MSI Eclipse SLI Pro Reviews

The MSI Eclipse simply had the best bundle we've ever seen for a motherboard. If there had been a full game title in the bundle we don't think our hearts could have handled it. Literally, every thing you can need or want for cables and accessories was included in the bundle and more. You get the Green Genie for power consumption monitoring and savings, the D-LED for diagnostics and the Thermal Probe, and the X-Fi Xtreme Audio card to sweeten the deal. While we realize the MSI Eclipse garners a premium price the bundle, features and overclocking make it well worth the premium price in our opinion. At least you won't have to worry about SATA ports with the ten SATA connectors on the Eclipse board. You also get, not one, but two plug and play ready sets of ports for RAID 0 or RAID 1 or RAID 0&1. Just plug 2-4 drives into the blue upright ports, make an easy BIOS change, and you're ready for up to 4x RAID 0 plug and play. Make a different BIOS change and you have 2x RAID 0&1, speed and redundancy, the best of both worlds.

While we had some issues with the Eclipse motherboard, it looks that it is gaining a very good reputation in the field with our readers. The issues we had keep it from being an award winner, but is likely a sleeper amongst X58 chipset motherboards. There are folks running the board with great overclocks and 12GB of RAM successfully.

The closest to Asus' Republic of Gamers board is MSI's Eclipse, but it seems it is taking a slightly different approach to Asus. All the usual suspects are present: a breakaway Creative daughter board for audio, a seemingly infinite number of USB ports, three-way SLI and CrossFireX support, two gigabit LAN ports and DDR3 support. One major difference between the Asus board and the MSI one is support for 24GB RAM in the latter – the Asus only supports half that amount.

Our time with the MSI Eclipse X58 SLI leaves me in two minds. On the one hand, it introduces several new innovative features to MSI's range of motherboards, such as the GreenPower Genie real-time power monitoring and M-Flash virtual BIOS technology that allows you to try new BIOS versions first from a USB stick, without first flashing the BIOS. In addition, this board is definitely the fastest we've tested thus far, however this is predominantly due to it also being the first in-depth LGA1366 motherboard to pass through our labs.

The MSI Eclipse X58 is the most expensive board in the roundup at $322 with rebate and offers an extensive set of features and accessories. We loved the layout, color scheme, and overall quality of the board. We like to think of the MSI Eclipse as a Grand Touring Coupe in the automotive world, it offers an excellent blend of features and performance.

At 349.99 USD from Newegg , you get a pretty solid package for your money and we have no hesitation in recommending the board to any Core i7 user who is looking for a good feature packed offering, especially if power saving is an important factor. So far MSI is on the top of the list as the best all round choice.

And this brings us to the MSI Eclipse SLI. One major improvement over its predecessors is the presence of a BIOS flash tool. We can't say how convenient this is for reviewers like us to update to the latest BIOS and we believe, the same too for enthusiasts. We were impressed by the number of storage options and the X-Fi audio card was certainly an extra that just about trumps the competition.

Overall, the MSI Eclipse’s price might make some consumers cringe, but if they have the green to put down to purchase this motherboard, we can confidently recommend it for any gamer’s high-end computer system.

The MSI Eclipse and ASUS Rampage II Extreme performed at near identical levels according to our benchmark results. Throughout our testing, the boards traded victories and typically finished within a percentage point of one another. What we hope you take from of this article, however, is how well the X58 paired with Intel's Core i7 performs compared to quad-core Core 2 CPUs and other platforms. As the benchmarks show, these boards in combination with Intel's latest desktop processors are truly in a league of their own at this time.

MSI's high-end gaming X58 board comes with a plethora of features, though not all are useful. The BIOS is still a work in progress, but offers flexibility and control.