MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard Review

MSI X299 SLI Plus Overview
The MSI X299 SLI Plus has official dimensions of 12 in. x 9.6 in. so it conforms to the ATX form factor. Like other Pro Series boards of the past it has the same type of color scheme with an all black PCB with black, silver, and gunmetal accents. There is a prominent MSI logo on the PCH heatsink and “SLI PLUS” on the I/O cover.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

At the top center of the board we have Intel’s new LGA2066 socket, which supports the latest Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X processors. The socket has the same mounting holes as LGA2011/LGA2011v3 so if you are upgrading your cooling solution will work here. The CPU is conditioned by a 10-phase power design which is backed up by MSI’s Military Class VI components like Titanium Choke II’s, Dark Caps, and Dark Chokes. The new Titanium chokes are smaller in size and have a 30% improved power efficiency and power delivering, allowing for better overclocking and stability. Dark Caps have lower Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) and an increased lifespan of over 10 years. Dark Chokes run at a lower temperature offering better power efficiency and stability.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

Surrounding the CPU socket there are eight DDR4 DIMM slots (4 on each side). These slots do not have any reinforcement or shielding, but do have the special locks on the bottom which will make removing your memory easy with a graphics card installed. These slots support a total of 128GB of DDR4 in both dual-channel and quad-channel configurations. According to MSI there is support for up to DDR4 4500+(OC) in dual-channel configuration and DDR4 4133+(OC) in quad-channel configuration.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

At the top left of the board you are going to finds a 4-pin fan header and your 8-pin EPS connector. On the opposite side you’ll find a 4-pin pump fan header and your CPU fan header. The pump fan header is a supports up to 2 amp, giving you full control of the water pump speed in the BIOS or OS.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

If we move to the far edge of the board we have our debug LED display. This is great to have, if your system will not boot for some reason this will display a code which will give you an idea of what is going on. Once you have successfully booted your machine it doubles as a live temperature display for your CPU temperature. Moving down you have your 24-pin ATX power connector, USB 3.0 header, and USB 3.1 header. The USB 3.1 header is new and for future cases that will have the proper connector for this.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

Continuing to move down the board we have another USB 3.0 header (at a 90 degree angle) and our storage connections. There are six SATA 6GB’s ports and a single U.2 port.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

At the bottom of the board you’ll find the rest of your headers and connections. From left to right you have the HD audio header, RGB header, three 4-pin fan headers, TPM header, small power and reset buttons, three USB 2.0 headers, thunderbolt header, front panel header, BIOS switch, VRAID header, and two more SATA 6GB/s ports.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

Coming to the other edge of the board here you will find your audio components that make up MSI’s Audio Boost IV, most of which are covered by the extension of the I/O shield, but we can see the Chemicon audio capacitors. Audio Boost 4 is powered by an EMI-shielded High Definition audio processor with built-in DAC. The audio components have complete PCB isolation from the rest of the motherboard components and the left and right channels are on different PCB layers for the cleanest sound.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

If we move to the expansion slots we have four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, and two PCI-Express 3.0 x1 slots. The first and third slots have shielding and are positioned perfect for dual graphics card operation. With a 44-lane supported CPU the slots will work in x16/x16/x8 mode, with a 28-lane CPU they will work in x16/x8/x4, and finally with a 16-lane CPU they will operate in either x8/x8/x0 or x8/x4/x4 mode.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

In between the first and second as well as the third and fourth slots you are going to find 32 GB/s M.2 slots. The top slot comes with MSI’s M.2 shield and supports M.2 SSDs up to 80mm. The bottom slot lacks the M.2 shield, but supports long M.2 SSDs up to 110 mm.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

Finally we move to the rear I/O which if you remember is covered by that attractive cover that says “SLI PLUS” on it. From left to right we have dedicated Clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback buttons, a keyboard/mouse PS/2 port, four USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, dual Gigabit LAN ports (Intel powered), a USB 3.1 Type-A port, USB 3.1 Type-C port, and your audio connections, which are gold plated.

MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard

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