Event Coverage

MSI P45 Launch Event

By Aloysius Low - 30 Jun 2008

The MSI P45 Launch Event

The MSI P45 Launch Event

Adding a touch of class this year to their annual roadshow saw MSI and local distributor, Corbell, departing from their usual haunt at the National Library in favor of the snazzy surroundings of VivoCity's Golden Village Cinema Halls. Held at Hall 6, the event saw roughly 150 attendees, which included Hardware Zone forum members, business partners, retailers and the media. Attendees were also treated to a buffet dinner and a screening of the movie "Wanted". Now that's a real nice treat.

 MSI's P45 Launch was held at VivoCity's Golden Village Cinemas. Attendees to the event included www.hardwarezone.com forum members, retailers, business partners and the media. Can you spot your fellow forum members?

 MSI's Garrett Wu spoke to the audience on the benefits and features of MSI's new products. He also touched upon the use of server-class DrMOS chips that are being used in MSI's P45 motherboards.

Instead of last year's diverse line up of products, this year's roadshow saw a more focused showcase of their Hybrid Cooler graphics cards, their new MSI Wind Notebook and the main highlight, their new P45 motherboard series which uses DrMOS technology. By using server-class DrMOS chips for their new motherboards, MSI promises to deliver a much cooler and power efficient motherboard through the use of a small 3-in-1 integrated driver-MOSFET package which contains the driver IC and the usual high/low MOSFETs versus all the discrete components normally found on the power regulation portion of other motherboards.

 Spotted on display was MSI's take on NVIDIA's new GeForce 260 GTX. We didn't spot the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 despite the cards being mentioned during Mr Chen's presentation.

 Seen here was a familiar sight for us. If you've read our recent coverage on the MSI Wind NB U100, you'll realize that this was the same model that we reviewed. We did get a chance to speak to MSI and we'll be getting a 3-cell retail model soon, so check back on our earlier article for updates on the battery life of the currently selling 3-cell variant.

 The MSI P45D3 Platinum features DrMOS technology and a 'streamlined' heatsink that in turn allows for a larger CPU cooler to be placed. Though MSI mentioned 'streamlined', the heatsinks on the board are actually quite elaborate, and yet they pose no trouble for most CPU coolers.

 We last spotted the MSI P45 Diamond in Taipei at Computex 2008. The Diamond features a water cooling block on the north bridge for overclockers to integrate water cooling devices with the motherboard, including a package that MSI is planning to pair it as an option to this board.

 The MSI P45 Neo3 may seem catered to the budget user, but its two-phase power supply for the chipset gives it better overclockability compared to the P45 Neo and there are still plenty of storage ports to cater to the enthusiast in you.

With a smaller but focused line-up for their roadshow this year, MSI managed to highlight its strengths in motherboard designs while reaching out to the general consumer public with the new Wind NB U100 netbook. Do keep an eye out for an upcoming review of the MSI P45D3 Platinum board on www.hardwarezone.com!

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