MSI X58 Platinum Motherboard
Test Setup, Power Consumption & Overclocking
Published: 22nd December 2008 | Source: MSI | Price: £229.99 |
Test Setup

To guarantee a broad range of results, the following benchmark utilities were used:
Synthetic CPU Test
• Sisoft Sandra 2009
• PassMark CPU test
• SuperPI 1m, 8m, 32m
Memory Test
• Sisoft Sandra 2009
• Everest 4.60
File Compression & Encoding
• Sisoft Sandra 2009
• 7-Zip File Compression
• River Past ViMark
Disk I/O Performance
• HDTach 3.0.4.0
• Sisoft Sandra 2009
3D / Rendering Benchmarks
• Cinebench 10
• 3DMark 05
• 3DMark 06
• 3DMark Vantage
3D Games
• Crysis
• Far Cry 2
• Company of Heroes
Overall System Performance
• PCMark Vantage
• Sisoft Sandra 2009
• PassMark CPU test
• SuperPI 1m, 8m, 32m
Memory Test
• Sisoft Sandra 2009
• Everest 4.60
File Compression & Encoding
• Sisoft Sandra 2009
• 7-Zip File Compression
• River Past ViMark
Disk I/O Performance
• HDTach 3.0.4.0
• Sisoft Sandra 2009
3D / Rendering Benchmarks
• Cinebench 10
• 3DMark 05
• 3DMark 06
• 3DMark Vantage
3D Games
• Crysis
• Far Cry 2
• Company of Heroes
Overall System Performance
• PCMark Vantage
Power Consumption
Power consumption was measured at the socket using a plug-in mains power and energy monitor. Idle readings were taken after 5 minutes in Windows. Load readings were taken during a run of 3DMark Vantage.
At idle, it is clear that the Asus board uses less power than the MSI Platinum X58 but things even out once the boards are put under stress. No software or BIOS power saving features were used during the testing which may or may not improve things further should you choose to install them. We took the readings under a clean environment with only the bare minimum of drivers and Vista updates installed.
Overclocking
Using a respectable Vcore of 1.45v, the remainder of BIOS voltage settings were left in their stock state to ensure equality throughout the testing.
Sadly, the maximum overclock I could attain with the MSI Platinum was lower than expected with a maximum Bclk value of 193 which also gave us our maximum overclock of 3850. Anything over this amount resulted in a BSOD on boot sequence which was strange, as the settings above were stable within Windows. No amount of tweaking the dividers and multipliers would improve the situation and so after a couple of hours fiddling with the settings I finally admitted defeat and moved on.
Let's take a look at how the MSI Platinum performs in our benchmarking section..
Most Recent Comments
Very good review, was a good read 
1.44V for 3.85gHz
Now I'm even more proud of my UD5 doing 3.7@1.35
Did you adjust the VTT voltage too? It's just as important as vCore.

1.44V for 3.85gHz
Now I'm even more proud of my UD5 doing 3.7@1.35
Did you adjust the VTT voltage too? It's just as important as vCore.Great review. Think they're still crazy priced tho.
Hopefully they see some sense l8r in the 09.
Don't have much exerience with MSI mobos, but I am surprized there's no SLI.
Hopefully they see some sense l8r in the 09.
Don't have much exerience with MSI mobos, but I am surprized there's no SLI.
Quality review as always Rich. Bit miffed at lack of SLI seeing as it's such a massive selling point. Puts it at an instant disadvantage. Ah well.
Couple of features I picked up on which I thought were great; the first being the right angled sata plugs.. Such a simple thing! But would make tidy cabling easy - it's just impossible to make the sata cableslook neat if they are sicking up out of the mobo.The other was the bios save feature, thats pretty cool! And a great feature, being able to swop from "warp speed overclock" to "mr easy going day to day" at the press of a button.. 10/10 for that one.
£240 though? Too much I think.. Needs to come with the kitchen sink at that price, and it doesnt.
A fine review.
£240 though? Too much I think.. Needs to come with the kitchen sink at that price, and it doesnt.
A fine review.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='monkey7'
Very good review, was a good read
![]() 1.44V for 3.85gHz Now I'm even more proud of my UD5 doing 3.7@1.35 Did you adjust the VTT voltage too? It's just as important as vCore. |
.Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='Rastalovich'
Great review. Think they're still crazy priced tho.
Hopefully they see some sense l8r in the 09. Don't have much exerience with MSI mobos, but I am surprized there's no SLI. |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='Bungral'
Quality review as always Rich. Bit miffed at lack of SLI seeing as it's such a massive selling point. Puts it at an instant disadvantage. Ah well.
|
.Quote:
|
Originally Posted by name='fruityness'
Couple of features I picked up on which I thought were great; the first being the right angled sata plugs.. Such a simple thing! But would make tidy cabling easy - it's just impossible to make the sata cableslook neat if they are sicking up out of the mobo.The other was the bios save feature, thats pretty cool! And a great feature, being able to swop from "warp speed overclock" to "mr easy going day to day" at the press of a button.. 10/10 for that one.
£240 though? Too much I think.. Needs to come with the kitchen sink at that price, and it doesnt. A fine review. |
There are actually two versions listed on MSI's website: one with SLI, one without. The SLI version still seems to be unavailable at the moment, and from what I recall it's still not known whether the current version could be converted with a BIOS flash or not
Iirc someone tried flashing a beta bios to the non sli version and got nothing but BSOD
.
It will be nice if they do make it SLI capable tho.
.It will be nice if they do make it SLI capable tho.
I'm curious as to whether there's a difference built-in somewhere that did that. The two boards certainly look the same, though obviously that doesn't mean they are. Wouldn't hurt to perhaps ask them about that.
The Mediocre
- Overclocking could be better
Sorry guys, but i disagree. I have this motheboard and i got these results:
My Maximum Bclk for enter in O.S. Windows Vista X64:
valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=469171 ( Thanks WC Annihilus, now is correct )
My usual clock for 24/7:
valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=469143
Same processor, motherboard and memory of the review.
Sorry for my bad english.
- Overclocking could be better
Sorry guys, but i disagree. I have this motheboard and i got these results:
My Maximum Bclk for enter in O.S. Windows Vista X64:
valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=469171 ( Thanks WC Annihilus, now is correct )
My usual clock for 24/7:
valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=469143
Same processor, motherboard and memory of the review.
Sorry for my bad english.
What voltages? Is it prime stable?
Nice clocks regardless.
Nice clocks regardless.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='webbo'
What voltages? Is it prime stable?
Nice clocks regardless. |
And the 4GHz I didn`t test with prime95, i used the OCCT for 1 hour and got stable. But i think is stable enough for me play my games.
Ow sorry the voltages:
Well for 4GHz I`m using:
CPU VOLTAGE +0.190 ( 1.39 )
QPI +0.180
MEMORY VOLTAGE 1.65
That's all
Well for 4GHz I`m using:
CPU VOLTAGE +0.190 ( 1.39 )
QPI +0.180
MEMORY VOLTAGE 1.65
That's all
You posted 2 links to the same validation 

Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='WC Annihilus'
You posted 2 links to the same validation
![]() |
valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=469171
See now. I think is correct. :sleep:
Is this using the latest BIOS? I might have to give that a go as there has been a new BIOS released since writing the review.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='webbo'
Is this using the latest BIOS? I might have to give that a go as there has been a new BIOS released since writing the review.
|
IOS Type AMI BIOS File Size 816KB
Version 1.1 Update Date 2008-11-12
But have the 1.2B ( beta )


Read the review here