The mezarine (blue) slots are physical x16 slots with 16 PCI Express lanes, while the yellow slots are physical x16 slots with four PCI Express lanes bandwidth. Note the Port80 card in the lower left corner.

The IHT PCIe Expander chip brings in extra PCI Express lanes for the additional yellow PCI Express x16 slots. MSI provide physical Power and Reset buttons for desktop overclockers who don't use a PC case.

Serial ATA and IDE ports are set at 90 degrees so cables remain out of the way of long videocards. The board only uses solid state capacitors, which is pretty standard among high end motherboards in this day and age.

The MSI X48 Platinum supports 8GB of DDR3 memory, at speeds up to 1600MHz SDRAM. The colour coding in this case doesn't correspond to the memory channels, so make sure that your memory modules are installed in alternating coloured slots.

The MSI Circu-pipe passive chipset cooler is a tad ostentatious, and relies heavily on active cooling airflow from other components. This can be a problem with fanless CPU cooling solutions, like water cooling blocks or TECs.

The Circu-pipe passive chipset thermal solution runs across the length of the motherboard, but has a low enough profile that it doesn't impede video cards or the expansion slots.

These widely spaced USB ports on the I/O panel are a thoughtful touch, and allow for easy insertion of thicker USB keys without requiring any of the other components to be unplugged. The CMOS reset button is easily reached even when the board is installed in case.

The POST messages are displayed on this four digit Port 80 card.

Time for some overclocking!