MSI today announced its most affordable board based on Intel’s X58 Northbrodge chip, the X58 Pro. The new board offers a new architecture that adopts the latest Intel X58 Express chipset for Intel’s Core i7 processor, ultra-high bandwidth QPI (Quick Path Interconnect) transmission system and high-speed 3-channel DDR3 memory.
Actual pricing has yet to be announced, but the promise of an affordable X58 board is always pleasant. As it is, the X58 Pro also comes with the rest of MSI’s proprietary tech, including their Gen.2 DrMOS feature (first introduced by MSI on their earlier P45 series), which improves power efficiency up to 93%. This, along with BIOS-level Active Phase Switching (APS) technology for better energy-saving, provides for a stable stream of power for the CPU’s high bandwidth operations.
For graphics performance, the X58 Pro is equipped with three x16 PCI Express graphics slots for multi-GPU setups such as an ATI 3-way CrossFireX configuration. The X58 Pro is capable of two full-bandwidth x16 connections, with one more x16 PCI Express slot for creating the maximum bandwidth on 3-way graphics. The X58 Pro also comes with an onboard eSATA 3Gb/s interface for plug & play storage through an I/O port at the rear.
