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Motherboard Highlights Photo Gallery
The mezarine (blue) slots are physical x16 slots with 16 PCI Express
lanes, while the yellow slots are physical x16 slots with four PCI Express
lanes bandwidth. Note the Port80
card in the lower left corner.
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The IHT PCIe Expander chip
brings in extra PCI Express lanes for the additional yellow PCI
Express x16 slots. MSI provide physical Power and Reset buttons for
desktop overclockers who don't use a PC
case.
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Serial ATA and IDE ports are set
at 90 degrees so cables remain out of the way of long videocards. The
board only uses solid state capacitors, which is pretty standard among
high end motherboards in this day and
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The MSI X48 Platinum
supports 8GB of DDR3 memory, at speeds up to 1600MHz SDRAM. The
colour coding in this case doesn't correspond to the memory channels,
so make sure that your memory modules are installed in alternating
coloured slots.
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The MSI Circu-pipe passive
chipset cooler is a tad ostentatious, and relies heavily on active cooling
airflow from other components. This can be a problem with fanless CPU
cooling solutions, like water cooling blocks or TECs.
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The Circu-pipe passive chipset
thermal solution runs across the length of the motherboard, but has a low
enough profile that it doesn't impede video cards or the expansion
slots.
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These widely spaced USB ports on
the I/O panel are a thoughtful touch, and allow for easy insertion of
thicker USB keys without requiring any of the other components to be
unplugged. The CMOS reset button is easily reached even when the board is
installed in case.
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The POST messages are displayed on this four digit
Port 80 card.
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Time for some overclocking!
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