Review - MSI X58 Pro Motherboard
Micro-Star International Corporation, Ltd. (TSEC: MSI, 2377) is one of the IT industry's leading manufacturers of computer hardware products and solutions, including world's top five and Taiwan's top three motherboard manufacturer, Taiwan biggest and world's top five server manufacturer, and has been the leading graphic card manufacturer for the past four years. Today MSI is pressing forward with the development of new products, such as notebooks and consumer electronic products. The sales of MSI's MP3 product has been growing rapidly, making MSI one of the top MP3 product suppliers in Taiwan since 2004. Through world class engineering, manufacturing & design innovation, MSI is dedicated to providing leading-edge hardware products and robust solutions that are easy to implement and integrate while also enhancing overall performance, value and ultimately the individual end user's personal digital life experience. With annual worldwide sales of US $2.4 Billion, MSI ranks 26 in the Taiwan Top 1000 Companies.
Introduction:
This MSI X58 Motherboard is an accurate motherboard to view as less sibling of MSI's Eclipse SLI motherboard. The motherboard is a bit cheaper as compared to other motherboards.
DrMOS:
DrMOS has integrated Driver IC, Top-MOSFET, Bottom-MOSFET
GreenPower:
GreenPower Technology is the Best efficient power saving solution for end-users.
XpressCool:
DrMOS offers lower temperature when it is working. No More Noise!! No More High Speed Fan!
RapidBoost:
DrMOS delivers the high quality power transfer to bring the “Stable Overclocking Environment”.
APS
APS is Active Phase Switching, that is complete function to Control Power Demand With Switcing Dynamically, it's for CPU, Memory and Chipset PWM.
Saving Power under Variable Loading.
Power Usage More Efficiency.
Easy OC Switch:
Help end-users upgrade CPU FSB direc
Buy an essential CPU but want to reach higher performance
Skip the complicated BIOS OC setting and enjoy the higher level CPU performance
Easy OC Switch helps end-users raise the CPU FSB directly to reach higher performance.
1. 12 in.(L) x 9.6 in.(W); ATX
2. 6 DIMMs Triple w/ DDR3 1333+ up to 24GB
3. 3 Gen2. PCI-E 16X (when under Crossfire mode, it operates at 16X/16X/4X); 2 PCI-E 1X; 2 PCI; 12USB
4. 7.1 Ch. Audio; Gb LAN; RAID (0, 1, 5 and 10); IEEE 1394; SATA2; eSATA; ATA133
General Features About MSI X58 Pro Motherboard:
Easy Overclocking Switch:
1. Help end-users upgrade CPU FSB directly
2. Buy an essential CPU but want to reach higher performance
3. Skip the complicated BIOS OC setting and enjoy the higher level CPU performance.
Active Phase Switching:
1. APS is Active Phase Switching is complete function to Control Power Demand With Switcing Dynamically, it’s for CPU, Memory and Chipset PWM.
2. Saving Power under Variable Loading.
3. Power Usage More Efficiency.
Drmos:
1. Excellent energy-saving capability and offers high-computing performance.
2. Provide superior energy-saving function and maintain an ultimate low temperature operation.
3. Comes with three incredible features.
All Solid Capacitors:
1. Longer lifespan than electrolytic capacitors
2. Endurable to operation under higher frequency & temperature
3. Avoid exploding capacitors to cause mainboards failure
All Shielded Choke:
1. A choke is an inductor responsible for storing power and regulates the current.
2. All shielded choke could reduce core power loss, lower EMI interference.
3. Store energy longer at higher frequency, achieving higher efficiency.
HI-c Cap on PWM:
1. Hi-c CAP (Highly-conductive polymerized Capacitor)
2. High voltage derating / heat resistance ? higher over-voltage / overclocking possibility
3. Best stability & long lifespan ? Average life 44800 Hrs @ 85? chamber
User Friendly:
1. Functions designed with button to be easy use.
2. Help power-users tweaking process in-chasis enviornment
3. Onboard SATA ports are stacked on the mainboard to avoid mechanical issue with giant graphic cards like 8800 Ultra.
M-Connectors:
1. Easy connect to front panel & chassis cable
2. 2x USB, IEEE 1394, front panel (JFP1/2)& audio(JAUD1) M-connector in the package
3. Easy to tell the definition of each pin
ATI Cross Fire X:
1. Equip with 3 PCIe x16 slots, ATI CrossFire Ready.
2. The ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform.
3. Provides 2.7x faster performance than single graphic card solution.
Live Update Online:
The MSI Live Update online is designed to automatically download and update the BIOS and driver when there’s a new version online. It helps reduce the risk of getting the wrong file and minimize the trouble of searching the files from MSI website.
Live Update3:
Live Update 3 is a single utility software that automatically checks BIOS, driver and utility updates and installs for you , which can save your time for searching and lower the risk while updating.
MSI X58 Pro Motherboard Layout:
The motherboard consists of blue and black DIMM slots as that of Eclipse motherboard, also with the same color of PCB, which makes it all too tempting.
The layout of the MSI X58 Pro Motherboard consists of CPU socket which is actually situated far from DIMM slots in order to avoid obstruction to Thermalright Ultra 120 1366RT eXtreme.
The all-in-one MOSFET pair and driver IC of DrMOS helps you to save motherboard space, which is generally makes easy to cool and is a slight surprise on such a low priced motherboard. The six power phases on the Eclipse motherboard is been deducted to five on the X58 Pro motherboard, and the 2+2 for QPI and northbridge is been changed out for a cheaper pair of non-DrMOS phases.The memory on the Pro is a single phase, thus deducted from a pair on the higher priced, premium Eclipse motherboard.
The chipset will provides a pair of cards in CrossFire 16 lanes of bandwidth. The third PCI-E 16x slot helps you to receive four lanes of PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth these are also fixed to save cost and there are no digital switches available on the PCB. All three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots are at a far distance in order to occupy dual-slot graphics cards, and still have one x1 PCI-E slot free.
The X58 Pro doesnot consists of many ports and headers as the Eclipse motherboard, though there are enough options to fulfill the needs of most PC builders. The Southbridge is the ICH10R, so the six SATA II ports are of RAID-capable. The ports can be rotated at 90 degrees, thus the cables lie parallel with the PCB and so actually are easy to neatly tidy against a case wall. A further SATA II port is tucked just behind the other six; this is powered by the JMicron JMB363 controller.
For better peripheral connectivity options, the motherboard consists of a ten USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire ports and an eSATA port. You also have a extra cluster buttons at the bottom of the motherboard. You will have here power, reset and clear CMOS buttons. The X58 Pro motherboard uses an on-board Realtek ALC888S audio chip.
The rear I/O ports helps you to access the standard fair also featured with eSATA, six USB 2.0, one 6-pin Firewire, Ethernet, PS2 keyboard and mouse, six 3.5mm audio jacks and even optical S/PDIF out.
Technical Specification:
CPU:
Supports Intel i7 based processors in LGA1366 package.
Chipset:
1. Intel X58 Chipset
2. Supports QPI up to 6.4GT/s
Intel ICH10R Chipset [list=1][*]Hi-Speed USB (USB2.0) controller, 480Mb/sec, up to 12 ports. [*]6 SATAII ports with transfer rate up to 3Gb/s.[*]PCI Master v2.3, I/O APIC. [*]ACPI 2.0 compliant. [*]Serial ATA RAID 0/1/5/10. [*]Integrated AHCI controller.
[/LIST]
Main Memory:
1. Supports six unbuffered DIMM of 1.5 Volt DDR3 800/1066/1333 SDRAM, 24GB Max
2. Supports 1Gb/ 2Gb/ 4Gb DRAM size
3. Supports x8 / x16 data lines per DIMM
4. Supports up to 3 channel mode
Slots:
1. 3 PCI Express gen2 x16 slots (operates at 16x/16x/4x)
2. supports ATI Crossfire
3. 2 PCI Express gen2 x1 slots
4. 2 PCI slot, support 3.3V/ 5V PCI bus Interface
On-Board IDE /SATA:
1. One Ultra DMA 66/100/133 IDE controller integrated in JMicron 363
2. Supports PIO, Bus Master operation modes.
3. Can connect up to two Ultra ATA drives.
SATAII controller integrated in ICH10R/JMicron 363 chipest
1. Up to 3Gb/s transfer speed.
2. Supports six SATAII ports by ICH10R
3. Supports one SATAII port by JMicron 363.
4. Supports one eSATA port by JMicron 363.
5. Supports AHCI controller with SATA RAID 0/1/5/10 by ICH10R.
Audio:
1. Chipset integrated by Realtek ALC888S
2. Flexible 8-channel audio with jack sensing
3. Compliant with Azalia 1.0 Spec
4. Meet Microsoft Vista Premium spce
LAN:
Supports one PCI Express LAN 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by Realtek 8111C.
IEEE 1394 / FireWire:
1. JMicron 381 chipset
2. Supports up to two 1394 ports. (Rear panel x1, pinheader x1)
3. Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps.
Internal I/O Connectors:
[list=1][*]ATX 24-Pin power connector[*]8-pin ATX 12V power connector [*]CPU / System x 5 FAN connectors[*]CD-in connector[*]Front panel audio connector[*]Front panel connector[*]1 x chasis intrusion connector[*]1 x serial port pinheader[*]3 x USB 2.0 connectors[*]7 x Serial ATAII connectors[*]1 x ATA133 connector[*]1 x IEEE1394 connector support additional 1 port[*]1 x Reset Button[*]1 x Power Button[*]1 x SPDIF-out connector [*]1 x D-LED2 connector[*]1 x TPM module connector
[/LIST]
Back Panel I/O Ports:
1. 1 x Clear CMOS button
2. 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
3. 1 x PS/2 Mouse
4. 1 x eSATA port
5. 1 x IEEE1394 port
6. 6 x USB 2.0 ports
7. 1 x RJ45 LAN Jacks
8. 1 x 6 in 1 audio jack
9. 1 x Optical SPDIF-out
Dimensions:
12.0in.(L) x 9.6in.(W) ATX Form Factor
Mounting:
9 mounting holes
Testing Setup:
MSI X58 Pro Intel X58 (7522 BIOS)
1. Foxconn Blood Rage (Intel X58, P04 BIOS)
2. Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P (Intel X58, F6a BIOS)
3. Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 (Intel X58, F5c BIOS)
4. MSI Eclipse SLI (Intel X58, 132 BIOS)
5. Asus P6T Deluxe (Intel X58, 0904 BIOS)
Common Components:
1. Intel Core i7 920 (45nm, 8MB L3 cache, 20x133MHz; 2.67GHz)
2. Corsair 6GB DDR3 1,066MHz at the lowest timings where possible
3. Graphics Testing: Zotac GeForce GTX 280
4. PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU
5. Seagate 7200.10 250GB SATA hard drive
6. Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
7. Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
8. Nvidia Forceware 180.48 WHQL
MSI X58 Pro Motherboard Memory Performance:
The entire stock speed tests were tested with the help of Corsair Dominator test kit with CAS of 6 and the other latencies set to 5-5-15 1T. The only X58 board that really pulled away from the pack in the single-threaded Everest test was in the Foxconn Blood Rage section.
In SiSoft’s Sandra multithreaded random memory latency tests, the X58 Pro motherboard is been combined with Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard whereas, in Everest’s single-threaded memory latency test, the X58 Pro motherboard is a bit slow of X58 pro motherboards.
Game Performance On MSI X58 Pro Motherboard:
CRYSIS:
The game consisting of 64-bit executable under and DirectX 10 with the 1.21 patch is been applied. A custom time demo is been recorded on the Harbor map which provides a better representative of game play than the built-in benchmark which actually helps to render things much faster.
For basic game tests, the settings were set to High. As per intense of the particular game, anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering options were made disabled at resolutions more than 1680x1050.
It is much fair to say that people are looking for Core i7 for gaming, so it's good to view and experience that this motherboard neither crashed nor burned during Crysis.
FARCRY:
Far Cry 2 is the latest version of this game featuring first person shooter from Ubisoft. The retail version of the game patched was used as a version 1.02, and also used the in-built "Action" gameplay demo in order to set Ultra-Very High settings under DirectX 10 software.
The best noticable part is the X58 Pro motheboard produced the less minimum frame rate in Far Cry 2 by a better margin, although the average frame rate was a bit high.
Stability And Power Consumption:
In order to check stability test of X58 Pro motherboard for default values, the SmallFFTs torture test from Prime95 was run across all cores to check system warm,
The chipset heatsink got a bit hot when the board was working hard, and dropping into the Hardware Monitor of the BIOS also confirmed that the X58 chip was working over 100°C, which is basically cool.
Essentially the design is not like others because it requires a better convection current inorder to make a stand up for keeping it stable.
Power Consumption:
The Core i7 920 CPU, 6GB (3x2GB) of memory, a GeForce GTX 280 graphics card and the BIOS were set to default values and are tested with the Intel C-States inorder to enable the CPU throttling function. All the power saving is left entirely to Intel's Core i7 CPU.
Overclocking MSI X58 Pro Motherboard:
The X58 Pro motherboard performed noticeably faster when it came to overclocking.
The speed boost from the 2.66GHz default speed of the Core i7 920 was set to 3.9GHz is large though, and it's great that such a low cost motherboard would benchmark in a much stable way with CPU and it's frequency.
However, it does show that a 3.4-3.6GHz everyday overclock is applicable and just ensure to have the chipset heatsink some active cooling.
The BIOS features MSI’s Cell menu which is a much clear lay out and void of the more cryptic options viewed in high-end overclockers motherboards. The vCore is been increased in some level of 10mV with the true value taken from the hardware monitor and displayed.
Another feature available is four overclocking profiles that helps you to save, which is a big help when keeping record of settings that have been worked and others that have brought on a failure notice. The motheboards autorecovery option help you to kick in but in a very reliable way.
All X58 motherboards should be capable of working with a Core i7 920 around 3.9GHz which requires a 195MHz QPI with the CPU at the stock multiplier of 20x.
However with the X58 Pro, no amount tinkering seemed to persuade it to remain stable at anything higher than a 195MHz QPI, instead it would lock up at any point from being in the BIOS to loading Windows.
Final Verdict:
If you are looking for Core i7 motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P is still much selective product and even the DS4 motherboard is still better than the X58 Pro motherboard.
On the other hand, the motherboard will cost you £160 (Rs.11704) is not only the cheapest X58 motherboard on the market, but the bottom line is that it's a decent board too, so if you are very much to have Core i7 and want to spend as little money regarding motherboard is concerned then overall the X58 Pro motherboard is definitely worth.
Source : techarena.in
Micro-Star International Corporation, Ltd. (TSEC: MSI, 2377) is one of the IT industry's leading manufacturers of computer hardware products and solutions, including world's top five and Taiwan's top three motherboard manufacturer, Taiwan biggest and world's top five server manufacturer, and has been the leading graphic card manufacturer for the past four years. Today MSI is pressing forward with the development of new products, such as notebooks and consumer electronic products. The sales of MSI's MP3 product has been growing rapidly, making MSI one of the top MP3 product suppliers in Taiwan since 2004. Through world class engineering, manufacturing & design innovation, MSI is dedicated to providing leading-edge hardware products and robust solutions that are easy to implement and integrate while also enhancing overall performance, value and ultimately the individual end user's personal digital life experience. With annual worldwide sales of US $2.4 Billion, MSI ranks 26 in the Taiwan Top 1000 Companies.
Introduction:
This MSI X58 Motherboard is an accurate motherboard to view as less sibling of MSI's Eclipse SLI motherboard. The motherboard is a bit cheaper as compared to other motherboards.
DrMOS:
DrMOS has integrated Driver IC, Top-MOSFET, Bottom-MOSFET
GreenPower:
GreenPower Technology is the Best efficient power saving solution for end-users.
XpressCool:
DrMOS offers lower temperature when it is working. No More Noise!! No More High Speed Fan!
RapidBoost:
DrMOS delivers the high quality power transfer to bring the “Stable Overclocking Environment”.
APSAPS is Active Phase Switching, that is complete function to Control Power Demand With Switcing Dynamically, it's for CPU, Memory and Chipset PWM.
Saving Power under Variable Loading.
Power Usage More Efficiency.
Easy OC Switch:
Help end-users upgrade CPU FSB direc
Buy an essential CPU but want to reach higher performance
Skip the complicated BIOS OC setting and enjoy the higher level CPU performance
Easy OC Switch helps end-users raise the CPU FSB directly to reach higher performance.
1. 12 in.(L) x 9.6 in.(W); ATX
2. 6 DIMMs Triple w/ DDR3 1333+ up to 24GB
3. 3 Gen2. PCI-E 16X (when under Crossfire mode, it operates at 16X/16X/4X); 2 PCI-E 1X; 2 PCI; 12USB
4. 7.1 Ch. Audio; Gb LAN; RAID (0, 1, 5 and 10); IEEE 1394; SATA2; eSATA; ATA133
General Features About MSI X58 Pro Motherboard:
Easy Overclocking Switch:
1. Help end-users upgrade CPU FSB directly
2. Buy an essential CPU but want to reach higher performance
3. Skip the complicated BIOS OC setting and enjoy the higher level CPU performance.
Active Phase Switching:
1. APS is Active Phase Switching is complete function to Control Power Demand With Switcing Dynamically, it’s for CPU, Memory and Chipset PWM.
2. Saving Power under Variable Loading.
3. Power Usage More Efficiency.
Drmos:
1. Excellent energy-saving capability and offers high-computing performance.
2. Provide superior energy-saving function and maintain an ultimate low temperature operation.
3. Comes with three incredible features.
All Solid Capacitors:
1. Longer lifespan than electrolytic capacitors
2. Endurable to operation under higher frequency & temperature
3. Avoid exploding capacitors to cause mainboards failure
All Shielded Choke:
1. A choke is an inductor responsible for storing power and regulates the current.
2. All shielded choke could reduce core power loss, lower EMI interference.
3. Store energy longer at higher frequency, achieving higher efficiency.
HI-c Cap on PWM:
1. Hi-c CAP (Highly-conductive polymerized Capacitor)
2. High voltage derating / heat resistance ? higher over-voltage / overclocking possibility
3. Best stability & long lifespan ? Average life 44800 Hrs @ 85? chamber
User Friendly:
1. Functions designed with button to be easy use.
2. Help power-users tweaking process in-chasis enviornment
3. Onboard SATA ports are stacked on the mainboard to avoid mechanical issue with giant graphic cards like 8800 Ultra.
M-Connectors:
1. Easy connect to front panel & chassis cable
2. 2x USB, IEEE 1394, front panel (JFP1/2)& audio(JAUD1) M-connector in the package
3. Easy to tell the definition of each pin
ATI Cross Fire X:
1. Equip with 3 PCIe x16 slots, ATI CrossFire Ready.
2. The ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform.
3. Provides 2.7x faster performance than single graphic card solution.
Live Update Online:
The MSI Live Update online is designed to automatically download and update the BIOS and driver when there’s a new version online. It helps reduce the risk of getting the wrong file and minimize the trouble of searching the files from MSI website.
Live Update3:
Live Update 3 is a single utility software that automatically checks BIOS, driver and utility updates and installs for you , which can save your time for searching and lower the risk while updating.
MSI X58 Pro Motherboard Layout:The motherboard consists of blue and black DIMM slots as that of Eclipse motherboard, also with the same color of PCB, which makes it all too tempting.
The layout of the MSI X58 Pro Motherboard consists of CPU socket which is actually situated far from DIMM slots in order to avoid obstruction to Thermalright Ultra 120 1366RT eXtreme.
The all-in-one MOSFET pair and driver IC of DrMOS helps you to save motherboard space, which is generally makes easy to cool and is a slight surprise on such a low priced motherboard. The six power phases on the Eclipse motherboard is been deducted to five on the X58 Pro motherboard, and the 2+2 for QPI and northbridge is been changed out for a cheaper pair of non-DrMOS phases.The memory on the Pro is a single phase, thus deducted from a pair on the higher priced, premium Eclipse motherboard.
The chipset will provides a pair of cards in CrossFire 16 lanes of bandwidth. The third PCI-E 16x slot helps you to receive four lanes of PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth these are also fixed to save cost and there are no digital switches available on the PCB. All three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots are at a far distance in order to occupy dual-slot graphics cards, and still have one x1 PCI-E slot free.
The X58 Pro doesnot consists of many ports and headers as the Eclipse motherboard, though there are enough options to fulfill the needs of most PC builders. The Southbridge is the ICH10R, so the six SATA II ports are of RAID-capable. The ports can be rotated at 90 degrees, thus the cables lie parallel with the PCB and so actually are easy to neatly tidy against a case wall. A further SATA II port is tucked just behind the other six; this is powered by the JMicron JMB363 controller.
For better peripheral connectivity options, the motherboard consists of a ten USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire ports and an eSATA port. You also have a extra cluster buttons at the bottom of the motherboard. You will have here power, reset and clear CMOS buttons. The X58 Pro motherboard uses an on-board Realtek ALC888S audio chip.
The rear I/O ports helps you to access the standard fair also featured with eSATA, six USB 2.0, one 6-pin Firewire, Ethernet, PS2 keyboard and mouse, six 3.5mm audio jacks and even optical S/PDIF out.
Technical Specification:
CPU:
Supports Intel i7 based processors in LGA1366 package.
Chipset:
1. Intel X58 Chipset
2. Supports QPI up to 6.4GT/s
Intel ICH10R Chipset [list=1][*]Hi-Speed USB (USB2.0) controller, 480Mb/sec, up to 12 ports. [*]6 SATAII ports with transfer rate up to 3Gb/s.[*]PCI Master v2.3, I/O APIC. [*]ACPI 2.0 compliant. [*]Serial ATA RAID 0/1/5/10. [*]Integrated AHCI controller.
[/LIST]
Main Memory:
1. Supports six unbuffered DIMM of 1.5 Volt DDR3 800/1066/1333 SDRAM, 24GB Max
2. Supports 1Gb/ 2Gb/ 4Gb DRAM size
3. Supports x8 / x16 data lines per DIMM
4. Supports up to 3 channel mode
Slots:
1. 3 PCI Express gen2 x16 slots (operates at 16x/16x/4x)
2. supports ATI Crossfire
3. 2 PCI Express gen2 x1 slots
4. 2 PCI slot, support 3.3V/ 5V PCI bus Interface
On-Board IDE /SATA:
1. One Ultra DMA 66/100/133 IDE controller integrated in JMicron 363
2. Supports PIO, Bus Master operation modes.
3. Can connect up to two Ultra ATA drives.
SATAII controller integrated in ICH10R/JMicron 363 chipest
1. Up to 3Gb/s transfer speed.
2. Supports six SATAII ports by ICH10R
3. Supports one SATAII port by JMicron 363.
4. Supports one eSATA port by JMicron 363.
5. Supports AHCI controller with SATA RAID 0/1/5/10 by ICH10R.
Audio:
1. Chipset integrated by Realtek ALC888S
2. Flexible 8-channel audio with jack sensing
3. Compliant with Azalia 1.0 Spec
4. Meet Microsoft Vista Premium spce
LAN:
Supports one PCI Express LAN 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by Realtek 8111C.
IEEE 1394 / FireWire:
1. JMicron 381 chipset
2. Supports up to two 1394 ports. (Rear panel x1, pinheader x1)
3. Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps.
Internal I/O Connectors:
[list=1][*]ATX 24-Pin power connector[*]8-pin ATX 12V power connector [*]CPU / System x 5 FAN connectors[*]CD-in connector[*]Front panel audio connector[*]Front panel connector[*]1 x chasis intrusion connector[*]1 x serial port pinheader[*]3 x USB 2.0 connectors[*]7 x Serial ATAII connectors[*]1 x ATA133 connector[*]1 x IEEE1394 connector support additional 1 port[*]1 x Reset Button[*]1 x Power Button[*]1 x SPDIF-out connector [*]1 x D-LED2 connector[*]1 x TPM module connector
[/LIST]
Back Panel I/O Ports:
1. 1 x Clear CMOS button
2. 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
3. 1 x PS/2 Mouse
4. 1 x eSATA port
5. 1 x IEEE1394 port
6. 6 x USB 2.0 ports
7. 1 x RJ45 LAN Jacks
8. 1 x 6 in 1 audio jack
9. 1 x Optical SPDIF-out
Dimensions:
12.0in.(L) x 9.6in.(W) ATX Form Factor
Mounting:
9 mounting holes
Testing Setup:
MSI X58 Pro Intel X58 (7522 BIOS)
1. Foxconn Blood Rage (Intel X58, P04 BIOS)
2. Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P (Intel X58, F6a BIOS)
3. Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 (Intel X58, F5c BIOS)
4. MSI Eclipse SLI (Intel X58, 132 BIOS)
5. Asus P6T Deluxe (Intel X58, 0904 BIOS)
Common Components:
1. Intel Core i7 920 (45nm, 8MB L3 cache, 20x133MHz; 2.67GHz)
2. Corsair 6GB DDR3 1,066MHz at the lowest timings where possible
3. Graphics Testing: Zotac GeForce GTX 280
4. PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU
5. Seagate 7200.10 250GB SATA hard drive
6. Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
7. Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
8. Nvidia Forceware 180.48 WHQL
MSI X58 Pro Motherboard Memory Performance:The entire stock speed tests were tested with the help of Corsair Dominator test kit with CAS of 6 and the other latencies set to 5-5-15 1T. The only X58 board that really pulled away from the pack in the single-threaded Everest test was in the Foxconn Blood Rage section.
In SiSoft’s Sandra multithreaded random memory latency tests, the X58 Pro motherboard is been combined with Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard whereas, in Everest’s single-threaded memory latency test, the X58 Pro motherboard is a bit slow of X58 pro motherboards.
Game Performance On MSI X58 Pro Motherboard:CRYSIS:
The game consisting of 64-bit executable under and DirectX 10 with the 1.21 patch is been applied. A custom time demo is been recorded on the Harbor map which provides a better representative of game play than the built-in benchmark which actually helps to render things much faster.
For basic game tests, the settings were set to High. As per intense of the particular game, anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering options were made disabled at resolutions more than 1680x1050.
It is much fair to say that people are looking for Core i7 for gaming, so it's good to view and experience that this motherboard neither crashed nor burned during Crysis.
FARCRY:Far Cry 2 is the latest version of this game featuring first person shooter from Ubisoft. The retail version of the game patched was used as a version 1.02, and also used the in-built "Action" gameplay demo in order to set Ultra-Very High settings under DirectX 10 software.
The best noticable part is the X58 Pro motheboard produced the less minimum frame rate in Far Cry 2 by a better margin, although the average frame rate was a bit high.
Stability And Power Consumption:
In order to check stability test of X58 Pro motherboard for default values, the SmallFFTs torture test from Prime95 was run across all cores to check system warm,
The chipset heatsink got a bit hot when the board was working hard, and dropping into the Hardware Monitor of the BIOS also confirmed that the X58 chip was working over 100°C, which is basically cool.
Essentially the design is not like others because it requires a better convection current inorder to make a stand up for keeping it stable.
Power Consumption:The Core i7 920 CPU, 6GB (3x2GB) of memory, a GeForce GTX 280 graphics card and the BIOS were set to default values and are tested with the Intel C-States inorder to enable the CPU throttling function. All the power saving is left entirely to Intel's Core i7 CPU.
Overclocking MSI X58 Pro Motherboard:
The X58 Pro motherboard performed noticeably faster when it came to overclocking.
The speed boost from the 2.66GHz default speed of the Core i7 920 was set to 3.9GHz is large though, and it's great that such a low cost motherboard would benchmark in a much stable way with CPU and it's frequency.
However, it does show that a 3.4-3.6GHz everyday overclock is applicable and just ensure to have the chipset heatsink some active cooling.
The BIOS features MSI’s Cell menu which is a much clear lay out and void of the more cryptic options viewed in high-end overclockers motherboards. The vCore is been increased in some level of 10mV with the true value taken from the hardware monitor and displayed.
Another feature available is four overclocking profiles that helps you to save, which is a big help when keeping record of settings that have been worked and others that have brought on a failure notice. The motheboards autorecovery option help you to kick in but in a very reliable way.
All X58 motherboards should be capable of working with a Core i7 920 around 3.9GHz which requires a 195MHz QPI with the CPU at the stock multiplier of 20x.
However with the X58 Pro, no amount tinkering seemed to persuade it to remain stable at anything higher than a 195MHz QPI, instead it would lock up at any point from being in the BIOS to loading Windows.
Final Verdict:
If you are looking for Core i7 motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P is still much selective product and even the DS4 motherboard is still better than the X58 Pro motherboard.
On the other hand, the motherboard will cost you £160 (Rs.11704) is not only the cheapest X58 motherboard on the market, but the bottom line is that it's a decent board too, so if you are very much to have Core i7 and want to spend as little money regarding motherboard is concerned then overall the X58 Pro motherboard is definitely worth.
Source : techarena.in
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