MSI’s X99S SLI Plus is a $260 motherboard with a $197 price tag. If we believe what its competitors tell us, the company must be losing money on each one it sells. X99 platform buyers able to take advantage of temporary discount pricing ($179) and/or the $20 mail-in-rebate will probably feel foolish later if they don’t.

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Introduction

Defining value is difficult when it comes to Intel's X99 platform, in part because the company designed it for professionals and performance enthusiasts. Compared to Intel’s highest-end mainstream processors, Haswell-E offers more cores at lower clock rates. That sounds like a recipe for reduced value in most applications, but there’s a catch. Haswell-E also has a 40-lane PCIe 3.0 controller.

Or does it? Of the available LGA 2011-v3 processors, the Core i7-5820K comes closest to the cost of Intel's Core i7-4790K, the highest-end Haswell part you can buy. The -5820K's frequency is 25% slower and it has 12 of its PCIe 3.0 lanes disabled. Yet, even with its lower clock rate and reduced PCIe lane count, this entry-level Haswell-E chip keeps its high-end label by wielding six potent cores. Oh, and then there’s the native support for three-way SLI.