MSI X48 Platinum: Four PCI Express x16 Slots to go Please....
by Kris Boughton on January 31, 2008 7:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Initial Thoughts
Out testing was certainly not without problems, and the X48 Platinum is still far from perfect, but even in the face of this we really enjoyed our time working with this board. MSI has done a very good job of engineering a relatively low-cost X48 motherboard that shows it has the potential to hang with some of the big dogs. A few refinements here and a couple of BIOS tweaks there should allow the X48 Platinum to be a really good alternative for those who need a gaming or multi-GPU solution without the higher prices that will prevail at the top end of the X48 market. In our minds, MSI is headed in the right direction with this board; you would be foolish to make your next motherboard purchase without giving them due consideration. Of course, we state this based on our conversations with MSI getting the BIOS in order before the launch date.
The use of four separate PCI-E x16 slots is certainly something we don't see that often. Like we mentioned before, assuming these slots are all intended for graphics cards alone is a little off kilt. MSI's use of the PCI-E bridge chip is really meant to allow for the use of more than one add-on card that needs a minimum x4 link state. Features like this will become more and more important as the industry continues to accelerate away from the aging PCI interface on its way to full support for the newer PCI Express architecture.
The latest reports from Intel place the X48 launch in mid- to late February. Picking up a new motherboard after the big Q1 refresh, as well as currently un-launched 45nm budget quad-core CPUs or the elusive E8500 dual-core CPU, will be the focus of enthusiasts worldwide. Keep your eyes on this board (hard not too with that heatsink solution or pink memory slots), with a few more tweaks, we see no reason why MSI will not be able to deliver a compelling DDR3 alternative at an attractive price. A price that would be even more attractive if DDR3 memory prices continue to fall.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
21 Comments
View All Comments
HotBBQ - Thursday, January 31, 2008 - link
You cannot directly compare CAS latency across DDR revisions."Consider the latency ratings of the three most recent memory formats: Upper-midrange DDR-333 was rated at CAS 2; similar-market DDR2-667 was rated at CAS 4 and today's middle DDR3-1333 is often rated at CAS 8. Most people would be shocked to learn that these vastly different rated timings result in the same actual response time, which is specifically 12 nanoseconds." - Tomshardware
Mondoman - Friday, February 1, 2008 - link
Actually, you can compare the latency pretty directly across DDR technologies, as shown in your example. 2 clocks at DDR-333 = 4 (twice as fast) clocks at DDR2-667 = 8 (four times as fast) clocks at DDR3-1333.tayhimself - Thursday, January 31, 2008 - link
Please include stability testing. Who cares if you can get 1-5% more performance via exotic tweaks. Lets make sure that the board doesnt lock up when overclocked and laden with RAM by doing some stress testing. And make the stress testing transparent. These reviews are not as useful as or TR reviews for this reason.ATWindsor - Friday, February 1, 2008 - link
And also test if the product supports other things than graphic-cards in the PCIe-slots, a card like this begs for it.kjboughton - Thursday, January 31, 2008 - link
We will be including this type of information and much, much more in our upcoming X38/X48 motherboard round-up. As we mentioned in the review, this article is meant to provide you an early look at the layout, features, specifications, interesting BIOS options and a quick preview of any overclocking results. Stay tuned, we're confident we will address the concerns you brought to day in much more detail in just a short time.Vikendios - Thursday, January 31, 2008 - link
And please let us know how Nvidia cards work in SLI under Intel chipsets, not only under Nvidia's chipsets.I am particularly interested in twinned 8800 GT, since AnandTech called them "The only cards that matter".
OzoZoz - Thursday, January 31, 2008 - link
We all know that nVidia does not "certify" this Intel chipset to run SLI, but does that mean it won't work? I agree with Vikendios: I would like to see how SLI performs on these Intel-based motherboards.JarredWalton - Thursday, January 31, 2008 - link
I know of someone at a hardware site that was threatened with a lawsuit if they showed SLI performance on a non-NVIDIA system. (I don't know if those threats are still being sent around, but it wouldn't surprise me.) At present, the only way to make SLI work on a non-NVIDIA chipset requires a hack.Hacked drivers, but the latest drivers use some sort of encryption I believe so cracking them breaks the DMCA. I don't even know if anyone can break the encryption, and the last hacked drivers I heard about are quite old, XP only GeForce 7xxx or earlier only, and probably won't work with many modern games.
The other approach that might work would be to hack your BIOS so that it identifies itself as an nForce chipset. I don't know exactly what would be required for the ID string, or if it would work properly afterwards.
Note that SLI works on stuff like SkullTrail and PM945 (i.e. http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=307...">in my Alienware m9750 review) because there's an nForce 100 bridge chip in use. nForce 100 is the precursor to the nForce 200 that's used to provide 780i with dual PCI-E 2.0 slots.
SoBizarre - Thursday, January 31, 2008 - link
It seems that the author of this article is very much “into” memory stuff. I have a little suggestion. Why don't you consider writing kind of “Everything about motherboards & RAM” guide. You could cover some practical aspects which are NEVER addressed by reviewers. For example: On motherboard supporting up to 8GB of RAM (like the one reviewed today), what is the limiting factor for RAM amount? Is it electrical(?) design of PCB, or is the address space limitation of chipset (BIOS)? Because if the BIOS can not address more than 8GB of memory, memory remapping will not help and you just can't have 8GB of RAM available to your (64bit) OS. Is that the case? Personally I don't run Virtual Machines nor do I have other reasons for installing 8GB of RAM , but other people do. Besides, it would be nice to just KNOW.smeister - Friday, February 1, 2008 - link
What's with the memory reference voltage?On the specification page (pg 2)
Memory Reference Voltage Auto, 0.90V ~ 1.25V
It should be half the DDR3 memory voltage
1.5V x 0.5 = 0.75V, so should be: Auto, 0.75V ~ 1.25V