MSI Big Bang-FUZION: Lucid Hydra arrives

OC Dashboard

The OC Dashboard is, well, very 80s. The big chunky plastic, big buttons and little LCD screen reminds me more of the kids toys I used to play with that had me sitting crossed legged on the floor and squinting at them for hours.

In reality though, there's no pew! pew! side-scrolling games present - it's a readout device for boot data, voltages and frequency data. There's some limited input thanks to the mode and buttons, but really, since it's wired in you'll be within reach of your keyboard anyway. It's a step up from the two digit POST readout, and that's always useful, but again, at what extra cost? There's no nice stand to put it on either so it just ends up stacked up somewhere on your desk.

It does work well enough, so credit where it's due, but there doesn't appear to be much thought beyond what other manufacturers have already done before.

Test Setup:

Motherboards:

• MSI Big Bang-FUZION (Intel P55, 10E BIOS, Lucid Hydra 200)
  
• Asus Maximus III Formula (Intel P55, 0801 BIOS)

Common Components:

• Intel Core i7-870 (45nm, 8MB L3 cache, 22x133MHz; 2.93GHz, Turbo Mode and Intel power saving states were disabled to ensure reliable results)
  
• 4GB (2x2GB) Kingston HyperX T1 2,133MHz CL8 (at 1,333MHz CL9 SPD)
  
• PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU
  
• Seagate 7200.11 1TB SATA hard drive
  
• Windows 7 Home Premium
  
• Intel inf 9.1.1.1025
  
• ATI Catalyst 9.12 WHQL
  
• Nvidia Forceware 195.62 WHQL
  
• Lucid Hydra 200 1.4.106 (retail version)

Graphics Card Combinations Tested

1. 2x Zotac GeForce GTX 260(-216) AMP²! 896MB (in both Hydra and CrossFire modes on either motherboard)
   
2. 2x AMD Radeon HD 5770 1GB (in both Hydra and CrossFire modes on either motherboard)
   
3. Zotac GeForce GTX 260(-216) AMP²! 896MB and Gigabyte GeForce GTS 250 512MB
   
4. HIS Radeon HD 5770 1GB and AMD Radeon HD 4770 512MB
   
5. Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 and Zotac GeForce GTX 280 AMP!
   
6. Zotac GeForce GTX 260 AMP²! 896MB and ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
   
7. Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 1GB and ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB (including reversed slots)
   
8. HIS Radeon HD 5850 1GB and Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 1GB
   
9. Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 and Zotac GeForce GTX 260 AMP²! 896MB

Games Tested

• Fallout 3, version 1.7 with DirectX 10
  
• Team Fortress 2 with DirectX 9 (latest build/update as of review date)
  
• Batman: Arkham Asylum Demo with DirectX 9 - Please note Batman is limited to 60fps, even with V-Sync is disabled.
  
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare version 1.7 with DirectX 9.0