MSI Teases X299 Gaming Pro Motherboard

Motherboard manufacturer MSI has been dropping a lot of teases lately for their upcoming Intel HEDT lineup. First was the triple M.2 and quad PCIe x16 slot motherboard last week then the rear Io of an MSI motherboard a few days ago. Now MSI has shown the closest possible look at the new Intel HEDT socket system with the X299 Gaming Pro.

Despite not giving an explicit full view, the image reveals some interesting features. There is a label near the socket printed as ‘Turbo Socket’ which could be an MSI exclusive feature similar to the extra pins in some Intel X99 motherboards when it first launched. These extra pins delivered extra power for overclocking. Looking at the EPS +12V area at the top corner reveals an extra 4-pin to feed the CPU for overclocking as well.

Looking at the DIMM slots, it appears to have a single-sided latching system. This latch is only at the top while the bottom part is freed up. This allows MSI to place a PCIe x16 slot directly below the DIMM slot and makes installation easier. The rear IO cover also appears to have an LED built-in judging by the wire running along at the bottom edge. The photo only shows a blue LED but this could be an RGB LED. This IO cover also appears to have metallic trim on a carbon fibre pattern.

This motherboard appears to be different from the first two teaser photos that MSI released. These pictures seemed to be for the MSI X299 GODLIKE motherboard while the new photo seems to be for the MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard.

Basin Falls X-series Platform

Intel’s Basin Falls platform itself will boast the most flexible CPU support for the high-end desktop line yet. It will not only support Skylake Lake-X CPUs but will also have Kaby Lake-X CPU options at the same time. The Skylake-X SKUs represent the highest tier from 6-core up to 12-core configurations while the Kaby Lake-X SKUs will be quad-core solutions.