big Bang series will entail several top of the line motherboards based on the P55 chipset. At this time MSI announced two extremely high-end models:
- MSI Big Bang Fuzion = with the Lucid Hydra chip -- (allows mixing graphics cards) this motherboard has been delayed to Q1 2010.
- MSI Big Bang Trinergy = with NVIDIA NF200 chip (adds additional PCIe lanes to the motherboard) and thus is 3-way SLI ready.
Within the Big bang series only P55 motherboards will get either an NF200 or Lucid Hydra ASIC, that board has not been released just yet. Today we take a peek at the MSI Big bang Trinergy -- with the Tri for triple lovin' on top of the regular GD80 functions, yes it makes the mainboard 3-way SLI compatible.
Next to all the cool features the board already offers, MSI added a few more extra's next to the fantastic design, V-Kit control, the mystical finger touch buttons. With the Trinergy MSI adds THX TruStudio PC and Creative's EAX Advanced HD 5 to the board with the help of an additional Quantum Wave Audio card, we see an external OC dashboard and thus full PCIe bandwidth thanks to an added NF200 nVIDIA bridge chip.
But there's much more to show you. We have lots and lots to talk about and show you, and we guarantee you that some of you probably ask your parents or girlfriend a 'Big Bang' for Christmas. Now if you do so, please refer to this article as otherwise there might be some misconception or well .. conception.
Lame puns aside, head on over to the next page where we'll startup this review.
Today we test the Z77 MPower version, which as you'll notice is a pleasant upgrade from their Z77A-GD65 motherboard -- yet with an improved CPU VRM, more friendly warranties and a new black and yellow color-scheme which merges the Lightning series graphics cards and these motherboards a little closer together. Have a peek at what was just released, this is the MSI Big Bang Z77 MPower motherboard. You just have to be impressed by the overall looks ...
MSI Big Bang P67 Marshal review
Powered by Intel's P67 chipset, the MSI Big Bang Marhal comes with MSI's latest Military Class II design that makes use of a 24 phase (!) power SFC choke setup alongside the best quality Hi-c CAP's and Japanese made solid capacitors. Added to the mix for additional PCIe lanes is a Hydra chip, which also can be utilized to combine mix and match graphics cards in a multi-GPU setup. The board comes with 24-phase DrMOS power design, voltage monitoring points, an external overclock device called the OC dashboard, that all new EFI BIOS, dual-BIOS selectable with a simple button, and OC genie button that allows you to have say a 2500K processor run at 4200 with the flick of a switch. I'm not done though, we spot integrated audio with SoundBlaster X-Fi application (software) layer, ten SATA ports of which four are based on the all new SATA 6G. Thick heatpipe (passive and thus silent) cooling and more and more. This board is a true hardware enthusiast dream come true, or is it ?
MSI Big Bang X58 XPower review
We test and review the XPower from MSI. Last month Intel added a new processor in the line-up, the ever so strong Core i7 980 Extreme six-core processor. Seriously breathtaking, and to date the fastest consumer processor on the globe with very decent overclock potential as well. That was reason enough for most ODM to make new updates and revisions of the X58 chipset based motherboards, as next top the new processor we also have seen the gradual adoption of features like USB 3.0 and SATA3 6G. MSI is on of the ODMs releasing something really special, today we'll review the Big Bang X58 XPower motherboard. It is chucked full with the latest gadgets and features, it is equipped to make sure you get the very best overclock out of it and heck, even if you can't overclock, flick a button and the motherboard will do the work for you, completely automated.
MSI Big bang Fuzion (Lucid Hydra) review
MSI has yet another motherboard lined up in the P55 motherboard Big Bang series, ready and waiting for you. It's called the 'Fuzion' and comes with that much discussed Lucid Hydra 200 chip. Now the big deal about the Big Bang mainboard is that the board has that Lucid Hydra 200 chip that allows it to support multiple video cards of different brands and models at once. This in theory would allow you get the extra performance from your old video card and your new card even if one is NVIDIA and the other is ATI. The Hydra 200 is a real-time distributed processing engine that acts as an intelligent graphics load balancer.