MSI's Eclipse SLI X58 motherboard Review

This board is killing me because I want to like so much as the MSI team has clearly put in incredible effort and risk into designing the Eclipse SLI. Since just the P45 generation six months ago, so much has changed for the better which we need to give MSI credit for - the GreenPower core is excellent, the D-LED 2 is a good evolution, the board looks fantastic, it's stable with 12GB of memory and it's finally got a compelling market niche. The problem is that it's only 95 percent of the way there and it still needs attention to tidy up the loose ends - the BIOS and the software needs work, the cooling isn't wonderful, the D-LED 2 can evolve further, the X-Fi is either love or hate and the GreenPower Genie can go in the bin.

The difference between the MSI Eclipse SLI and Asus P6T Deluxe is that despite the Asus' shortcomings, underneath it was still very usable and yielded an eminently enjoyable experience. With the Eclipse SLI, we were using it and loving this or that feature then suddenly, BAM!, we hit a brick wall and were left to think "that could be better." There were enough of these moments to drop it out of a recommendation. Knowing the design schedule for X58 was even more incredibly intense than usual because it was a new platform, I just wish MSI had more time to sit back and think it through or use it more, before finalising things.

Buying one will still yield an enjoyable experience with tons to play with, but we reckon you'll still be having second thoughts about your £274 purchase when you look at other X58 boards on the market.