Msi 975x platinum powerup edition

PCB layout especially for a top product is practically ideal! All connectors are arranged to make it convenient to plug cables and to lay them out in an optimal way; no bulky components block other devices; CMOS reset button instead of a jumper is easily accessible when the motherboard is installed in a PC case. But unfortunately, the motherboard has only two PCI slots, and the second video card for CrossFire is likely to block one of them — that's an evident mistake of engineers.

Unfortunately, MSI has no other models based on the iX to be more exact, there is one modification to be reviewed below. So you'll have to lump this drawback, if you are interested in this combination of the manufacturer and the chipset. There are practically no empty seats, for obvious reasons though our sample had no connector for an IrDA module on a bracket.

The 4-phase switching voltage regulator of the processor incorporates 4 field-effect transistors per channel and high-quality capacitors - eight uF capacitors from Sanyo polymer and eight uF ones from Matsushita.

Memory voltage regulator incorporates 16 x uF capacitors eight capacitors from United Chemi-Con and eight from Matsushita and is reinforced with L elements. Small heatsinks are used to cool both bridges made of unknown material , but Northbridge is also equipped with a medium-sized relatively "noisy" fan. But field-effect transistors in the CPU power converter do well even without heatsinks — as there are lots of them 16 , their temperature does not exceed reasonable limits even without cooling from the CPU fan.

Motherboard dimensions — x mm full-sized ATX, nine-screw mount, all motherboard edges are firmly fixed. Its options are limited to specifying desirable CPU temperature the fan will slow down stepwise, when the temperature drops below this limit and maximum deviation from the desired temperature the rotational speed grows, when this limit is exceeded. Remarkably, the shell of the bundled CD has a tabbed page with links to web sites with useful programs.

We like this approach much better than the squirrel-like trend to stuff the disc with useless free utilities. Some time ago all manufacturers would include their own Linux versions… : On the whole, we have only one question: do marketing specialists from MSI sleep well at night, after they ship such scarce bundles with Platinum motherboards?..

Integrated Controllers Audio, based on channel 7. The codec used in this motherboard does not support any interesting functions like encoding into AC3 on the fly.

But the analog output quality is on a very good level. Thus, MSI's choice of the cheap budget codec instead of the cheap top codec seems very strange. But we actually have no gripes with the integrated audio. The set of other controllers is quite expectable for a top solution. This motherboard makes a good use of models with the PCI Express interface. Proprietary technologies and peculiarities DigiCell — monitoring system parameters under Windows and managing voltages, rotational speed of fans, and overclocking Live Update 3 — checking for BIOS and driver updates, downloading and installing these components in semiautomatic mode, including flashing new BIOS versions under Windows D-Bracket 2 - a set of LEDs on a bracket that informs a user on startup problems.

The mentioned BIOS parameters are available in this version, but the viability of non-standard settings hasn't been tested. For some reason, this motherboard lacks this feature, increased voltages are indicated with blinking text, which has a disastrous effect on usability.

Unfortunately, the MSI motherboard did not try to make our life easier, it refused to work with some memory modules. So we had to content ourselves with only similar configurations. However, considering slightly different memory operating modes memory frequency is higher in the MSI model, and timings are increased proportionally , the difference of several percents is hardly significant.

At the same time, PCB and the main characteristics of the motherboard remain the same, so the above-said about the MSI X Platinum applies to this model as well. Let's speak of the differences. There are practically no changes in exterior, only heatsinks on the chipset bridges are replaced by copper ones. A relatively large heatsink on Northbridge has no fan now. CPU voltage conversion circuits are the same, just some electrolytic capacitors from Matsushita are replaced by polymer capacitors from Sanyo.

PCI 2. IDE 2. USB 2. Serial ports Rear 1. Parallel ports Rear 1. Audio ports Rear 6. Form Factor ATX. All images and descriptions are for illustrative purposes only. Visual representation of the products may not be perfectly accurate. Product specification, functions and appearance may vary by models and differ from country to country.

All specifications are subject to change without notice. Please consult the product specifications page for full details. Although we endeavor to present the most precise and comprehensive information at the time of publication, a small number of items may contain typography or photography errors. Products may not be available in all markets.