MSI X58 Platinum LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: reliable. i know this product is pretty much off the market but i purchased this back in 2009 and it still runs no problem.

Cons: any overclocking ive done with this board has been a huge pain. super unstable random blue screens crashes runs extremely hot. the only real reason i purchased this board was because oh the pci slot layouts and it supported sli for a good price. the POST time sucks too i have a ssd in my computer now and over half the time to boot is the POST drag lame ready to replace.

Other Thoughts: great board for someone that doesnt believe in over clocking, has old pci cards, and only wants a board that supports ddr3 1333

Pros: Nice Looking, well configured.

Cons: My specific Board will not boot if I install more than 8 Gigs of RAM, I have tried 3 different types of RAM, I can install 4 Dimms but when the fifth one goes in system won't boot. Tech support stated to update the BIOS, which I will but I am on version 1.1 and the newest version is 1.2, I find it hard to believe that a Board that is 2 months old and should support 24 Gigs of Ram would need an update to see 12 GIGS.

Other Thoughts: Weird thing is BIOS sees the 12 GIGS

Pros: Good Manual. Overclocking options, will try to use the MB switch for first attempts. Easy install CPU. Pretty stiff spring. Everything runs cool. Extra long crossfire bridge provided. Lowest price board for i7 cpu's. Onboard audio good so far. Room for 4850 cards. Up to 12 USB ports.

Cons: Only crossfire for two GPU's. One of the 10 installed usb ports doesn't work at the moment. Not a big issue. First board was shipped with other items and sustained damage. Second after shipping claim and RMA was well packed. Got the new board in time to complete everything under 15 day deadline.

Other Thoughts: One CPU fan and 5 system fans on motherboard. (I had six on case). Have a tuner card in one of the PCI slots. Had to move it to middle slot to facillitate cable connections.
Didn't use the M-connectors, they seemed loose. Drivers loaded well in Vista 64-bit.

Pros: Board is ok. Components locations are good in my case, BIOS has enough options for me.

Cons: I have 2 issues.
1) I have G.Skill 6x2GB kit. First black RAM slot does not recognize any RAM module. BIOS reports, that slot 1 is occupied, but displays only 4GB. MS Vista 64-bit also reports only 4GB available.
2) If SATA hard disk and DVD drive is inserted in SATA 7 and 8, only one of them is recognized. This makes additional SATA ports 7 and 8 usable only as DVD boot drive or HDD boot drive. Not both. I had to connect my system HDD to one of the 6 Intel chipset based ports to be able to install the system.

Other Thoughts: I tried to update my BIOS using browser based MSI Live Update, but the process hangs in the middle and does not finish. I left it overnight and no luck. So I will try to flash my BIOS manually. If that does not fix my RAM problem - I will try to call MSI. If that call does not fix anything either, RMA will be my last option.
I tested board before assembling the case - it booted into bios, recognized my CPU correctly. I did not check the amount of RAM it recognized and asembled everything - big mistake! I will really hate to disassemble everything...

Pros: cost effective alternative

Cons: get what you pay for

Other Thoughts: I do not own this but have two MSI Platinum boards, older Nvidia chipsets. Very disappointed with overclocking. Even more disappointed with tech support - they refer you to search MSI user forums for tech support (ROFL). Eventually I tired of it and got an eVGA board. Result? Q6600 OC went from 2.7 (max on MSI board) to 3.2 (what I felt would be "safe" on air cooling) on eVGA. I'm not hatin - i purchased one of the boards for the fact that it had Sound Blaster XFi built in, and it came with a lot of bells/whistles for very affordable price. I understand why now.

Pros: When comparing the price of this board to others, for what this board can deliver it is definitely worth the money. It has a very basic and easy to understand bios, and the 6 slots of ram are definitely worth having in case you find yourself upgrading in the future. ( I upgraded to 12GB RAM and am very glad i had the option available.) Was very easy to install and it runs on a 3.6 OC no sweat. Could probably push it further but I've no need for that. Great motherboard, spend the money you'd spend on a better one on a better graphics card or something.

Cons: Doesn't support SLI, however, I ended up getting 2 Radeons HD4870s 1GB and they work great crossfired. Once again, the money you spend on a better motherboard could be spent elsewhere.

Other Thoughts: Get this motherboard if you see yourself pushing the i7 to 3.6 stable. If you MUST have it higher, then get a better motherboard, but personally, I couldn't be happier running it the way it is. If you have the i7 extreme edition then you shouldnt even be looking at this motherboard lol.

i7 920, this motherboard, 12GB Gskill DDR3 1333 RAM, 2 HD4870 1GB radeons

Pros: This is the most cost effective motherboard for core i7 920 out there. There are some other board that's cheaper but with only 4 ram slots. I feel 6 ram slots give more upgrade potential down the road. I have some concern about the O.C. ability of this board before I buy it. I have a goal for 3.6g O.C. 24/7. I am pretty sure I can achieve it with Asus or EVGA board with higher price. There are all sorts of articles about the O.C. settings already. I cannot find clear O.C. instruction on the web so I have some doults. However my budget is tight, and this MSI Platinum seems is the only one that can fit in my budget, so I decide to give it a try. If it does not work out, I will RMA it and exchange for something else. Surprisingly, this board worked out. I had some trouble finding out how to adjust CPU voltages in the beginning, but once I had that figured out. everything worked out smoothly.

Cons: (continue) I give +0.1v vcore, and +0.05v QPI to get 3.6g (180x20) very stable, and with a idle temperature at 41C. I can get 3.8g stable with +0.22v Vcore and +0.1v QPI with slightly higer temperature. And I can archive 4.0g after disable turbo mode, but with much higher Vcore/QPI/NB/ICH/Temperature. I don't know what else I could be wishing for from this board. I am just very pleased. 3.8g and 3.6g is in fact very little difference. So I stayed with 3.6g. The only cons I would say is that there is no Sli on this version. This may not be an issue for you if you are AMD user.

Other Thoughts: The shipping and handling on this order is not so good. Order on 12/31, and is not shipped untill 1/6. Maybe is the New Year thing, but I am a little disappointed with Newegg.

Pros: Dual PCI Express 2.0; Cheap

Cons: Posts and/or boots very very slow; IDE connector located in bad spot;

Other Thoughts: I think I wrote another review too, but I have to mention how slow this boots. I have quick boot enables (what a joke) It takes 2 minutes 45 seconds to get to the microsoft corporation screen where the green bars show. It then takes another 30 seconds to get to the login screen.

Could it be the IDE HDD? Maybe, but I'm not wasting money on a SATA drive when the IDE drive is functionable.

Vista 64 Bit
i7 920
IDE 160GB HDD
Samsung 22x DVD Burner
2x2GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1333 (Running at 1066 because I didn't overclock the CUP)
2x MSI GeForce N9600GT

Pros: This is an installation note for all x58 motherboards..

It is strongly suggested to check with the motherboard manufacturer on tested memory.

Intel QPI specifications for both the 920 and 940 is 133mhz.
Any memory conforming to jdec specs for the i7, and seen by the bios as such, will run at 1066mhz on a 133mhz QPI.

If you can change just the clock speed of the memory in the bios (which will change the memory multiplier) then great..
If not.. you will simply need to change the multiplier manually OR change the QPI bus speed to 166mhz.
It is simply that the anufacturer chose to set base Intel specs, not some fault with the motherboard.

btw.. Changing the QPI clock method will also result in a rather gentle oc of your CPU..

So have fun, and research the issue before negatively rating a product for working exactly as it is supposed to.. =)

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: none

Pros: Easy to understand BIOS. The board is easy to figure out. It's a good board for those who just want a basic functional computer. Worked out of the box for me at least. Had a few problems initially, but found out that it was my power supply. Supports ATI's crossfire technology.

Cons: Takes a while to boot which is my only major complaint. The live update utility for Windows is sort of useless. Picky with the kind of RAM you use, but that is why I do a little research first before I build a new computer. As others have mentioned, there is no SLI compatibility with this board, yet, that is again if you must have more than one GPU. Again, a good board for those who are building a nice computer for under $1000 while still being flexible so you can add in 12gb of RAM later on and an additional graphics card.

Other Thoughts: MSI X58 Platinum
Intel Core i7 920
ATI Radeon HD 4850
3gb of DDR3 ram
Corsair TX750W