# MSI Big Bang XPower 2 X79 Motherboard Review



## Tenida (Jan 7, 2012)

*MSI Big Bang XPower 2 X79 Review*
*i.imgur.com/93Jtd.jpg
*i.imgur.com/GY5yD.jpg

*
Specs*-


Spoiler



CPU 
• Supports 2nd Generation Intel® Core i7 processors in LGA2011 package.
Chipset

• Intel® X79 Chipset
Main Memory

• Supports eight unbuffered DIMM of 1.5 Volt DDR3 1066/1333/1600/1866*/2133*/2400* (OC) DRAM, 128GB Max
- Supports Quad channel mode
Slots

• 4 PCI Express gen3 x16 slots
- PCI_E1 supports up to PCIE x16 speed
- PCI_E5 supports up to PCIE x16 speed when PCI_E3 is empty, or supports x8 speed when PCI_E3 is occupied
- PCI_E3 & PCI_E7 support up to PCIE x8 speed
• 3 PCI Express gen2 x16 slots
- PCI_E2, PCU_E4 & PCI_E6 support up to PCIE x1 speed

On-Board SATA

• SATAII controller integrated in Intel® X79 chipset
- Up to 3Gb/s transfer speed.
- Supports four SATAII ports (SATA3~6) by X79

• SATAIII controller integrated in Intel® X79 chipset
- Up to 6Gb/s transfer speed.
- Supports two SATAIII ports (SATA1~2) by X79

• SATAIII controller integrated in ASMedia® ASM 1061 chipset
- Up to 6Gb/s transfer speed.
- Supports four SATAIII ports (SATA7~10)

• RAID
- SATA1~6 ports support Intel Rapid Storage Technology enterprise (AHCI / RAID 0/1/5/10) by Intel X79
USB 3.0

• 1 USB 3.0 internal connector by NEC® D720200
• 4 USB 3.0 rear I/O ports by NEC® D720200

Audio 

• Chipset integrated by Realtek® ALC892
- Flexible 8-channel audio with jack sensing
- Compliant with Azalia 1.0 Spec
- Meet Microsoft Vista Premium spec
LAN 

• Supports dual PCI Express LAN 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by Intel 82579V and 82574L.
 IEEE1394 / FireWire

• VIA® VT6315N chipset
- Supports up to two 1394 ports. (Rear panel x1, pinheader x1)
- Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps.
Internal I/O Connectors

- ATX 24-Pin power connector
- 2 x 8-pin Power connectors
- CPU x 1 / System x 5 FAN connectors
- Front panel audio connector
- Front panel connector
- 1 x Chasis intrusion connector
- 2 x USB 2.0 connectors
- 1 x USB 3.0 connectors
- 4 x Serial ATAII connectors
- 6 x Serial ATAIII connectors
- 1 x IEEE1394 connector
- 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
- 1 x Power button
- 1 x Reset button
- 1 x OC Genie button
- 2 x Base clock buttons
- 1 x Multi BIOS button



Back Panel I/O Ports

- 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard port
- 1 x Clear CMOS button
- 1 x Coaxial SPDIF port
- 1 x Optical SPDIF port
- 1 x IEEE1394 port
- 2 x RJ45 LAN Jacks
- 6 x USB 2.0 ports
- 4 x USB 3.0 ports
- 1 x 6 in 1 audio jack



BIOS

• The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
• The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface(DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.



Dimension

• 34.5cm(L) x 26.4cm(W) XL-ATX Form Factor

Mounting

• 12 mounting holes.



*Review Link*
MSI Big Bang XPower 2 X79 Motherboard Review - Introduction
MSI X79 Big Bang XPower II review


*Conclusion *

*Hardwareheaven*


Spoiler






> It is clear from using the Big Bang XPower 2 that MSI's designers and engineers were given the task of creating the best X79 board they could, with as few compromises as possible. The result is an exceptional product which has hugely impressed us during out time testing it.
> 
> The experience begins with a great first impression as we note the plethora of enthusiast features which are found across the board, from additional power connectors (CPU and GPU) to useful buttons and switches (OCGenie, PCIe CeaseFire) and overclocking essentials such as voltage read points. Looking a little closer allows us to see that the build quality is top notch with features like DR.MOS protecting our board and high spec components such as solid capacitors, super ferrite chokes and HI-C solid capacitors with Tantalum cores used throughout the product.
> 
> ...





*i.imgur.com/qrTga.jpg

*
Guru3D*:-


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...


*My View*- Its the best looking motherboard I ever seen.Performance is rock solid too.


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## Tarun (Jan 7, 2012)

the goes msi with sooo many PCIe slots 

by the way well done tenida


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## d6bmg (Jan 7, 2012)

^^ Among those 7 slots, at least 3 will be useless and if anyone uses big cards, then they can use only 3 of them. Think those 7 slots more as a marketing strategy rather than some useful additions.


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## vickybat (Jan 8, 2012)

Nice find tenida. Board looks feature rich and offers rocksolid performance as well.


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## Tenida (Jan 8, 2012)

Thanks* Bat**man*



d6bmg said:


> ^^ Among those 7 slots, at least 3 will be useless and if anyone uses big cards, then they can use only 3 of them. Think those 7 slots more as a* marketing strategy rather than some useful additions*.



Its not just a marketing strategy it has some definite function.To know that function you have to read the full review.



> PCIe slot connectivity, that's seven PCI Express x16 slots. Four of these PCIe slots are linked to the Sandy Bridge-E processor are PCI Express 3.0 compatible, while the remaining three are fed by an added PLX PEX8608 IC chip, which will be good ol' PCIe Gen 2 complaint.
> 
> We get this question a lot through email, but a Gen 3 slot is backwards compatible so a PCIe Express 2.0 graphics card will work absolutely fine, you'll simply fall back to Gen 2 bandwidth. Four dual-slot graphics cards can be seated just fine.
> 
> ...


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## Extreme Gamer (Jan 8, 2012)

d6bmg said:


> ^^ Among those 7 slots, at least 3 will be useless and if anyone uses big cards, then they can use only 3 of them. Think those 7 slots more as a marketing strategy rather than some useful additions.



Watercooling?


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## d6bmg (Jan 8, 2012)

For water cooled system they are good and can be utilized for quad SLI as mentioned in the review. Not for air cooled system. Think about fat cards like Asus GTX580 DCII which takes up 3 expansion slots and there must be some air gap between two cards (at least 1 extension slot).


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## avinandan012 (Jan 8, 2012)

i think the mobo industry should revise the specification of the motherboards. now most of the gfx cards consumes two slot. One slot is waste here.


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Jan 8, 2012)

^no its not waste. there are single slot cards with water cooling. 

*www.evga.com/PRODUCTS/IMAGES/GALLERY/03G-P3-1597-AR_XL_4.jpg
*www.evga.com/PRODUCTS/IMAGES/GALLERY/015-P3-1589-AR_LG_4.jpg


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## Tenida (Jan 8, 2012)

^^Nice info.Then no slot will be wasted.


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Jan 8, 2012)

i mean if someone spends on those extreme boards he will have enough for WC GPUs too. 
or may be for LN2 benching


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## d6bmg (Jan 16, 2012)

Jaskanwar Singh said:


> ^no its not waste. there are single slot cards with water cooling.
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...



Sorry for the late posting as I was not available.

Matter of fact: talking about Indians, 
1. We can't get these cards here.
2. Water-cooling is like a dream in India.
3. Starting from pump, reservoir, coolants etc almost everything isn't available.

For US-Europe region, story is completely different though.


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