MSI Big Bang-XPower II LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 XL ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Received board on 3/15/13 with bios version 1.5.
Installed perfectly in a phantom 820 case.
Installed 3960x - 16 GB 4x4 Dominator Platinum 2133c91.5v. Corsair h100.
Set XMP 1, memtested86 perfect at rated speeds.
In standard bios, set strap for 116, set memory multiplier to DDR3-1866 (NO VOLTAGE CHANGES). No changes to multiplier. EIST, cie and hyperthreading all enabled.

6 cores at 4.6 GHZ, 1.29v Prime STABLE 6 hours.
DDR3 2200 mhz 9, 11, 10 2t Prime and memtest stable.

6 X crucial M4 64gb hard drives connected to X79 ports in raid 5. 450mb writes (389mb 4k) and 1.2GB reads (700MB 4k).

Gigabyte SOC GTX 680 (PCIE 3.0 enabled) OFF the charts, set the top speed record for all GTX 680 benchmarks submitted to Passmark (over 1700 samples submitted).

ALL USB 3.0 PORTS WORK FLAWLESSLY, JUST A PERFECT BUILD.

Cons: THERE ARE NO CONS HERE> THIS BOARD FLYS>ABSOLUTELY NO ISSUES>.
Here are a few fyi points. In standard mode there is no pop up for cpu strap frequencies or multiplier, just enter the valUe you want type auto to set to auto. The click bios works but will eliminate your standard settings when used. Recommend you use standard mode in bios and not install click bios. Control center is a great app and worth installing.

Other Thoughts: DO's AND DONTS.
DO get a power supply with dual 8 pin power, i used a corsair ax1200.
DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN YOUR CPU COOLER ANY FLEX IN YOUR MOTHERBOARD CAN CAUSE CONTACT ISSUES.

DO BUY THIS BOARD!!!!

Pros: None yet. Board was DOA/would not POST. Let's hope the RMA process goes smooth.

Cons: As soon as I opened the package, I could see the board had been dropped. the top right corner was bent with the jumper pins slightly bent as well. What's more, the inner box showed the damage, but the outer box was clean. That leads me to believe it was dropped during packaging.

Other Thoughts: In spite of the visual damage, I worked on this board all weekend trying to make sure it was DOA and not some mistake I had made, even though I've never had a problem on a new build with shorting out a MB.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Physical damage can only be caused from shipping but not from packaging as it can't pass QA therefore contact shipping to claim shipping damage.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with our tech support team directly at 626.271.1004 for assistance during regular business hours from M to F, 9am to 6pm Pacific Time.
Or you can email us at usreview@msi.com, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Fast! Much faster than the ASUS Sabertooth X79 I was using. Windows Experience score went from 6.5 to 8.1 with just swapping out the motherboard and power supply. I also noticed a big improvement in game frame rates.

There was also no sparks or smoke when I powered it on the first time ;)

Cons: Both of these are my fault for not paying attention to the board specs. The board is a "XL ATX" form factor which I had never heard of, so I had to buy a new case. I also had to get a new 1000W power supply to accommodate the board needing two 8 pin CPU power connections.

Pros: overclock pretty easy, love the theme, runs pretty cooler with my setup.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: great board for the price. i had to customized my corsair 800d to fit this motherboard. got my 3930k to 5.1ghz with ht enable with a waterchiller on this board. overclocks pretty good with the new bios 1.5 version. so far...not problems with it what so ever. i must have to say..its a pretty big board. =)

Pros: This motherboard is a dream. It's perfect in every way!
However, there is a sleeping giant. I'm going to see about coating the gatling gun with some sort of rubberized insulator to protect it from ARCING with the MOSFETs.
It's apparently like a 15-20 percent chance of happening. Otherwise, I'm extremely happy with the performance and cooling abilities with this board.

Cons: Stated above.

Other Thoughts: It's still worth it if the gatling gun can be partially or fully insulated and protected from the mean and angry MOSFETs.

Pros: Cool heatsink designs.
Blue LEDs for finding out what is/isn't working.
10 total SATA ports.
Lots of PCIE slots.
Windows 8 compatible.

Cons: Received two DOA. Two!

Other Thoughts: I got this board because of a deal Newegg offered: Buy the board, get free RAM. Unfortunately, the first two I received were DOA. I've spent almost two months RMAing the board to finally get a working one, not to mention the shipping costs I had to pay. Thankfully, Newegg is awesome with RMAs. I do have a functioning one now, and I can say it is preforming well. Hopefully that continues.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear JSwan81,

We apologize for the issues that you had with this motherboard. We are glad that you have it functioning now. If you ever need any assistance, please contact us directly at usreview@msi.com.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: 4 PCI-E 3.0 slots

Cons: defective, fire hazard, sends out sparks, 38% failure rate, 42 out of 110 purchased failed within two months, should be recalled, MSI only wants to replace rather than return the defective product, fake gatling gun cooler arcs with MOSFETs and causes sparks and smoke to fly, cheesy gun marketing gimic is the cause of the problem, marketing should defer to engineering, people want quality, not a cheesy guns that spark on their motherboard. MSI should return, not replace this product. It is defective and hazardous

Other Thoughts: I run a high performance computing network with 250 servers. I bought 110 of these motherboards because they appeared to have good specs and four PCI 3.0 slots and we often use all of these slots for gpu computing. To our great disappointment, 42 of the 110 motherboards failed within the first two months. When the fail, they fail spectacularly; a huge puff of smoke comes out of the computer and sparks fly. The problem is that the marketing department seems to have dominated the engineering department in the design of this motherboard. The motherboard has fake bullets and a Gatling gun shaped cooler targeted at the teenage male gamer. On every failed motherboard, an electric current arced between the Gatling gun and the MOSFETs on the edge of the motherboards, causing a complete motherboard failure. I feared for fire safety and the safety of our expensive gpus, so I pulled every MSI Big Bang from my facility. I tried to RMA them, but MSI only offered to replace them with other Big Bangs. I never want to see a Big Bang again. I believe it should be recalled for fire safety reasons. You should know that we have never had a motherboard failure in our other 150 machines, so the problem is not due to ability to build computers or our computing environment. I have demanded that MSI return, not replace, these motherboards. Their terrible customer support department has refused, saying the warranty gives them the right to replace the units. I hope to take the issue to the consumer protection bureau or the legal department of MSI, if they ever pick up the phone or return a letter. I don't want more defective products. I want cash with which to buy another model of motherboard without the cheesy, defective machine gun cooler. I have been happy with my other MSI motherboards, but they really blew it with the Big Bang. Wish me luck.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Be sure to provide sufficient cooling for your set up.

Please kindly visit the URL below to set up a RMA with the following information.
http://service.msicomputer.com/msi_user/rma_form_new.aspx

1. Full name (first, and last)
2. Telephone #
3. Physical address
4. Email address
5. Serial number (located on the box, or underneath the motherboard, eg 601-xxxx-xxxBxxxxxxxxxx)
6. Symptoms you are having onto the Special Remark section (as detailed as possible)

Once your information and warranty coverage are verified then we can proceed with this RMA for you.
Our turn-around time is typically two weeks and our system will notify you automatically at every stage of your RMA process.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the product, received the unit back from RMA but are still having issues, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at usreview@msi.com and we will be more than happy to assist you, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: My first X79 board and I'm beyond content excellent boot time and overall stability

Cons: None right now

Pros: Besides how cool this board looks, the functionality of it is just as nice. Very well laid out and super easy to set up. Also, it booted right up and everything works as it should.

Cons: Don't like how when you first boot up, it powers my Antec H2O fans on high for a second then to it's set speed.

Other Thoughts: I'm a CTA day trader and built this computer to power up my 6 - 27" LED monitors. This board gives me all the room I need for multiple video cards down the road, and lots of SATA ports for tons of memory. Here's my setup

Cooler Master HAF-X Blue case
MSI Big Bang XPower II mobo
Intel 3930K
OCZ Agility 4 256GB SSD
Seagate 2 TB 7200 HDD
ASUS HD7970-DC2-3GD5 Video Card
Shark 1200 watt PSU

6 - Acer 27" LED monitors with stand

This bad boy rocks my trading charts!

Pros: Its got everything you could ever want.

Cons: Its is huge, need a special case to fit it.

Other Thoughts: I only buy MSI because I have never had any problems with any of their hardware. They're quality is always top notch. Just keep in mind if you buy this motherboard I'd recommend the Rosewill Blackhawk-Ultra case because that was the only one I found that would fit with this motherboard.