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
3D Movement Algorithm Test
The algorithms in 3DPM employ both uniform random number generation or normal distribution random number generation, and vary in various amounts of trigonometric operations, conditional statements, generation and rejection, fused operations, etc. The benchmark runs through six algorithms for a specified number of particles and steps, and calculates the speed of each algorithm, then sums them all for a final score. This is an example of a real world situation that a computational scientist may find themselves in, rather than a pure synthetic benchmark. The benchmark is also parallel between particles simulated, and we test the single thread performance as well as the multi-threaded performance.
Both single and multi-threaded performance is in the top half of the table, however almost all boards are within statistical variance on both tests.
WinRAR x64 3.93 - link
With 64-bit WinRAR, we compress the set of files used in the USB speed tests. WinRAR x64 3.93 attempts to use multithreading when possible.
Impressively the BBXP2 does well on our WinRAR test, coming in at under the golden three minute mark.
FastStone Image Viewer 4.2 - link
FastStone Image Viewer is a free piece of software I have been using for quite a few years now. It allows quick viewing of flat images, as well as resizing, changing color depth, adding simple text or simple filters. It also has a bulk image conversion tool, which we use here. The software currently operates only in single-thread mode, which should change in later versions of the software. For this test, we convert a series of 170 files, of various resolutions, dimensions and types (of a total size of 163MB), all to the .gif format of 640x480 dimensions.
For our FastStone test, the BBXP2 joins a group of boards near the top in at 56 seconds.
Sorenson Squeeze 6.0 - link
Sorenson Squeeze is a professional video encoder, complete with a vast array of options. For this test, we convert 32 HD videos, each a minute long and approximately 42 MB in size, to WMV 512KBps format. Squeeze can encode multiple videos at once, one for each thread.
In our Squeeze test, the board is about average compared to others we have tested.
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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.