The Intel Core i7 990X processor Extreme Edition delivers the cutting edge in PC performance. It combines the power of six processing cores running at 3.46 GHz into a single processor, guaranteeing the utmost performance and power for the most demanding applications. With 12 MB of smart cache, the Core i7 990X processor ensures that you get maximum responsiveness from your system, even when running many intensive programs simultaneously. Compatible with motherboards based on the Intel X58 Express chipset, the Core i7 990X processor takes your computing and gaming experience to the next level.

12 Threads for the Ultimate Gaming Weapon.
The Intel Core i7 990X processor Extreme Edition packs six computing cores running at 3.46 GHz to deliver breakthrough performance in gaming and multitasking. The Core i7 990X will not only handle today's complex games, but tomorrow's as well. You'll experience smoother, more realistic gameplay as AI, physics, and rendering are distributed across the six cores and 12 threads. Your 3D gaming will be brought to life without frame-rate hiccups and slowdowns so you can dominate the competition.

Whether editing high-definition videos, touching up family photos, or splicing up music, the Intel Core i7 990X processor Extreme Edition provides the processing power needed. The processor's 12 threads are optimized to keep up with the most advanced digital editing software. It also accelerates DVD encoding and compression, allowing you to easily share your HD movies with everyone. Video transcoding and compression and image rendering are done faster than ever, so you'll never be left waiting for your computer to catch up to your imagination.

The i7 family is Intel's flagship processor, and for good reason. With the i7 family, Intel engineers invented a revolutionary new style of microarchitecture. They replaced the front side bus--a longtime staple of processor design--with a new technology called QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). Using QPI, the Intel Core i7 990X processor increases bandwidth and lowers latency, while achieving data transfer speeds as high as 25.6 GB/s.
To put it simply, users will enjoy faster and more streamlined processing than ever before. Your computer will handle multiple projects and applications without the slowdown you'd experience with a lesser processor.

If you are looking at building a system from scratch - this eval of the various i7 cores is for you. I will cover the performance aspects, best bang for the buck, pitfalls, power suppplies, and OEM options. If you are looking at the i7-990 then for some reason known only to you - you have a need for performance. All I intend to show is where money buys the most performance.

The i7 975 and the i7 990 are meant for a powerhouse application. Depending on what you plan to do with the system you are building, consider the best value for your money. The fastest processor won't always build the fastest system - consider this example:

Right now (3/2011) the I7 975 is about 400 bucks less than the I7990, which happens to sum to be the price of an NVIDIA GTX480 graphics card from evga or several other vendors (approximately) - so you could buy an I7 975 and equip the system with a GTX480 graphics card (with 480 graphics processors in parallel + 4 system cores) , 1.5 gb of video ram on card - basically 2 earlier cards SLI'ed together into JUST ONE double wide slot in terms of performance) or on the other hand, if you want to max out your computational performance, and not your well balanced system performance, the i7990 is the only way to go as it has 150% of the 4 cores (6 cores in the 990) which gives you roughly 1.5 times the computational processor performance, so long as your motherboard and chipset can get the data into and out of the processor fast enough! So the i975 is 4 processor cores and 480 graphics cores, the i990 is 6 processor cores and 1 graphics core. For 400 dollars more you only added 2 cores to the system if its primary job is graphics (of course it could be a database machine in which case RAM is where its at, but that's a different fruit of a cpu)

So looking at this chip for a fixed price (1K) in a system, you could get a slower 4core chip and a gtx480 card with 480 graphics cores designed to work with adobe cs5 (photoshop/premiere pro/ anything in the cs5 ultra package) and nearly every game, - or just get the high performing 990 core with 1.5 times the compute power of the 975 and no graphics system for almost exactly the same price (3/2011). Put simply 1K buys 480 graphics cores + 4 system cores, or could buy (today's pricing) 6 system cores and on board graphics (which nobody would do!)

Before you make the decision - first think of your use - is the machine going to be an all out video proceessing blu ray presser - then the GTX480 makes a very nice setup with the 975. If you want a killer game machine it's on the edge- sure you need the power of the 990 chip, but the graphics rendering of the 975+GTX480 can run circles around a 990 w/ onboard graphics (of course you would never use an onboard graphics card, but I'm trying to get the prices equal - realistically if you want an all out gaming system, the 990+ gtx480 card would be a killer machine at 1400 bucks in cpu+graphics spending, but you can do an awful lot with the gtx480 by itself due to the cuda core parallel processing capability of your graphics card running cuda-aware software.

Example - I bought a system with a 975 chip and standard "gtx class" (probably a 260 - but it was OEMed) to render 1 hour of avchd into a blu ray disc came back at 24 hours of runtime. Ouch. Hope the lights stay on- beter invest in a good ups. (out of curiousity without the gtx260 that same oem system with a stock 9800 graphics quoted 2.5 weeks of processing to do the same job - double ouch) - then putting in the gtx 480, yanking the OEM 250 watt power supply and using a corsair 1KW (NEVER skimp on power no matter what you are building - 1KW would be the minimum if you have any kind of graphics installed) then the numbers came in - that same job - 1 hr of avchd at 24mbps down to blu ray took 27 minutes with the GTX480, down from a full day on a GTX260 oem board. Speed improvement for 400 bucks (when I bought the gtx480 that was the price - i'm sure it is cheaper now) was 48 times faster on the same system processor.

Just a minor note, the corsair supply gave me 4 sli power connectors, the GTX480 used 3 of them to run it (most sli capable graphics cards only need 1 sli connector to the power supply), so don't plan to SLI 2 GTX480s (which *is* possible upwards of 1500w/240VAC) unless you get 1500W of dc power and 6 sli cords to run just 2 GTX480s, which you really don't need, 27 minutes to do an hour production is more than twice as fast as realtime, so I'm already getting it done in less time than the final output with just one GTX480.

If you are budget driven and want a well balanced system consider for a minute the i7 975 3.33 ghz chip combined with the GTX 480's *combined* performance alongside the GTX990 chip and some run of the mill graphics system. You'll see that 1K dollars buys you more performance using a slower processsor and a faster graphics subsystem (which weighs in heavier than the motherboard, so some good strapping to the cage is mandatory) in any graphics intensive application (e.g. non database - there you want 24GB of ram)

Of course, if money is absolutely no object, get the 990 and the GTX480 and you'll be more than thrilled with the system performance, but don't be surprised when the windows 7 benchmark is still 5.9. It's a balancing act to make a machine that has a fast disk (yor first limiter in the system benchmark) and a fast proc, fast memory, and fast graphics - it just works out that way when allocating the funds to build a system (and I've built several dozen since intel announced the 8086). When you concentrate on disk speed, system cache files on ramdiscs for improved performance, and high end graphics your total system score won't disappoint you with a 5.9 limited by the disk drive after spending 2400 bucks in hardware, when 1500 bucks will get a 6.9 system performance score. Even then - if its a gaming system, a 6.9 means nothing because that benchmark is for general office use - high performance gaming systems MUST have the top of the line graphics, as much processor as you can afford, yet you don't need as much main memory as you might think since so much is done on the graphics processor card. You do however need FAST main memory, usually overclocked. Game systems are a tad unbalanced when you allocate your money to get the best frame rate in a particular game.

To summaraize, yes, today this is the latest fastest biggest thing from intel - but in 9 months it won't be - somthing will be faster, more cores, etc. Assuming you are building a system from scratch today, then this is the best you can squeeze out, but intel has something around the corner (who knows - the i9-999Z chip? maybe) that will obsolete your processor. My point is simply don't dump cash down the processor hole unless you have a limitless supply - think balacned system and see where nvidia is heading - the gtx480 came out a while back and they may have a 490 out by now - for me I'm happy with the 480, but I also considered the 460 - the selling point on the 480 was the video workstation performance. And while Intel is preparing the I9-999Z 16 core chip, don't forget that Nvidia will be right behind them with their own motherboard that takes the TZG-999 graphics subsystem with 1000 cores. You can't stop the progess of technology - just buy what makes sense for your application.

Before buying the fastest anything in a computer system, consider what will be the first limiter to the system's overall performance - disk cache? a fan? a power supply? Sometimes spending just 89 bucks will push you into the next performance bracket by fixing the limiting element to the machine. Most people use 2TB 7200RPM drives - and they max out at 5.9 - people who use 10Krpm drives get better disk performance and slightly better system performance. Is it worth it? Depends on your disk cache file - ram is cheap today with the 4G sticks of ddr3 comming down in price, which allows 24G systems - setup the machine to allocate 10G of ram to disk cache and suddenly that 10Krpm disk isn't working as hard if you have 10G of a 24G system cacheing disk requests. There are alternatives you must pick through in designing a system for your purpose. I've barely scratched the surface talking about cpu, graphics, and ram.

Lastly, never believe any benchmark - build the system for your intended purpose - mine happened to be video editing - yours may be gaming - the two share similar goals, but if you want a database machine, you don't need a 480 core graphics card. Plan the system build and never forget the chipset you choose and the motherboard - they will come into the equation next with usb 3.0 comming out, e-sata, etc. If the chipset can't deliver data from main memory into the 4 or 6 core processor, then they will yield performance numbers so close you'll wonder why the extra 2 cores aren't working. It's an overloaded motherboard chipset.

Building your computer from scratch can be fun and exciting. You will, however, end up spending more to build it from scratch than buying a GOOD oem system and adding practical enhancers to it. Never plan to steal the o/s off the OEM system and transfer it to your homebuit machine because windows 7 won't let you do that with their security safegurards and anti-piracy (i.e. they sell win 7 ultimate to HP for say $75 but sell it to the computer store for $175, but HP commits to buy 100,000 coppies per year, while the store commits to buy 10. The coppy installed in your OEM HP system is branded to only run on HP systems, while the 175 buck version in the store will run on any cpu, however once you brand it to a motherboard, you are stuck with that combination - change mobo's because you want a new chipset and suddenly your screen goes black and your system naggs you that it's non-genuine and you need to pay 175 to microsoft. That prevents you from getting the good deals OEM makers do on motherboards, processors, and most importantly - the o/s. I guarantee you HP does not pay what amazon does for the I7 990, which is a great 6 core chip.

Part of Intel's family of 2nd generation Intel Core computer processors, the Intel Core i5-2500K Processor delivers speed and smooth performance whether you're uploading and editing home videos or checking your e-mail. This quad-core processor runs at 3.30 GHz and uses the LGA1155 socket. It features a 6 MB L3 cache, Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, and Virtualization Technology to improve speed and computing productivity. It's also fully unlocked for extra performance and flexibility. Built-in visual technologies, like Clear Video and InTru3D, support high-definition and Blu-ray playback.

I bought this as an upgrade for a stalwart Intel q6600 Core 2 Quad system I have been using for the past two years. My previous q6600 system was over-clocked (3.0ghz) and coupled with high performance parts to maximize efficacy. I figured this chip would be a MILD improvement over my aforementioned unit. Delightfully, I was WRONG.

Saying this chip is a good "bang for the buck" is somewhat inaccurate. It's a sonic boom for the buck. It over-clocks to 4.5Ghz on air with moderate temperatures with a basic ($30) after-market air cooler and runs completly stable. I decided to run this chip on a daily basis at 4.0Ghz to preserve the longevity of its operation. This chip is excellent for use in programs like Photoshop, Adobe Creative Suite, and of course gaming. Providing you have an adequate video card this CPU simply WILL NOT let you down in intense graphic CPU-based games (Star Craft 2) or taxing programs (CS3+).

I got the i5 2500k at launch (1/9/2011) and I'm blown away by the performance. I'm upgrading from a core 2 duo 2.66. This gets a 7.5 in the Windows Experience Index (not over-clocked).

This thing runs cool with the stock fan and my standard $80 case with 3 fans. I have an ASUS mobo and used the OC wizard to get the turbo boost to 4.43ghz. Ran prime95 for 10 minutes with no issues, the cores got up to 50c on the hottest core. Even at that temp, I could barely hear the stock cpu fan at 2,000 rpm. The case fans run at 800 rpm.

My advice: save your money and buy this instead of i7 2600k. Use that money to get an SSD. Even a cheap kingston value series ssd will blow away your 7200rpm disk.

The ASUS M4A89GTD Pro USB3 delivers staggering versatility to any PC builder looking to get the most bang for their buck. Being the most awarded and most trusted motherboard maker, ASUS injects the rock solid M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 with performance enhancing features. This easy-to-tweak motherboard is equipped with a wide array of exclusive innovations such as Core Unlocker that unlocks processor cores, Turbo Unlocker to optimize individual core frequencies, and GPU Boost to accelerate onboard GPU performance on the fly. 

True to its name, the Core Unlocker feature instantly activates up to two hidden processing cores potentially doubling the processing performance. To take the performance even further, Turbo Unlocker dynamically adjusts individual processor core frequencies for the task at hand in a simple click of a button via the ASUS TurboV Evo software utility. Sporting the AMD 89GX chipset, the M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 supports the latest AMD socket AM3 Phenom II X6 6-core processor and dual channel DDR3 memory architecture. It also comes with an integrated ATI Radeon HD 4290 graphics built onboard with ASUS’ exclusive GPU Boost super-charging the performance even further.

This is actually my first ASUS board. I have been using MSI products for the last few years with no issues, so why the change? Upon reading the specifications of the new MSI, I liked the fact that ASUS has more features including the core unlocker that allows all cores to achieve full performance capabilities, also I've heard from friends that ASUS makes some really good bios chipsets. This board has some really noticeable features like USB 3 and SATA 6 which don't have so much of an impact on users now, but will soon in the future. 

Another feature which I have not seen before is the easy bios upgrade feature that allows a user to upgrade bios in bios and checks the file to be sure its compatible with the chipset. There are many other feature which I haven't had the chance to mess around with yet, like the Hybrid CrossfireX technology and ASUS TurboV EVO, not to mention even more overclocking features, however, I must admit I'm not one to overclock even with liquid cooling installed, mostly since I'm not a millionaire and can't afford to overheat a cpu, but if you have the money and experience this board will definitely take advantage of what your processor can do, also this will support the new 6 cores; also this new chipset features the Radeon HD 4290 onboard GPU that supports 512mb and has direct X 10.1 features and comes with multiple VGA outputs, HDMI, DVI, RGB. I only used the onboard when first firing her up, so I didn't get a chance to see what it could do in games like Bioshock or  Battlefield Bad Company, but I can imagine being able to play at 1920 X 1080p with just about every setting maxed.

If there is one negative thing about this board it would have to be that it has no floppy drive support, and while you don't really need one anyways, I did buy a brand new one, along with floppy disks, but that's just being to used to older tech since it was required to have a floppy disk to create partitions and for RAID drivers in the past.Overall, the price and technology in this board is more than exceptional and had it up and running with the first power on without any problems, ASUS also gives you some pretty good software on their driver CD like ASUS Probe 2 which has a great interface and shows motherboard and cpu temperatures. Now I just need to save some money for another Radeon card then I can give crossfire X a test run. -Great board.

Bought this board since it was an AM3 socket which was what i was looking for, overall im very impressed by the board, had a bit of a problem installing the board in my case, since there wasnt quite enough room for the back panel cover. The board has a great design too, love the mem ok button, had some initial problems with my RAM (it doesnt accept 1600MHz RAM right off the bat), but thats simple to get around, just put the RAM in, and use the MEM-OK button and it will work perfectly fine, then just go to the BIOS and change the frequency to the 1600MHz that you wanted.

The BIOS is also great for this board, lets you tweak allot of stuff very easily and the layout is very user friendly. If you want to take a gamble, you can opt to try the core unlocker, some AMD processors have locked cores, for example the Athlon II and Phenom II X2 and X3 models are models with locked cores, if you are lucky enough, the locked cores will be in workable condition, therefore, adding 1 or maybe even 2 more cores to your processor. just a bit of a warning and note on that, the X2 and X3 models are usually designated that because of manufacturing defects on the locked cores, so remember that theres no guarantee you will get extra cores, and also if you do unlock the cores, you may have to fiddle with the settings to get them to be stable. but hey, if you buy a dual/triple core and try the unlocker, you cant loose, at worse you will just be stuck with the processor you paid for, which is still pretty good since AMD offers very good prices for their products, the best is getting a hell of a lot more bang for your buck by getting a quad core for the price of a dual.

A bit of a side note, the GTD version(this one) comes with a decent integrated video card (ATI Radeon HD 4290) which you can change the amount of  integrated memory it uses, up to 512mb, so you can have a 512mb DDR3 video card right off the bat without paying for a video card, and i must say, the integrated video card impresses me, you cant do anything past light gaming with it, but it runs TF2 (high settings) and Fallout 3 (medium settings) pretty well, i have even heard you can play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on minimum settings smoothly. you should be able to play almost every game on minimum settings smoothly at the very least as of now (Oct 2010).

So, if you are on a budget, you can forgo buying a video card temporarily with this board, which is what i did, I eventually got myself an ATI Radeon HD 5770. Overall, I highly recommend this mobo, its feature set will come in handy for users of nearly any level, plus, you wont need to upgrade the mobo itself for years since its built for upgrading.
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This motherboard is inexpensive but still decently fully featured. Easy to overclock, holds 10 bios pre-sets, nice looking. Had my Phenom II X6 1055T overclocked from 2.8ghz to 3.2ghz under the motherboards auto over clock. I manually got it 3.5 without a problem and didnt try harder, because, i still had the stock AMD heatsink and cooling.

Motherboard came with 4 sata cables (2 SATAII 3gbps, & 2 SATAIII 6gbps). The easy connect header for power, reset, and front lights is nice to work with. The motherboard mounted with all connectors needed in my 4U rackmount server chasis. Has core and turbo unlockers for able processors.

Like the other reviewer said it saw my 1600 ram as 1333. I had to change it in the bios. it also didn't see my ram at first but like the instruction book told me; I held down the button next to the ram slots and restarted and the the board saw my ram. outside of those two things board works flawlessly.

I bought this motherboard to build my first computer ever from scratch and so far it has not let me down, everything is as advertised and played nicely with my AMD X4 640 processor (excellent choice for the price). My Corsair RAM was recognized as 1333 but 2 enters in the BIOS corrected them to 1600. Has USB 3.0 and can take up to the newest 6core processor from AMD so I have a motherboard that will last for a long time.

Asus has hit a homerun with this mobo! Using the Asus Crosshair IV Formula and my new AMD 1055t Athlon II x6 processor, I was able to easily OC the stock 2.8 Ghz proccy to 3.76 Ghz with almost no effort whatsoever. I had originally intended to go with the AMD 1090t proccy but couldn't see paying almost $100 extra (at that time). I realize now the Black Edition processors are a little better with faster through put but I'm still very happy.

My first impression of the packaging was simply "WOW". Normally you expect to get a mobo in a box that's been clear-tape sealed with a disk an instruction booklet and a CD and perhaps some cables/ribbons. This package is like no other mobo you'll ever buy. An extremely detailed booklet with plenty of info on anything and everything about the board and it's features as well as Bios tips. Cables, tie straps, and an amazing rear IO plate that put my faith back into premium quality mobos. Also included is an ROG (Republic Of Gamers) badge sticker as well as a pretty large side case sticker that goes perfectly with my Red and Silver Backtrack 4 logo ;). Assembly of the board is standard except for the RAM slots which feature one end clip on each slot. Yep, no more fumbling around underneath wires to have to pop out your RAM sticks with two latches, this feature alone is enough for me to be happy but it doesn't stop there. Asus has gone out of their way to deliver not only performance but a great assembled package that shows the pride of the ROG community.

Some (including one of my closest friends) balked at the color scheme until he got a longer look at it. Admittedly, red wouldn't have been my first choice either since I like blue and green better but it quickly grows on you aesthetically. Now, many have complained about the heat of the Northbridge which in some cases featured incorrect standoff heights. For a new and "featured" product it was sad to see such a blatant mistake which also proved a lack of QC/QA on Asus' part before shipping (IMO) on one of their premiere and premium prodcuts. However, with that said, I was one of the fortunate ones who had no problems with the heat of the NB.

Assembly was typical like any other motherboard until it came time to start it up. I have to admit this was the first time ever I had no problems running it correctly the first time with absolutely no flaws. Loaded in Windows Ultimate 7 64 bit and away it went.

For this build I opted for all top of the line products including: Corsair H70 proc cooler, 8Gb G.Skill Flare RAM, OCZ 850w GamerXStream PSU, Diamond ATI 1Gb DDR5 5870 GPU, Antec BluRay BD ROM, LG DVD/CD reader/burner, NZXT Sentry 2 LE Fan Controller, Lian Li 4 port mini-duckbill light switches, Cooler Master Sickle Blade Fans (6), Antec 1200 case, Sabrent 51 in 1 card reader, WD RE3 Enterprise Edition 1Tb drives (2), Corsair C300 64 Gb SSD, Bulgin LED Power Switch, Flatron 24" HDMI monitor,Logitech G19 Keyboard and last but not lease the Logitech G5 gaming mouse. And all fed through a Logitech 540 5.1 sound system.

My intention was to future proof this build as much as possible within a set budget and I've easily accomplished that with a few dollars leftover. The lighted switches, buttons on the motherboard are flat out sexy too. I've also got to admit the AMD 890 chipset totally rocks! My previous system was an Asus A8N32-SLI Premium mobo with an AMD Opteron 170 which is still a good build but nothing compared to the newest screamer! If you're looking for performance, capability, consistency and overclocking capabilities I would have to put this at position #1 with a bullet!

I had originally intended to use the Noctua NHD14 cooler which is mammoth but fits my case, until that is, I attempted to put it in with the performance RAM from G.Skill. If you're intending to use the Noctua cooler you can only use standard side cover heat spreaders on your RAM. Forget about the add-on top heat spreader such as the G.Skill Flare or Corsair Dominators, it just won't fit. The bottom 3-5 fins of the NHD14 hit the top of the RAM and will not seat anywhere near the top of your processor as it should. Hence the Corsair H70 which works like a charm and provides excellent cooling.

Overclocked the CPU to a solid 4.0 ghz (Passed Prime 95 torture test) with G.Skill Ram running at it's rated 1333. I used manual settings which I found on Youtube and tweaked a little. According to the utility Asus Probe the Northbridge, CPU and Southbridge are all running at under 50 Degrees Celsius.

My H-50 Cooler fit perfectly inside the Motherboard but I think a bigger cooler could block your last
Memory slot. For my Haf 922 case the Sata Cable connectors are right next to my drives so I don't have sloppy cables reaching across the board or had to buy 3 footers to spring behind the backplate. Interestingly enough the temperature went down by 2 degrees when I operated the system with the case closed. Really good airflow in the Haf 922.

The Bad;
I feel like Asus should provide Motherboard Standoffs because I had to do some fiddling and really tighten the screws to get a good line up for the Back Plate.
My built in sound card didn't work properly. I tried everything installing de-installing drivers devices etc but for some reason sound only comes out of 1 speaker. This is not a biggie. I'm going to throw in a $30.00 SoundBlaster Card and the world should be right. But still if one pays more than $200.00 for a board you would think the sound would work.

I feel like one drawback of the board is that they allow AHCI on ports 1-4 and IDE on 5 6but that is your only option. You can't control the ports individually and if you set AHCI the ports disappear in the bios. Yes AHCI causes all 4 ports to not be seen in the Bios. I thought that I had a defective MB but than I looked through the manual and it mentions this.

The first slot is unusable a heat sink fin blocks it. I was hoping to put a exhaust intake fan under the Video Card but it was too big. Asus suggests you use the 1st PCIE slot for maximum performance when using only 1 Video Card. Next month I plan to set up a Crossfire configuration.  I also wish there was a way to speed the Bios Process. I can boot to Windows in 15-20 seconds but the Bios just lags as it double checks everything. Guess this is necessary on an Overclocker Motherboard.

Discover the incredibly detailed world of DirectX 11 with the MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560-Ti graphics card. With over 3x the performance of previous generations and loaded with all the latest gaming technologies the GeForce GTX 560-Ti delivers a gaming experience that will blow you away.

After nearly four years I've finally decided to upgrade my video card, going from an 8800GT to this baby right now. The difference was noticeable right away. I typically have my gaming PC hooked up to my living room PC so I can play my games on a large screen, and it's chugging away at 1080p graphics without a hitch.

This is also all BEFORE I upgrade the rest of my system, which is coming in the next month or two. I'm already seeing MASSIVE improvements, and I'm loving it.

Two large fans on this card, with the improved heat sink over the reference model, means this card usually runs whisper quiet and very cool. My old 8800GT would get to 90 degrees Celsius after a half hour of gaming, and with the fan cranked up to a super noisy 75%. This one has the fan hang around 25-30%, not noticeable at all, and still manages to stay cool at 60 degrees C.

All in all I'm very impressed with the product, and as a long time MSI motherboard fan, I have to say I am in love with the build quality of the video card as well.

Bought this card for a new i7 2600k build based on extensive research on several tech sites and forums, along with feedback from early owners. Newegg has many firsthand reviews of this card that I found quite useful. Same price, but Amazon offers free shipping.

Superior performance- smokes my games at highest settings. Maxes out a 7.9 score on the Window Experience Rating for both the graphics Desktop performance for Windows Aero, AND the 3D business and gaming graphics performance categories... yes, 7.9 is the highest rating for Windows as of now. It does this for half the cost of the top of the line GTX580 cards.... Oh, it runs very cool, 25C at idle in my case. Dont think one can find a 560 that runs cooler.

It IS quiet! I have it in a SilverStone Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Uni-Body Frame Computer Case FT02B (Black)(a very quiet, cool, and highly recommended case) and I can not hear it. The case is on my desk 3 feet from where I sit. All I can hear is sweet airflow through the case, and the case fans are on the lowest setting. This makes me very happy as I was a bit concerned due to an earlier review here. I suspect that reviewer may have a defective or damaged card that is putting out audible harmonics. They might want to rma it for a new one. So if you value quietness in your computer like I do, then I can recommend this great card.

Value- At this price point nothing touches the perfomance of this card. It was a no brainer for me as I did not have an unlimited budget for my build. Bought this MSi GTX560 Ti because I do some gaming and flight sims, and do not want to upgrade for any games in the near future. Also work with video and the wife can certainly put it to use for her graphics and photoshop work. If all you will ever do with your computer is check your email and surf the web then you really do not need to spend this much. There are cheaper options.... If you do game and want performance within 10% of the top dogs for half the cost, well this new Value King of video cards is for you.

Quality- MSI is known for the high grade components they utilize in their products. It is no different here with military class II components and solid capacitors. This card is built to last and higher overclocking if one wants. With MSi Afterburner this is very easy to do.

I guess I would like a regular HDMI port and not the mini one. Must say that MSi does supply an adapter though. It also does not do my laundry or the dishes. Must look elsewhere....

Conclusion- This MSi GTX560 Ti card, along with my Prolimatech CPU Cooler for Intel Socket 1156, 1366 and 775 Megahalems Rev. B (Silver)(paired with the super quiet Noctua NF-P12 120 mm Nine Blade SSO Bearing Fan with VCN - Retailare the most valued components in my computer build. Hope this review helps anyone trying to decide on a new card
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P8P67 LE motherboard features the Intel P67 chipset supporting the 2nd Generation Intel Core i7/Core i5/Core i3 Processors.