MSI Big Bang-XPower II X79 Review – A World of Novelty Heatsinks
by Ian Cutress on February 25, 2012 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- X79
Test Setup
| Processor |
Intel Sandy Bridge-E i7-3960X 6 Cores, 12 Threads, 3.3 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo) |
| Motherboards | MSI Big Bang-XPower II X79 |
| Cooling | Intel All-In-One Liquid Cooler, made by Asetek |
| Power Supply | Silverstone 1000W 80 PLUS Silver |
| Memory | G.Skill RipjawsZ DDR3-1866 9-10-9-28 1.5 V 4x4 GB Kit |
| Memory Settings | XMP |
| Video Cards |
XFX HD 5850 1GB ECS GTX 580 1536MB |
| Video Drivers |
Catalyst 11.8 NVIDIA Drivers 285.62 |
| Hard Drive | Micron RealSSD C300 256GB |
| Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
| Case | Open Test Bed - CoolerMaster Lab V1.0 |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit |
| SATA Testing | Micron RealSSD C300 256GB |
| USB 2/3 Testing | Patriot 64GB SuperSonic USB 3.0 |
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the power supply, while in a dual GPU configuration. This method allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
For an XL-ATX board, the MSI BBXP2 is spot on in its power consumption, being the most energy efficient (or the second most efficient) by default compared to other X79 boards tested.
CPU Temperatures
With most users’ running boards on purely default BIOS settings, we are running at default settings for the CPU temperature tests. This is, in our outward view, an indication of how well (or how adventurous) the vendor has their BIOS configured on automatic settings. With a certain number of vendors not making CPU voltage, turbo voltage or LLC options configurable to the end user, which would directly affect power consumption and CPU temperatures at various usage levels, we find the test appropriate for the majority of cases. This does conflict somewhat with some vendors' methodology of providing a list of 'suggested' settings for reviewers to use. But unless those settings being implemented automatically for the end user, all these settings do for us it attempt to skew the results, and thus provide an unbalanced 'out of the box' result list to the readers who will rely on those default settings to make a judgment. CPU Temperatures are not really indicative of quality or performance, even though one would postulate that worse parts may produce higher temperatures. However, if a manufacturer uses more conductive material in the power plane, this reduces resistance and increases the voltage at the CPU, causing a higher temperature but potentially better stability.
Impressively, the novelty heatsinks on the MSI seem to work wonders, producing our lowest ever CPU temperatures in idle, video and OCCT mode.
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Operandi - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
"Giant fag" might be going a bit far but unless MSI is aiming for the immature 14 year old who lives their life through MW or BF I think they missed the mark big time with the design. Which is too bad because I otherwise I like the murdered out all black aesthetic.As it is Asus, Gigabyte are both making great boards that don't look stupid so I can easily skip this and look elsewhere.
leignheart - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
nah it would only scream that if you owned it Ben90bobeedee - Sunday, February 26, 2012 - link
got to agree with physical-leave the stupid toys off of the motherboard.Bownce - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
I think they're great. They should also include bandoleers for overclocking, a tiny lever action for resetting, and a D.B. icon for when it crashes.Oxford Guy - Saturday, February 25, 2012 - link
Isn't that exciting! Wow!Guys! Maybe think about cooling it with the exclamation point! Most of the review blurbs on the main page have them!
Oxford Guy - Saturday, February 25, 2012 - link
Probably the best PSU ever! Like O-My-Gosh!http://www.anandtech.com/show/5464/seasonic-platin...
coolhardware - Saturday, February 25, 2012 - link
I like all the exclamation points!PS Thanks for all the reviews and content lately, it is nice to see AnandTech updated so often...
Iketh - Saturday, February 25, 2012 - link
This particle article I didn't care to read in its entirety, so I glanced through hoping to find the few pieces of information I wanted. One was the MSRP... it's always listed at the bottom of the spec list in every other review on this site. Why omit it here? Please adhere to some of these simple standards so that your articles are less taxing on the reader.IanCutress - Saturday, February 25, 2012 - link
There are no official standards in motherboard reviewing, so unless you provide a list of official 'simple standards' then there is nothing to do apart from consider your request/command to have it exactly where you specifically want information XYZ. The MSRP is listed in a number of places throughout the review (and is consistent with previous reviews) - a link through on the product to a retailer on the test bed, and the last page in particular. It wouldn't be a proper review if we didn't talk about the price! For the record, it is currently $390.All the best,
Ian
Iketh - Saturday, February 25, 2012 - link
Sure there is. The articles on this site follow a similar pattern regardless of what they're about. After not finding the price in the introduction, I knew to jump to the page that introduces the board to find the spec sheet. Unfortunately, the price was not listed at the bottom as it normally is.Of course you talked about the price, I just didn't want to read the full article to find it as I alluded to in my first post. It's a request based on what I'm used to at this site, not a command.
And by the way, there are very few articles I rarely read from beginning to end here. It's just the theme of this board is childish, like a cheap toy when it's anything but.