Popular motherboard manufacturer MSI has announced the next weapon in their motherboard arsenal - the MSI Big Bang-XPower. Like other second generation X58 motherboards, the XPower will feature SATA 6G and USB 3.0 teamed up with a slew of overclocking features in order to captivate the enthusiast market.
MSI are keen to promote their new 16-phase CPU VRM and liberal use of long-life tantalum capacitors as key selling points. The MSI V-kit is added for voltage monitoring and adjustment of VCore, VTT, DDR and PCH voltages - OC Genie and OC Dashboard are also included.
In terms of audio, an MSI PCI-E 1x card is provided, which utilises Quantum Wave™ Audio processing. This uses THX TruStudio technology and EAX® Advanced HDTM 5.0, adding sonic enhancements to games, as well as music and movies.
MSI are touting this board as the only one THQ endorse for Metro 2033. Somehow we doubt this will be the one selling point that adds into extra sales.
A dedicated website for the XPower has been setup by MSI, combining the Metro 2033 affiliation and general advertising as you would expect for a high-end product.
How this board fares against others for the targeted market of gamers, we will see. However, we have a slight inkling this board will rouse the interest of die-hard overclockers if the power features are as good as MSI are touting.
No information on availability or pricing as of yet - MSI state that Newegg.com and TigerDirect.com are the North American retailers to watch.
