VR-Zone

The board layout is neat, complete with contrasty DIMM slots and other connectors.






This board uses a pretty standard 4-phase PWM circuitry. Probably MSI could do something in this department, as other brands have moved on to PWMs that have a number of phases that is double of what MSI is having now for quite a long while already.






In order to run dual channel, you have to put one stick in the green slot and the other in the orange slot. Confusing isn't it? Other manufacturers colour-code their DIMM slots such that you place your RAMs in slots of the same colour to run dual channel.






The interesting Circu-Pipe takes up quite a bit of space on the motherboard. Lots of pipes and more surface area.






The board's PCI slots layout is good. There is a gap of two slots between the two PCI Express x16 slots. You won't get toasted bread and stuff like that even if you run CrossFire on this board with dual-slot graphic cards. There will still be a gap of one slot between the two graphics cards.






The various headers are colour-coded for easy reference. The IDE connector is also located along the edge of the board, unlike the Asus P5K Premium which has its IDE connector smack in the middle. The SATA ports are moved slightly away from the PCI Express x16 slot also, preventing any obstruction if we have long video cards installed.






Nothing much on the rear I/O plate, but we have two eSATA ports on the back. Great news for people who connect, or plan to buy a lot of external storage.