MSI Big Bang Marshal Gaming Motherboard Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
MSI Big Bang Marshal Gaming Motherboard Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
2011-04-10
bang yeah okay
it sort of related this is the Big Bang
Marshall so this has a three year
warranty it is an MSI motherboard for
gaming it uses the b3 revision chipset
which means that it doesn't have the
SATA to bug that plagued the original
p67 boards and it supports Intel Core i7
Core i5 and core i3 processors on the
LGA 1155 platform crossfire X and SLI
technology are both supported by this
particular motherboard and this is all
about gaming check out that board it
looks awesome but look at the board more
later let's look at the features first
so here we go it features the military
class 2 concept from MSI which means you
got super ferrite chokes highly
conductive tantalum core capacitors as
well as solid capacitors for up to a
10-year life time on this particular
board top stability and quality that's
good ultimate 3d gaming performance you
can see that I got four graphics cards
installed on it right here ok USB 3.0
and say 2 6 3 gigabit per se 2 3 6
gigabit per second click BIOS which
means it has a UEFI bios which is fully
compatible with your mouse for changing
all your BIOS settings and inner
workings and whatnots ok finally uh this
I already outlined when you're talking
about military class 2 soundblaster x-fi
mb 2 so features EAX advance on what MB
2 stands for if anyone knows what MV 2
stands for please leave it in the
comments and somebody thumbs it up
please so we can all see it next on the
back we have dr. Moss three-in-one
server grade MOSFETs MSI has been using
these for a number of generations now
and they keep stepping up their game
providing better power delivery to your
CPU with every generation of products
superpipe is something on the big fan of
probably performs better but really it
just looks sweet because it's got big
old fat thick heat pipes OC Genie
one-second overclocking this is another
feature I'm actually a big fan if you
just press the button and it over clocks
and then you can grow into the more
advanced overclocking features of the
board that you choose OC dashboard is
kind of useful I have one with my Big
Bang X power you can like press the
button and change the B clock and
whatnot 24 phase dr. Maas PWM so 24
power phases on this board is it over
kill yes is it cool yes
eight PCIe 16x slots is it overkill yes
is it necessary no is it cool yes
multi BIOS so we have multiple BIOS
chips on this particular board PCIe
cease fire is what they're calling their
switches for turning on or off your PCIe
slots this allows you to more easily
diagnose your any video card issues or
display issues you may be having with
your motherboard dual eight pin CPU
power connectors allow you to deliver a
whole lot of juice to your CPU should
you desire and let's go ahead first we
have dramatic pause accessories
including a big Start Guide which is the
size of me and the size of the board but
bigger it shows you all what knots that
are on it okay more of the exactly the
same stuff that was already on the
packaging thank you on the side all
right so let's put this over here just
in case we can't you know see the board
well enough oh no alright next we have
the OC dashboard right there plus/minus
mode you can use it to change a bunch of
different settings it plugs in via this
okay it's actually kind of useful I
hadn't used it in the past
there's the cable for it okay next we
have one of those eSATA as well as an
adapter plug from the molex power here
which plugs into your power supply to
dual SATA powers so this is actually a
really cool little thing because you can
just take bear hard drives and plug them
into the back here system and easily
access the data with the included eSATA
cable does that nice a Q SATA cable is
it what the heck oh yeah it is okay
eSATA it to SATA cable and then this
particular little power adapter alright
good feature next we have a USB 3.0 IO
panel as well as another one so you can
plug in two via the internal headers for
up to four additional ports coming out
the back of your case we've got one two
three four SATA 3 6 gigabit per second
SATA cable
as well as a couple of molex power to
SATA power we have an i/o shield we have
V checkpoints okay so these can be
plugged in to check voltages we've got
the M connector which allows you to plug
in your front USB your speaker's your
front power all that good stuff a little
bit more easily SLI connector no idea
guys sorry looks like a pass-through for
something so there's a little rubber
grommet and then there's a little spot
to put the rubber grommet and something
probably passes through to the back okay
quick installation guide drivers and
utilities 3d mark 11 serial very nice
inclusion so you can benchmark your new
high-performance system as soon as you
get your big bang Marshall setup here's
an overclocking guide look at that
that's kind of neat I've never seen this
included before overview some OC info
but the new p67 platform military class
materials multi graphics cards gaming
design PCIe C's far so to show you how
to use the overclocking features of this
board that's actually a very helpful
inclusion because a lot of guys produce
overclocking boards but not a whole lot
of them actually document in such a
detailed manner what to do huh so it
supports up to 4-way ATI crossfire X and
nvidia sli so it does not purport no it
does not support as well as yeah it does
not support greater than two way and
vidya sli because it actually uses a
lucid hydrologic chip in order to get
all those PCIe lanes split out rather
than using an NF 200 chip software
applications as well as the big bang
marshall
user guide the Box got a little bit
demented in shipping but we're not going
to take off any marks for that one today
I mean I never take marks off a product
that's just not really something I say
Oh mark software this I won't be taking
off any marks
okay the Big Bang Marshall this is a
massive massive motherboard so actually
give me two seconds I'm gonna go find a
board to compare for you guys this is an
XL ATX board which makes an ATX board
look like an M ATX board so this is a
standard sized motherboard and this is
not a standard sized motherboard so you
will need a special case in order to run
your Big Bang Marshall motherboard if
you get one which you lucky dog good
work okay I'm just gonna take off the
one second overclocking sticker so we
can have a more clear look at the
motherboard itself so why don't we start
right here in the middle with the socket
this is our LGA 1155 socket it uses a
lote socket which is good i'm till LED
to understand okay we have our 24 phase
power design all around it but you can
actually see that all of the heat sinks
all of the power components all that
stuff is actually very low-profile
around that socket so you should be able
to install some pretty exotic cooling
solutions on this board without any
clearance issues whatsoever I love the
overall look of MSI's recent MOSFET
Northbridge heat sinks look at this
super pipe it's like ridiculous it's
like look at it compared to like a
stubby finger it's like huge awesome I
love super pipe probably does nothing
for performance but it's there and it's
cool so that's not it
alright let's have a look here so we've
got our 2 8 pin CPU power connectors ok
moving along we have our where is the
CPU yeah our CPU fan connector we've got
support for a dual channel ddr3 memory
ok this allows us to turn on and off PCI
graphics one two three or four okay so
this is on so clearly this is not on ok
we have moving down we have our voltage
check points which hopefully there's
some documentation somewhere in the
motherboard manual or something like
that for which ones are which we have
our 24 pin power connector and it's
ideal location along the right-hand edge
of the board we've also got a couple of
USB 3 front panel connectors so these
can be used to plug into the front of
your case or into those in
back panel brackets SATA 3 6 gigabit per
second quartz so we have to running off
of the Intel chipset as well as to
running off a third party looks like a
Marvel chipset then we have four SATA to
three gigabit per second ports as well
front panel USB this is an innovation
here they are at the front of the board
I like that so this is actually closer
to your front panel than having it all
along the bottom edge where we would
typically find USB 2 headers I like that
a lot actually we've got a power
connector resets our power connector
power switch reset switch we've also got
OC Genie button as well as a multi bias
button so presumably this will select
one of our multi BIOS chips to boot from
and this one is going to OneTouch
overclock your system here we have our
post indicator LED so that'll tell you
if you have any problems with your board
when you're trying to boot up and
finally moving along we have our front
panel connectors so that's your power
switch power LED all that good stuff we
have smart LED stuff we've got firewire
we've got front panel audio there's the
x5 mb2 sticker that appears to be on the
board ok PCI Express slots so eight
because this is a non-standard board is
actually nine PCI slots high but they're
not using the first one that there is
potential for here there are 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8
PCIe 16x slot however they do not all
run at PCIe 16x so let us pull up the
manual and we'll go through that for you
so running in two-way mode you would use
the top PCIe 1x aren't top you take you
on top PCIe 16x slot and then the 1 2 3
and then the 4th PCIe 1x slot so that
means if you're running 2 way you could
all you could use even triple slot
graphics cards such as the asou triple
slot gtx 470 so remember it supports
crossfire and sli into a mode in 3-way
mode you would use this one this one and
this one running in 8 8 and 16 x mode
and in 4 way you would use this one this
one this one and this one
running in 8x mode so for the full guide
you can actually consult this I mean
this is fantastic there little
overclocking guide here to find out what
bandwidth each slot is going to run at
in the various graphics configuration
modes okay so here we have an auxilary
power connector this is a 6 pin PCI II
power connector so if you are gonna load
it up with graphics cards it's
definitely a good idea to plug that in
to keep your 24 pin power connector from
getting fried from so much current
running through it to power these cards
other than that I think that's pretty
much everything there is to say about
the Big Bang Marshall on the back you
find more power circuitry you find your
standard back plate as well as not a
whole lot else you can see that all of
the coolers are held on with screws so
that means you don't have to deal with
any stupid pushpins which I hate and I
really do prefer to see these
spring-loaded screws because you won't
run into any issues with them getting
worn out if you ever have to take them
off and put them back on say to replace
the thermal compound or whatever else
the case may be on the back yes that is
8 USB 3.0 ports yes this board supports
a total of no fewer than 12 USB 3.0
ports pretty sweet ok so we've got a ps2
keyboard mouse combo port we've got a
digital audio out in coaxial and optical
flavours firewire eSATA times 2 gigabit
ethernet times 2 as well as 7.1 audio so
thank you for checking out my unboxing
of the msi Big Bang marshall don't
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