![]() The Circu-Pipe cooling is an array of passive heatpipes that pass through key areas of heat. Our fears were put aside though as one of our largest coolers, the Thermaltake V1 had no issues with the Circu-Pipe cooling. While we mentioned the capacitors and MOSFETS shouldn't be an issue, we had some reservations about the surrounding Circu-Pipe cooling. The CPU area, despite appearances, is relatively free and clear. ![]() The capacitors and MOSFETS line the surrounding area, but should be a non-factor for heatsink installs. We'll point these areas out shortly.Īt the center of the action is the Socket-T area. There are a couple areas of concern in terms of placement, but come into play only if you need to make component changes after installation. The MSI X48 Platinum is a full sized ATX board and for the most part it is well laid out. This makes the install, and if needed, reinstall much easier as it's quite a hassle sometimes trying to fish your fingers into this are and connect the wiring. What these connections will do is that you can install the internal case front IO to these connectors and place them right on to the motherboard itself. In the resealable bag, we have some custom "M-Connectors". The MSI X48 Platinum supports CrossFire, and thus a couple required connections are part of the package. For the MSI X48 Platinum, what you'll get is a quick start guide, manual, driver CDs for XP and Vista, a rear IO shield and storage related cables. Otherwise, the package contents are generally similar. As such, I believe the only thing you are really missing out on is the Creative X-Fi sound chip. The Platinum series of MSI boards are one step under their top-of-the-line MSI Diamond products. While the extras are all nice and dandy, the board will be scored on its performance and stability. All of the performance minded features we've come to expect from MSI's Platinum line are present and accounted for. The MSI X48 Platinum motherboard we'll be reviewing today is one of the first boards on the market armed with Intel's latest X48 chipset. Sure, the X38 was capable of all of this in some motherboards, but the ability to manage this relied on the board vendors as well as the ingenuity of the user. DDR3 will also get a bump to this speed and newer modules with XMP requiring 1.8v will also be supported. The only real change that will affect the end user is the official support for the 400/1600MHz system bus. All of the X38 features have carried over to the X48. What has changed between the two? Not a whole lot as it turns out. In just a few short months, we now have the X48 trickling into the market. It didn't seem that long ago when Intel unleashed their enthusiast X38 chipset. ![]() What exactly is all the fuss about? Read on to find out Manufacturer: ![]() MSI sent over their newest motherboard using Intel's latest and greatest. ![]()
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