MSI Big Bang Marshall P67 Motherboard with Lucid Hydra Pictured

MSI is readying a new high-end socket LGA1155 motherboard based on the Intel P67 chipset, geared for overclocking, that features the LucidLogix Hydra Engine chip, that gives out no less than eight PCI-Express x16 slots (electrical lane configurations may vary). The Big Bang Marshall is an XL-ATX motherboard, it makes use of a strong 18-phase CPU VRM that makes use of DrMOS, solid-state chokes, and POSCAP capacitors. The four DDR3 DIMM slots support dual-channel DDR3-2000 MHz memory. The PCI-E 2.0 x16 link from the processor is wired to the Lucid Hydra chip, which controls all installed graphics card, irrespective of make and generation, and creates a multi-GPU array with it. This means that you can pair AMD Radeon graphics cards with NVIDIA GeForce ones, and can even mix and match different GPUs of the same make.

That aside, the Big Bang Marshall features four SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 ports, dual gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel HD audio, and tons of overclocker-friendly features such as OC Genie, consolidated voltage measurement points, and a feature-rich BIOS. The board is slated for release after Intel's early-January launch of the 2011 Core processor family, which starts off with quad-core Core i7 and Core i5 processors.