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XPower X58: a new extreme for MSI?

Published on 2nd February 2010 by Richard Swinburne

MSI's upcoming XPower X58 is very tasty.

Not content with just recently launching its two P55 Big Bang boards: Trinergy and Fuzion, MSI has made its bang even bigger with the upcoming XPower.

While adorned in a distinctly MSI aesthetic, it looks like the engineers have been reading the EVGA manual on motherboard design. Despite the six PCI-Express x16 slots (it appears two x16, four x8), and sixteen DrMOS phases plus Hi-C(apacity) caps, the keen eyed among you will see the board has two 8-pin CPU 12V power connectors and one 6-pin PCI-Express connector, in addition to the usual 24-pin ATX connector. Hardcore indeed.

Using a standard X58+ICH10R chipset, it looks like there are two more DrMOS phases dedicated to the northbridge, and another two for the six memory slots as well. Additional features include the V-Check points, two digit LED readout, 'Quantum Wave' audio card with THX and EAX, SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0. The cooling design pictured is not final though, but it will include MSI's thicker 8mm "Superpipe".

MSI's roadmap has tied it into the release of Intel's Gulftown CPU, that it puts at somewhere close to the end of Q1 (March period).

Fancy a new X58 motherboard for extreme overclocking? We hope MSI's BIOS is up to scratch! Let us know in the forums.

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27 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

Singularity 2nd February 2010, 12:12

Wow that looks nice, really hope it'll perform, too :)

Also, REALLY hope they finally make a bios flashing utility that doesn't brick the boards >.<

Andersen1337 2nd February 2010, 12:17

Looks really nice, glad they finally figured out that there SHOULD be a pci-e x4/x1 above the pci-e x16-slots, for a dedicated soundcard.

proxess 2nd February 2010, 12:31

Does look very nice init...

V3ctor 2nd February 2010, 12:39

Pr0n for my eyes...

mi1ez 2nd February 2010, 12:44

Another one for our folding team!

Flibblebot 2nd February 2010, 12:51

Does it come with its own power station? ;)

PureSilver 2nd February 2010, 13:12

Something to finally knock the P6TD off it's perch? I'm looking forward to it...

Jipa 2nd February 2010, 13:14

Impressive - a motherboard with more PCI-e-connectors than fan headers.

Pretty irrelevant launch, it's just the engineers fapping to see which brand gets the most world records..

Cupboard 2nd February 2010, 13:33

That does look nice, and I really love the colour scheme.

But two 8 pin EPS power connectors? Who's PSU has that?

Aracos 2nd February 2010, 13:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cupboard
That does look nice, and I really love the colour scheme.

But two 8 pin EPS power connectors? Who's PSU has that?

My Seasonic X-750 ^_^

andrew8200m 2nd February 2010, 13:50

My sst-st1200 does too :D

andy

Icy EyeG 2nd February 2010, 15:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Article
six PCI-Express x16 slots (it appears two x16, four x8)

So, does it use a PCI Express Bridge? NF200? :|

They are also taking ideas from Asus as well, as the RAM sockets don't have clamps on the PEG slots side (Q-dimm design, right?).

Evildead666 2nd February 2010, 15:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andersen1337
Looks really nice, glad they finally figured out that there SHOULD be a pci-e x4/x1 above the pci-e x16-slots, for a dedicated soundcard.

+1 for that, and i'll also welcome the day we have nothing but x16 slots like the good old PCI days, choice of where to place the cards, graphics or other....;)

kenco_uk 2nd February 2010, 16:27

Sha-winng. My word, that's a lot of phases.

knuck 2nd February 2010, 16:43

it's quite secksay but there are just so many Xs in the name ... Do they still think people go crazy over products with Xs in the name because it's so "EXTREMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" (thinking about the retards in the first Harold and Kumar :D)

Farfalho 2nd February 2010, 17:28

Looks sweet.

Wonder about that blue connector right next to the SATA connectors?!

Btw, I have this kind of noobish doubt. Can I plug a pci-e x1 card in a pci-e x16? Like an agp x4 or x2 card in an agp x8 slot

rjkoneill 2nd February 2010, 17:30

WOW an extreme overclockign board with no mosfet coolers and no heatpipes

good work MSI

seriously though - aesthetically this board looks fantastic, but the overall package is not really there yet, msi have this nasty font they insist on using on all their boards, why?
it just makes the board look daft. a better solution would be to have a nice heatpipe array covering the mosfets/X58/ICH10
that way the board would look more intimidating and less like a budget OEM classified ripoff

SlowMotionSuicide 2nd February 2010, 19:21

Quote:

The cooling design pictured is not final though, but it will include MSI's thicker 8mm "Superpipe".

500mph 2nd February 2010, 19:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farfalho
Looks sweet.

Wonder about that blue connector right next to the SATA connectors?!

Looks like a contact section if you want to monitor voltages with a multi meter.

Also, my Termaltake Toughpower has 2 8pins Cupboard.

Thats an impressive board.

Skill3d 2nd February 2010, 20:17

it looks rather amazing, love the black socketclamp and minimal design. nice lay-out too... Perhaps the 6-pin-out is for a external monitoring bay thingie?
If it performs as good as it looks, I'll probably get one....

wuyanxu 2nd February 2010, 20:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icy EyeG

They are also taking ideas from Asus as well, as the RAM sockets don't have clamps on the PEG slots side (Q-dimm design, right?).

correct, i was there for the marketing pitch on their release of Asus P7P55D series.

azrael- 2nd February 2010, 22:12

Board looks sweet, but really, who needs 6 PCIe x16 slots? Like it was said above, it seems they're there just to show off.

Neophyte4Life 3rd February 2010, 00:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by azrael-
Board looks sweet, but really, who needs 6 PCIe x16 slots? Like it was said above, it seems they're there just to show off.

how about the FASTRA? 12 gpus would be epic.

TWeaK 3rd February 2010, 13:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by azrael-
Board looks sweet, but really, who needs 6 PCIe x16 slots? Like it was said above, it seems they're there just to show off.

Folding farms for one, as someone else said.

This board looks awesome. I wonder if the extra power connectors are compulsory, back on old DFI nF4 boards which had the molex and FDD power connectors they were only there for extra voltage when overclocking.

Omnituens 3rd February 2010, 19:09

I like that board. Can I has?

borandi 5th February 2010, 10:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by azrael-
Board looks sweet, but really, who needs 6 PCIe x16 slots? Like it was said above, it seems they're there just to show off.

My GPU simulations would be thankful.

tonschk 5th February 2010, 11:19

Quote: