14 DAY TRIAL // The newest motherboard to leave MSI's labs is one that will act as a very good platform for multi-GPU systems, a fact that might not be coincidental, given the launch of NVIDIA's new graphics card.
Though they usually don't get used by consumers, Xeon CPUs, especially the Xeon E5 series, are very powerful, which means they can play games and overclock very well.
Micro-Star International made the X79A-GD45 PLUS socket LGA2011 motherboard just for them, though it must have been thinking of high-end graphics cards as well.
After all, the platform has three grey PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, plus another two PCI Express x16 in electrical x4 mode (PCI Express 2.0, black).
Overall, it is just perfect for multi-card setups. NVIDIA was quite insistent that GeForce Titan in triple-SLI mode could cause awe.
There probably won't be another record like the 1750 MHz in Quad-SLI of yesterday, but three boards are still a lot.
Then again, a single GeForce GTX Titan is overpowered, but we digress.
To assist the CPU and GPUs, MSI gave the X79A-GD45 PLUS motherboard no less than eight DDR3 DIMM memory slots.
That makes for a total RAM amount of 128 GB, which is a ludicrous amount. This makes it good for servers, not just high-end PCs.
Other specs include four USB 3.0 ports, two SATA 6 Gbps connectors, three SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, Gigabit Ethernet, PS/2 mouse/keyboard, some USB 2.0/1.1 ports, 8-channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs and AMI UEFI BIOS, plus overclocking perks (Diagnostic LEDs, POST state display, accessible CMOS reset button, etc).
All in all, the X79A-GD45 PLUS socket LGA2011 motherboard is a very capable item, though the storage capabilities are surprisingly modest, given everything else.
Unfortunately, Micro-Star International did not see fit to disclose the price of the newcomer.
