We were hoping that MSI's Big Bang-XPower motherboard would arrive alongside Intel's wicked-fast Core i7 980X processor, but better late than never, it seems the board is now ready to conquer some benchmarks.
Officially launched today, the extreme X58 board - pictured above - joins the likes of Trinergy and Fuzion as part of MSI's enthusiast-specific Big Bang line and claims to arm would-be buyers "with heart-stopping power to conquer the gaming world".
Lofty claims, but judging by the feature set, who are we to argue? The XPower board makes use of MSI's Military Class Components - including Hi-c CAPs, Solid CAPs, Icy Chokes and Super Ferrite Chokes - to offer improved overclocking stability, and features a 16-phase DrMOS PWM fed by dual eight-pin power connectors.
You should be able to get the most out of your CPU, then, and your GPUs won't go unnoticed, either. Big Bang-XPower offers an exorbitant line up of six PCIe x16 slots, supporting four-way NVIDIA SLI or ATI CrossFire.
On top of that, you get a QuantumWave sound card with support for EAX Advanced HD 5.0 and THX TruSturio Pro, USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps connectivity, and all the usual MSI overclocking goodies - including OC Genie, OC Dashboard and V-Kit.
Bragging rights aplenty, we reckon, and the board's already filtering through to European retailers priced at around €300. Want to know more? Check out the newly-launched product page at MSI.com.