MSI has recently revealed their latest and upcoming motherboard for the X99 High End Desktop platform – the MSI X99S SLI Plus motherboard. The MSI X99S SLI Plus will feature the next generation DDR4 memory (default DIMM in X99 platform), and features an all-black look. But something looks very familiar about this board, and it’s not from MSI. Check out some of its features and specifications below according to my observation.
MSI X99S SLI Plus Unleashed
The MSI X99S SLI Plus is the company’s latest upcoming motherboard for the next generation High End Desktop platform, which will feature Intel’s latest X99 chipset. Just like all of the X99 motherboards, the MSI X99S SLI Plus will make use of the next generation DDR4 memory and will support the next generation Intel Haswell-E processors.
The X99S SLI Plus features LGA 2011-3 socket and will support the processors I previously mentioned; Intel Core i7-5960X, Core i7-5930K and Core i7-5820K. These processors features 140W of TDP and will have 6 cores for the K CPUs, and 8 cores for the X CPU. Based on observations, it features an 8 phase power design and is powered by an 8pin CPU power connector. The eight DIMM slots will support quad channel, and most probably up to 128GB of memory.
The MSI X99S SLI Plus has 10x SATA 6.0 Gbps ports or 8x SATA 6.0 Gbps + 1 SATA Express port. Aside from that, it also features an M.2 port for NGFF SSDs, just like in the Z97 motherboards. It has four PCIE 3.0 x16 slots and two PCIE 3.0 x1 slots. I can’t see what’s on the rear I/O panel, but most probably it will have 1x Gigabit LAN port, some USB 3.0 ports, and Audio ports. But I don’t see any LED path that separates its audio component section.
There are a lot of headers for fans, USB and other connectors in this motherboard. It also features MSI’s OC Genie button, then there’s also an onboard power and reset button. Expect that this motherboard can overclock. Well you can see from its box saying that the X99S SLI Plus is built with “top quality and stability”.
Moving along, the all-black color theme looks good. But I noticed that the chipset’s heatsink look very familiar. It looks somewhat similar to the heatsink design of Asus’ Rampage IV Black Edition. Well, not exactly the same but quite similar. Just see for yourself and you be the judge.
I guess that’s about it. There’s not much to tell aside from the physical inspection, which by the way is also limited. Hopefully we will find out more about the MSI X99S SLI Plus when the company officially announces it towards the end of the month. But expect that this is not the only X99 motherboard from MSI. They will most probably release several X99 motherboards targeting different price range.
I’ll post more news regarding the X99 motherboards once more information is revealed. I also expect that other manufacturers like Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock, EVGA and etc will also unveil their motherboards ahead of lunch, just like what they did with the Z97s.
