MSI X399 SLI Plus is Beefy

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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It is not secret that we have very much liked the last two MSI SLI Plus series motherboards we have reviewed. I was taking the X399 SLI Plus out of the box this morning and getting it set up for testing and thought it was worth sharing a few pictures of just how simple this motherboard is. And the fact that its power component cooling looks pretty damn impressive as well. That is a US Quarter thrown in there for scale.

Pics here.
 
Actually a very nicely done accent for a change.

IMG_20171014_151834.jpg
 
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I would have liked to have seen the first x16 slot in the #2 position, with a x1 slot in the #1 position. This would be to help with large CPU coolers. Still, if the third slot is fully x16 it shouldn't matter. Could you check - indeed photograph - the underside of the expansion slot area to confirm that?
 
Quartz-1 said:
I would have liked to have seen the first x16 slot in the #2 position, with a x1 slot in the #1 position. This would be to help with large CPU coolers. Still, if the third slot is fully x16 it shouldn't matter. Could you check - indeed photograph - the underside of the expansion slot area to confirm that?
Click to expand...
Got it running on the bench already, but the manual shows slot #1 and slot #4 are X16 electrically.

upload_2017-10-14_16-23-30.png
 
Well going by just the pictures the heatsink on the SLI Plus is exactly the same as on the Gaming Pro Carbon (in fact the whole board looks like a copy of the carbon), and in most reviews they have reached the conclusion that it kinda sucks. Asus is the only manufacturer that has done cooling correctly of the first wave of X399 boards. The new Gigabyte Designare has a small fan + heatpipe just like the Asus ones, that is probably the way to go and I hope the other will follow.
 
It looks like the exact same PCB as the Gaming Pro Carbon version.

That's not a bad thing.
 
I don't know about you fellers, but this socket and how the CPU is installed is sexy. It just seems like a nicely controlled, precise operation that's simple to do. Unnnnnf.
 
Quartz-1 said:
Thanks. So only two slots are fully x16. That's a shame. And that first slot could get blocked by larger coolers. I'm guessing they assume fluid cooling. Still, you could put the 10GbE card in E3. Actually, that brings up a potential showstopper: does the board mandate the GPU be in slot E1? If your cooler overhangs it then not working with the GPU in slot E4 could be a problem.

On the plus side, with 4 slots to play with, this could lead to some enormous air coolers, and GPU manufacturers might put coolers on both sides of their GPUs on the basis that they have several slots either side. :) (Yeah right.)
Click to expand...

it shouldn't require the GPU be installed in the first x16 slot, just that if you do multiple gpu's it'll select the first card it scans for as the display card.
 
So what they are saying is that if you have SLI, this is a 4 slot card... Being that only water cooled cards would have any chance to allow access to the 1x slots. Seems like slot 3 and 6 would have been the more logical places for the 16x slots (or move the 1x slots).
 
I love the slot layout. Makes it easier to put fans on hot stuff that's not a GPU and doesn't leave wasted space in that first slot. Too many companies keep expanding boards into that first slot. Why not expand the CPU/memory area upwards and sideways instead?
 
Quartz-1 said:
I would have liked to have seen the first x16 slot in the #2 position, with a x1 slot in the #1 position. This would be to help with large CPU coolers. Still, if the third slot is fully x16 it shouldn't matter. Could you check - indeed photograph - the underside of the expansion slot area to confirm that?
Click to expand...

It loks like if they had done that they would not have been able to fit that 1st m.2 slot in
 
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