14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since it was first introduced, MSI's P67 Big Bang-Marshal LGA 1155 motherboard proved to be a hit among performance enthusiasts and gamers alike, and now, many will rejoice when hearing that the board has finally been launched.
What makes the Big-Bang Marshal so special among its fellow LGA 1155 peers, is MSI's implementation of the Lucid Hydra chip, that enabled the company to equip the board with no less than eight PCI Express x16 slots.
These can be used in order to install an impressive number of graphics cards, running either in CrossFireX or SLI, the Lucid chip even allowing users to mix and match models from different vendors.
In addition, to further cater to the needs of the gaming crowd, MSI has decided to pair the motherboard with a Creative X-Fi MB2 chip that enabled the use of EAX 5.0 sound effects and carries THX TruStudio Pro stereo certification.
Overclockers haven't been forgotten neither, as the Big-Bang Marshal comes equipped with a 24-phase DrMOS power design, dual 8-pin CPU power plugs, a set of 6-pin VGA power supply connectors (for providing additional power to the installed GPUs), on-board power, reset, clear CMOS and OC Genies buttons, as well as a series of DIP-switches that disable and enable the PCI Express slots according to the user's preference.
Other MSI specific features, like the dedicated voltage measurement points, will also make their appearance.
As far as layout is concerned, everything seems to be arranged pretty neatly, as even the two 8-pin CPU power plugs are easily accessible.
Moving to the back of the motherboard, we find all the usual assortment of ports, but MSI went a step further than other manufacturers and included eight USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports.
Sadly, no details regarding pricing were released together with the official announcement of the card.