The Hardware Behind Overdrive

Platforms: P45 and X58

MSI P45D3 Platinum

MSI is the official platform sponsor for the Overdrive Overclocking Championship and contributes two different platforms: a P45 motherboard for our trials, where we have the teams overclock Core 2 Duo processors, and X58 boards for the Core i7 overclocking in the grand finals. The P45 board is MSI’s P45D3 Platinum, which is a DDR3 model that comes with all top-notch features, such as electrolytic capacitors, the CircuPipe 2 heat pipe solution for component cooling, twin-phase north bridge and memory voltage supply, and a plethora of BIOS overclocking features. Although other vendors are often considered ahead of the curve when it comes to hardcore overclocking, MSI has improved a lot in recent years, and created a powerful basis that will serve our events well.

Check out our complete gallery of MSI P45D3 photos.

Also See:

• 11-Way P45 Motherboard Shootout
• MSI Overclocking Challenge: France Finals
• Intel P45 Chipset: Eagle Lake Has Landed

MSI X58 Eclipse

The local winners of our US, France, Germany, Italy, and Taiwan events will meet in Paris, France, where they will compete on Core i7 systems using MSI’s X58 Eclipse motherboard. This is MSI’s Socket LGA1366 flagship; it uses a flexible six-phase voltage regulator for the CPU, and is ready for AMD CrossFire and Nvidia SLI using the latest drivers from both vendors.

The boards have six memory sockets for DDR3 DIMMs, fully utilizing the triple-channel capabilities of Core i7. Our overclockers may run the systems with three or with only two DIMMs—that’s up to them. All that matters is maximum performance.

While our first sample was equipped with traditional chipset coolers, the retail version utilizes a solid heat pipe that cools the north bridge and south bridge, and a second copper heat sink for the voltage regulators. That’s the version you’ll see in the picture to the right.

Check out our complete gallery of MSI Eclipse X58 photos.

Also see:

• MSI’s X58 Motherboard to Have Quad SLI
• Sneak Peek: Four Core i7 X58 Motherboards