MSI Big Bang ZPower motherboard previewed

MSI’s Big Bang series of motherboards is famous amongst gamers and enthusiasts. MSI had the Big Bang Marshall for Sandy Bridge, Big Bang XPower I for X58 and the Big Bang XPower II for X79. Now MSI is bringing out a Big Bang series board for the Ivy Bridge platform – to be named the Big Bang ZPower, with the Z being for Z77. This board will also support Sandy Bridge for those users who want the functionality of Z77 but prefer the “overclockability” of Sandy Bridge processors. The board has the model number “MS-7751 v 3.0”, which doesn’t give away much about the name of the board, hence the expectation that the board will be named the Big Bang ZPower is based on informed speculation only.

The Big Bang ZPower shares a similar PCB version to the MSI Z77A-GD65 which is “MS-7751 v 2.1” meaning we can probably expect a similar layout. MSI have only revealed two small “teaser” images of the Big Bang ZPower which show us that the ZPower will use a colour scheme identical to that on the Lightning series graphics card – that is yellow with black colours. MSI have designed the board to be capable of running a triple graphics card configuration but they have not implemented a PLX bridge chip. Instead they have equipped the ZPower which a Pericom PCIe switch which will allow the GPUs to work in the following configurations:

• 16X/NC(NoCard)/NC
• 8X/8X/NC
• 8X/4X/4X

Although 4X may seem slightly inadequate for a triple SLI or CrossfireX solution you have to consider that this board will provide these speeds at PCIe generation 3 meaning 4X is actually generation 2 8X and so on. MSI’s primary focus with the ZPower is overclocking. MSI will hide a very powerful VRM beneath those yellow and black heat sinks and their acclaimed Click BIOS is likely to be packed full of overclocking features to allow you to tweak power delivery and configuration options to squeeze the most out of your CPU, RAM and Graphics Cards. Sound is provided by THX TruStudioPro and MSI have also provided three PCIe Generation 2 1X slots for additional connectivity, these will be controlled by the Z77 PCH. Expect more about this board to arrive at Computex 2012.

Image Credits: TechPowerUp