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- Date:
- Sunday , March 28, 2010
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
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MSI Big Bang Trinergy Motherboard Review
The Intel P55 based Trinergy motherboard is one of the latest motherboard releases from MSI. As part of MSI's "Big Bang" line of products, this board is squarely targeted at the enthusiast crowd, and looks to be built to take on the best of them. We put the Trinergy through our usual paces.
Introduction
MSI is well known in the computer enthusiast and gaming space for its high performance designs and cutting edge products. From the company's beginnings on the enthusiast scene, MSI has prided itself in delivering some of the most high performance products on the market by leveraging unique designs and performance driven technological innovation. While it lost its enthusiast luster for a good while, in the last two years MSI has made great strides getting back into the overclocking motherboard market. Its newest product branding, the "Big Bang" line of products, attempts to take this philosophy to an entirely new level, with products designed to stand up to the abuse that an average enthusiast demands from their products of choice. MSI's latest motherboard in the Big Bang line is a shining example of their relentless pursuit of this market.
The MSI Big Bang Trinergy motherboard was designed with a melding two different chipsets, the Intel P55 and NVIDIA NF200 chipsets. By using this chipset combination, MSI was able to build support for the following technologies in to the board: Intel LGA 1156 Core i7 and Core i5 processors, DDR3 memory operating in Dual Channel mode up to 1333MHz officially, and either NVIDIA SLI or ATI CrossFireX graphics mode using matching video cards. The following integrated devices are offered standard on the Trinergy board: 6 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capable) on the Intel P55 controller; 2 e-SATA ports on the JMicron JMB362 controller; dual sets of 2 SATA II ports on the 2 integrated JMicron JMB322 controllers (RAID 0 and 1 capable per controller); 14 USB 2.0 capable ports (10 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, and 1 onboard header supporting 1 port each); 2 Realtek GigE Ethernet ports in the rear panel; Realtek 8-channel HD audio codec with integrated S/PDIF optical and RCA component output ports; integrated power, system reset, CMOS reset, green power and OC Genie overclocking buttons; integrated OC Dashboard port in the rear panel; and a PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports in the rear panel.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Mainboard Specification List:
Packaging
For the Trinergy's box, MSI used their Big Bang design logo with the board name and supported technologies clearly shown on the box front panel. MSI chose to include the following accessories in with the Trinergy board: IDE and locking SATA drive and power cables; the rear panel shield; ATI CrossFire and NVIDIA SLI connectors; OC Dashboard device and connect cable; a USB 2.0 and powered e-SATA rear panel brackets; the motherboard header connectors; V-Check cables; the QuantumWave Audio card device; and the normal complement of manuals and drivers discs. The motherboard header connectors allow for an easy interface for connecting in to the motherboard headers. You simply plug in your front panel jumpers in to the white connector and the USB 2.0 jumpers in to the blue connector block, and then plug both blocks in to the motherboard headers. It makes for a much easier install for those typically hard to reach header areas. The OC Dashboard device allows for information monitoring and performance setting adjustment via a palm sized module. The V-Check cables connect to the V-Check points on the board for using a multi-meter type device to check board voltages directly.
Board Layout
The Trinergy has a clean and uncluttered layout, with components painstakingly placed to minimize device spacing issues. The one surprising fact was that the heat pipe cooling solution was only used for cooling the CPU power circuitry and NVIDIA NF200 chipset, with the Intel P55 chipset cooled by a standalone heat sink. The board revision is silk screened to the motherboard surface, in between PCI slot 1 and PCI-Express x16 slot 2. The board used in test was a revision 1.1 model. One thing you will immediately notice with this board is the lack of traditional solid-electrolyte capacitors. For its power regulation and delivery needs, MSI used server-grade Hi-C capacitors, also known as Highly-Conductive Polymerized Capacitors.
MSI did a fine job keeping the CPU socket area clear of obstructions, with all power circuitry present of the low-profile persuasion. The CPU cooler itself is held fast to the CPU socket using the standard 4-hole LGA1156 style design. Directly to the left of the socket is the NVIDIA NF200 chipset, with the CPU power phase LED and SYSFAN3 header directly above it. The CPU power phase LED displays how many power phases are currently being used to power the CPU, with a total of 8 present on the board. The 8-pin ATX12V power connector is to the upper right of the socket, with the CPUFAN header to its lower right.
The onboard DDR3 memory slots are located directly below the CPU socket in a 4-by-1 bi-colored design. Dual Channel memory mode is active with modules placed in like colored slots, with the black colored slots being reserved for the primary memory modules. The 24-pin ATX power connector, overvoltage switch block and V-Check voltage checkpoint block are located directly below the DIMM slots. The SYSFAN2 header is located to the lower right of the memory slots. The V-Check voltage checkpoint block gives easy access to check specific board voltages using a multi-meter, which include the CPU voltage, the CPU termination voltage, the memory voltage, and the Intel P55 chipset voltage. The overvoltage switch block allows you to increase the ceiling voltage for the CPU voltage, CPU termination voltage, memory voltage, and Intel P55 chipset voltage.
The Intel P55 chipset is located just under the CMOS battery and PCI-Express x16 slot 2, covered by an MSI branded standalone heat sink. The SYSFAN1 header and onboard SATA 2 and IDE ports are located just under the chipset. The black colored SATA 2 ports are controlled by the Intel P55 controller, with the blue colored ports being controlled by the 2 onboard JMicron controllers. The front panel headers are located in the lower left corner of the board, with the power, system reset and green power buttons and USB 2.0 headers just above them. Notice that the buttons are not true buttons, but rather silk-screened images on the board's surface with the images being touch sensitive.
MSI included a total of 7 card slots in the Trinergy's design: 3 PCI-Express x16 slots, 2 PCI-Express x1 slots, and 2 PCI slots. The USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 headers, as well as the OC Genie and CMOS reset buttons are located along the outer edge of PCI-Express x16 slot 3, with the TPM module header to its upper left. The CMOS battery and chassis intrusion header are located just under PCI slot 1, while the SYSFAN4 jumper is to the upper left of that slot. The OC Genie button initiates the auto-overclocking mechanism integrated in to the board's BIOS, when the button is depressed with the system powered off.
MSI integrated the following ports in to the Trinergy's rear panel: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; the OC Dashboard port; 8 dedicated USB 2.0 ports; 1 IEEE 1394 port; 2 shared use e-SATA / USB 2.0 ports; and 2 Realtek GigE Ethernet ports. With the QuantumWave Audio card plugged in to the primary PCI-Express x1 slot, the following audio slots are added: 6 analogue and S/PDIF optical and RCA component audio output ports.