14 DAY TRIAL // Micro-Star International may have went along with the flow and unveiled a number of mobile PCs over the past month, netbooks and notebooks alike, but it didn't neglect its motherboard business. This is evident from how it released two Fuzion series platforms for the mainstream. On the other hand, only so many people will actually go for multi-GPU setups, which means that there is still room for more motherboards. Knowing this, MSI has reportedly been working on the so-called X58A-GD65.
The platform tries to strike a balance between abundance of features and the price point, though it still has capabilities worthy of ATX platforms. For one, it limits itself to 'just' three PCI Express slots, which support 3-way SLI or Quad CrossFire X setups. On the other hand, it didn't shy away from including six DDR3-2133 memory slots. What's more important, however, is that the two most recent, and fastest, storage interfaces are present.
To be more specific, in addition to the predictable six SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors, the motherboard features two USB 3.0 ports and the same number of SATA 6.0 Gbps connectors. Consumers may remember that these interfaces can allow storage solutions to communicate at up to 5Gbps and 6Gbps rates, respectively. This will ensure that even the newest hard drives and solid state drives work at their fullest and also make the platform 'future proof', in a manner of speaking. Other specifications include Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, 7.1 channel audio, coaxial SPDIF connectors and dual eSATA.
As for the chipset, it is the Intel X58 and, thus, will support socket LGA 1366 central processing units, not just the quad-core but also the hexa-core models. The motherboard also boasts an 8-phase VRM and 4+6 USB 2.0 ports. It will supposedly become available for pre-order shortly, if it hasn't already, priced at 213.50 EURO.