MSI X58 Pro

Performance Conclusions

So there we have it, the cheapest X58 board we’ve seen to date. Although the features set is cut down compared to the MSI Eclipse SLI board upon which the X58 Pro is based, it’s still kitted out with the essentials and then some. Most people shouldn’t have many any compromises in terms of the hardware you can connect to the board.

Performance was something of a mixed bag. Starting with the bad, its file compression and decompression performance was in fact the worst we’ve seen from an X58 board so far, however in the general productivity tests it was actually really very good as it consistently hit numbers between the top few boards.

Memory was a little better in all the tests bar the Sandra unbuffered memory bandwidth test which again saw the X58 Pro in last place. However in the latency test it was joint first place with the Asus P6T Deluxe.

Running games, the board also faired well with it coming in at the middle of the pack in both Crysis and Far Cry 2, both of which were tested in their Direct X10 modes.

Application performance was also a winner for the X58 Pro, where it was considerably faster than all the other X58 boards we compared it to in both image editing and multitasking.

Final Thoughts

If you’re in the market for a budget Core i7 motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P is still our favoured product and even the more basic DS4 is still better than the X58 Pro we reckon. Both of which are generally just faster overall and more reliable than the MSI X58 Pro we have here.

One unavoidable problem however is that the PCB which MSI might like to brand as "coffee" but at £160 even though it's a budget X58, there's no getting away from it still being an expensive purchase and on the surface will be a big problem for many people looking for a board to match their newly powder-coated rig. Unless of course, you’ve either chosen brown or a case without windows.

On the other hand, the £160 asking price means this is not only the cheapest X58 on the market, but the bottom line is that it's a decent board too, so if you’re desperate to adopt Core i7 and want to spend as little money as possible then overall the X58 Pro is definitely worthy of consideration. It has a solid set of basic features, but remember those chipsets need some extra airflow to keep everything cool and stable. The X58 Pro still offers a considerable overclock for a Core i7 920, though if our review sample is anything to go by, then don’t expect to be joining the 4GHz club any time soon.

• Performance
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• 7/10

• Features
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• 7/10

• Value
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• 9/10

• Overall
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• 7/10

Score Guide