Over the course of a year, the HWZ team has attended dozens of launches and events, most of them in hotels and convention spaces. The recent MSI X58 launch was a different animal altogether, with MSI Taiwan and the local distributor Network Essentials choosing to hold the event at a restaurant close to where the action is: the Gilmore IT center.

                                            Vanessa Yang, Regional Marketing Specialist takes the floor to explain MSI's promotional activities.

MSI effectively reached out to the dealers, customers, enthusiasts and press through said event, performing a continuous “briefing” style launch for the many attendees to put time aside and walk on over to the venue, such was the proximity to most of the IT shops. The event itself had motherboards and demos aplenty, with much attention lavished on an impressive 3-way CrossFire setup on an X58 Eclipse SLI motherboard, with a unique-looking “GreenPower Genie” displayed front-and-center. Other MSI products were also displayed, including a number of P45 motherboards, 9000 series Nvidia videocards, 4000 series ATI videocards.

                                             A small selection of the huge MSI product line.

The event is a typical example of how MSI looks at efficiency and how to implement it, whether it be in their board design, feature list, or their marketing campaign. Most motherboard manufacturers spend massive amounts on advertising, and while it is imperative to reach the buying public and have them understand the features of a motherboard (resulting in many a marketing catchphrase wasted on an oblivious or plain apathetic consumer), there is also usually a limit on how much trumpet blowing can be done. At a certain point it would be better to get down to work and create the most efficiently capable and affordable motherboard you can, and rely on well thought-out events such as the MSI X58 launch and the actual performance of the board to speak for themselves.

                                             Shakey's Gilmore, a convenient distance from most of the participants.

This is not to say that MSI is not guilty of tooting its own horn on occasion, but they do so far less than its competitors, choosing to put out motherboards with less “frill” and a smaller number of marketing catch phrases to confuse the consumer with. The resulting products are usually not as well publicized, yet at almost all instances trumps the competition when it comes to price balanced against features and performance (check out pricelists and comparos from a few years back up to now – you will see that this is a consistent pattern for MSI).

                                             The Core i7 processor we had running during the event.

The event proceedings again reflects this observation – although the launch did not feel as “polished” as its competitors, MSI is choosing not to bamboozle anyone with pomp and glamour – with MSI, be it in events or in its products, what you get is the essentials plus just enough shine to satisfy any person’s desire for the pretty and the shiny in their newly purchased PC component, while at the same time providing an overwhelming number of features concentrating on what’s important – getting the most bang out of your buck and the most performance without the additional bulk of marketing paraphernalia.

                                             A rear view of the X58 Eclipse system running 3-Way SLI.

                                             The three 9800 GTX+ cards have little room to spare.

The X58 Eclipse SLI, which is MSI’s “enthusiast” offering and a so-called “mid-range” product, will be joined by an “extreme” version named in typical MSI fashion as the X58 Eclipse+ sometime next year. Un-typically of MSI, it is also getting an unofficial nickname of “uber overclocker”. The X58 Platinum is also available for the “performance” portion of the market, with it having the least number of features and the lowest retail pricing. With these three X58 boards MSI is covering all fronts while still maintaining a level of features and performance that will not leave buyers of any of the boards disappointed.

                                             The local distributor made sure that the message was getting through; a person was assigned to explain the Eclipse's features in laymen's terms.

The main difference between the three are minimal when you consider the inherent performance potential of the X58 chip – the main difference is support for SLI, the level of SLI, or the lack of it. The Platinum will only support CrossFire, which by itself is not such a negative point considering the performance of current 4000 series ATI/AMD cards. A number of special MSI features have also been skipped over in favor of a lower price-point, these being the lack of Hi-c capacitors to make way for more affordable yet still durable solid-state caps, a 5-phase power control system named DrMOS (instead of a 6-phase in the higher models), and the removal of the Creative X-Fi stand-alone card, the GreenPower Genie, and the D-LED2 debug display unit.

                                             Tim Chen, Project Manager, discusses product development with the HWZ crew.

These sacrifices in the name of affordability won’t be missed by the performance consumer, as these does not detract from the X58’s prowess, and anyways MSI still includes its APS (active Phase Switching) system, a simpler DrMOS setup, the easy on-board motherboard switches, dual full x16 PCI-E slots, and the same overclocking BIOS with M-Flash.

                                             MSI executives dine with some of the HWM team. A potential 3-Way SLI test is in the works - watch out for it!

The Eclipse SLI is basically the Platinum with all of the aforementioned items added in, as well as support for 3-way SLI as well as CrossFire. There’s little difference between the Eclipse SLI and the Eclipse+, the main being the addition of an Nvidia NF200 chip for additional PCI-E lanes in support of a total of four PCI-E x15 slots, thus opening the way for quad SLI (eventually) or additional Physx functionality. Further details may be forthcoming – more features to differentiate the Eclipse+ from its siblings – we will inform you when we get hold of the details.

                                             Another demo system demonstrating an older Core2 system.

Even after declaring that MSI tends to have fewer features than the competition, what’s included in the X58 Explise SLI is still quite intriguing to say the least – the Creative stand-alone X-Fi  daughtercard boasts of a hardware audio chip from creative, not just a software alternative with a nice casing. Also part of the bundle is the GreenPower Genie, a hardware-based power consumption watchdog that integrates nicely with the X58 Eclipse’s 6-phase power and DrMOS systems – a system that MSI points out is superior to the so-called “8-phase” and higher systems of the competition – a bold claim, and we await with a bit of anticipation if this will turn into a mud-slinging contest akin to what Gigabyte and Asus performed earlier this year. Regardless of whether this claim will be contested or not, MSI must be very confident of their power saving system to declare it superior to the much more publicized systems from its competitors.

                                             MSI Eclipse models planned for release, including released models.

D-LED 2 is a debug LCD-display feature that makes a handy addition for persistent system tweakers and overclocking enthusiasts. Unlike Asus, MSI has chosen to have this debug display on the board itself as compared to Asus “stand-alone” LCD treatment – it will probably come down to preference on which display is better – although I have to say that MSI’s implementation gets a big negative when you start to fill up your motherboard with extra-large, double-slot video cards.

                                            Shirley Wang, Vanessa Yang, and Tim Chen of MSI International.

Bundled items and other features abound – more features than can be covered in this article. Regardless, MSI is certainly keen on stepping up their marketing activities with their increased emphasis on performance and enthusiast’s preferences – it is however gladdening to see that their marketing and indeed the products themselves are still accomplished with the minimum fuss, and the maximum performance, possible, without the extraneous fluff so prevalent with other motherboard makers. With MSI, especially in their latest X58 release, the essentials is what you get, and performance is a bygone assumption that does not need to be stressed anymore, as it is something sure to be included with any MSI product.

                                             A closer look at the videocard running in 3-Way SLI.           

                                              A sample of X58 benchmarks. This one came from Xtremesystems.