MSI pretty recently announced a new Intel X58 motherboard, called MSI X58M, using the all the more popular mATX formfactor. ASUS managed to build a buzz with its overclocking friendly Rampage II Gene, which despite its good set of features fits inside most smaller cases. MSI X58M costs considerably less than the board from ASUS and on paper it looks like a more budget oriented board, but appearances may be misleading.
When they tested the board over at Anandtech it turned out that the performance was equal and often better than ASUS’ praised board, overclocking potential was at least as good. They reached marginally higher processor clock frequencies with the MSI board while ti could go as high as 230MHz Bclk with regular air cooling.
“MSI advertises the X58M as an entry level – maybe even mainstream – X58 motherboard and will nudge users towards their enthusiast level Eclipse series for overclocking duties. Well, we disagree with them as this board to date has overclocked just as well as their upper end X58 offerings.”
Even if the motherboard won’t replace the truly extreme overclocking motherboards on the Core i7 market, but it sure looks like MSI has found a really nice recipe for the new niche on the Core i7 market.
