Msi creator trx40 review in Spanish (full analysis)

At last we have with us the MSI Creator TRX40 motherboard, and next to it the Threadripper 3970X What better way to push it to the limit than with the most powerful desktop CPU? MSI returns with its series for creators, a board that has a complete system of heatsinks on a quality design and that includes an expansion card with 4x NVMe PCIe 4.0.

AMD's new platform for its beasts includes PCIe 4.0 and a new chipset that together with the CPUs add 88 PCIe lanes. MSI puts the rest, which is not a little: 3 M.2 slots for storage, 8 banks of DDR4 Quad channel at 4666 MHz and triple network link with 10G LAN and Wi-Fi 6. All this on a 16+ VRM 3 real phases that should support those 600W that this CPU is around.

Before continuing, we thank MSI for their trust in us over the years, and temporarily give us their plate to do this analysis.

MSI Creator TRX40 technical characteristics

Unboxing

This MSI Creator TRX40 uses the most refined presentation, in fact the manufacturer always does an excellent job especially on its Creator-denominated products. In this case it is a thick cardboard box in white that shows us on the main face the model without photos, and behind it more information about the plate.

This box has a handle to transport it, and inside we have 2 more files. In one of them we will have stored the base plate perfectly accommodated in its mold. In the second the rest of accessories and hardware that is included, which is not a little.

The bundle in this case consists of the following elements:

• MSI Creator TRX40 motherboard Expansion card 2 Spander-Aero Gen4 Support guide Cable mounting guide and stickers 4x SATA 6 Gbps cables 3x temperature thermistors 3x RGB LED adapter cables Screws for M.2 Flash drive with drivers External Wi-Fi antenna

We see that interesting elements have been included such as temperature thermistors and an expansion card for M.2 PCIe 4.0 units which would give us a total storage capacity of 7 slots plus the 6 SATA ports, almost nothing.

Exterior design and features

This MSI Creator TRX40 belongs to the range of creator-oriented products, one of MSI's best known for its quality and performance, which is practically speaking of top-of-the-range hardware. And this case even more, since it belongs to the enthusiastic platform of AMD with its new and brutal 3rd generation Threadripper.

We will start by making an overview of the board, and then focus on each of its connectors. And the first thing to deal with will be the implemented cooling, something very important if we take into account that processors with a consumption much higher than 300W are going to be installed, and can reach 1000W in extreme configurations.

The cooling system in this case we can say that it is practically integral. We have a block on the chipset equipped with a fully exposed axial flow fan to improve its efficiency as much as possible. The heatsinks of the M.2 slots do not depend on this block, but that of the VRM does, since a copper heatpipe leaves the chipset and reaches this VRM.

All 16 + 3 phases are cooled via a passive (fanless) finned block that takes up virtually the entire top of the MSI Creator TRX40. In turn, the heatpipe passes through it to the EMI shield which is also partly finned to aid in heat transfer. We are not done, because the heatsink or protector of the sound card also integrates with the previous one, as seen in the image.

Notice that we have silicone thermal pads in chipset, VRM and also for the Aquantia network chip, which is installed directly on the board. For practical purposes we will be hovering around 57 ⁰C with a 3970X set at 4.1 GHz constantly under stress, which is not bad.

We only find lighting pre-installed in the EMI protector, with a mirror finish to improve aesthetics. We also have 4 RGB headers distributed for different lighting systems, with 3 extension cables included in the bundle.

In addition, the three included thermistors can be added to different expansion cards installed or directly on elements of the motherboard, such as under the M.2 Shield Frozr heatsinks or VRM surface. Although already integrated we have 9 temperature sensors, 8 headers for manageable fans and another for an all-in-one water pump.

We go to the back where we do not have any type of metallic protection, which would have been a great option for this plate. In your case, because we have the usual, a protection sheet for electrical tracks, and the different solders belonging to the PCIe and DDR DIMM slots. We also observe the separation line between the sound card circuit and the rest of the board, although we do not have integrated lighting in it.

MSI M.2 Spander-Aero Gen4 Expansion Card

The MSI Creator TRX40 includes this expansion card, which is the PCIE 4.0 or Gen4 version of the card that was already included in previous models. In this case we have a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface with all lanes occupied thanks to 4 M.2 x4 slots working on this PCIe interface. Each of the slots supports SSDs up to sizes 22110 having temperature thermistors for each unit separately.

On the visible face we will have a forceful heatsink provided with a 90mm axial type fan and 4 silicone thermal pads for each unit. The card will be powered through a 6-pin PCIe connector.

VRM and power phases

Now we leave the general analysis and focus on a vital element, VRM. This MSI Creator TRX40 has a power supply with 16 + 3 phases, 16 of which are responsible for the V-Core and 3 for the SoC. The top 16 are managed by a Digital Infineon XDPE132G5C PWM controller . 7 × 7 mm chip capable of controlling a total of 16 phases and a maximum of 1000A. It also offers manageability thanks to being compatible with PMBus 1.3 / AVS. The memory banks will be powered by independent PWM controllers.

In the first stage, the power one, we have 16 70A DC-DC Infineon TDA21472 MOSFETS that we have already seen on other boards such as the Asus or the MSI themselves. Thanks to them we will have a theoretical total capacity of 1120A, thus preparing this board for the most powerful CPUs that can come out of AMD, including the next 64C / 128T.

In the next phase dedicated to improving signal quality, we have the corresponding 70A solid chokes or stranglers and solid smoothing capacitors. Along with them, SP capacitors have been installed on both the front and rear sides to improve current output performance. Remember that in this case we do not have signal doublers, so all the phases are real.

Finally, the power supply is done through two 8-pin CPU connectors located in the upper right corner of the board. In this model we do not have any other extra connectors for PCIe on-board or MOLEX slots as other competing boards use.

Socket, chipset and RAM memory

Now we continue with the elements that make up the platform to which this MSI Creator TRX40 belongs. We have in it the huge AMD LGA sTRX4 socket, which is physically the same as the TR4, with its 4096 contacts. The update comes from the inside, to support the 64 PCIe 4.0 lanes of these CPUs and the communication interface between chipset and CPU of 8 PCIe 4.0 lanes instead of 4, thus increasing the trunk link to 16 GB / s up and down. Needless to remember then that these boards will only be compatible with the 3rd generation Threadrippers, as they have a different power configuration on their pins.

In conjugation with the socket, we also have the new AMD TRX40 chipset, completely changing the nomenclature used so far with the X399. It continues to offer 24 PCIe lanes, although now in version 4.0. 8 are dedicated to communication with the CPU, and the remaining 16 can be addressed as each brand deems appropriate, distributed among M.2 slots, normally one of them PCIe 4.0 x4, SATA ports, in a total of 8, and of course High speed connectivity for USB 3.2 peripherals, supporting 8 USB 3.2 Gen2 ports. Its manufacture is carried out in a 14 nm process by Global Foundries, and yes we are although a new architecture, something very different from the X299 code refresh for the Intel.

Finally, its capacity to install RAM memory amounts to 256 GB, so capacity for 32 GB modules is guaranteed thanks to the update of the die by the main manufacturers. We have a total of 8 288-pin DIMM slots for the DDR4 standard running on Quad Channel. It supports XMP profiles with speeds up to 4666 MHz, although AMD recommends 3600 MHz for its Ryzen.

Storage and PCIe slots

We now focus on the storage and PCIe configuration that this MSI Creator TRX40 supports, which will not be very different from the rest of the boards on the platform.

We will start with the expansion slots, of which we have a total of 4 PCIe 4.0 x16 and none that works in x1 or x4 intendant. Something very good is that all of them have steel reinforcement in their connector, oriented of course to support heavy cards. Note that it supports AMD CrossFireX 2- and 3-way multi -GPU parallel configurations and also Nvidia Quad-GPU SLI 2-way and 3-way, i.e. 3 graphics cards running in parallel. It is not the maximum capacity, since others support 4, but we do not believe that much more is needed either.

This slot configuration will work as follows:

• 2 PCIe slots will work at x16 and will be connected to the CPU (will be the first and third slot) 2 PCIe slots will work at x8 and will also be connected to the CPU (will be the second and fourth)

This is the only operating profile that is integrated in them, thus occupying 48 PCIe lanes of the CPU and thus leaving 8 free to address in the CPU, which we will see later what occupies them. As you can see, no surprise about it.

We now continue with the storage configuration of the MSI Creator TRX40. We have a total of 6 SATA III ports working at 6 Gbps maximum and 3 M.2 PCIe 4.0 / 3.0 x4 slots that support a maximum bandwidth of 64 Gbps, or what is being 8 GB / s. The organization of slots is quite peculiar, since MSI is worth its orientation to creators, leaving the gaps between GPUs free and placing two M.2s at the bottom, under the chipset. The third slot is parallel to the memory banks, on the right side.

The distribution of lanes and operation of the M.2 slots will be as follows:

• The 1st M.2 slot (M2_1) supports sizes 2260 and 2280, and is connected to the CPU with 4 lanes. (located under the chipset) The 2nd M.2 slot (M2_2) supports sizes 2260, 2280 and 22110, and is again connected to the CPU with 4 lanes. (under the PCIe_3 slot) AND the 3rd M.2 slot (M2_3) is connected to the chipset and supports 2260 and 2280 sizes. (DIMMs zone) The 6 SATAs are also connected to the chipset and do not share a bus with anything else.

As we see, the 8 slots that were missing in the CPU have already been occupied by these two M.2. The good thing is that the bus is not being shared at any time, so we should not worry about limitations in what we connect. Likewise, all three slots support SATA interface in addition to PCIe, and remember, we have a PCIe x16 expansion card for 4 extra slots.

Both SATA ports and M.2 slots support RAID 0, 1 and 10 from BIOS.

Triple network link and high quality sound card

Another of the strengths of this MSI Creator TRX40 board is network connectivity, and on boards that comfortably sit at 600 or more, as in this case, we will have great network connectivity.

Starting with wireless connectivity, we have a Wi-Fi 6 Intel AX200 card installed over an M.2 2230 slot directly on the rear port panel. These 2 × 2 connections offer a maximum bandwidth of 2.4 Gbps in the 5 GHz band and 733 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. Of course we need a router that works on IEEE 802.11ax otherwise we will be limited by AC and N connectivity in each band. Of course it is compatible with Bluetooth 5.0.

The double wired network link is made up of a 10 Gbps Aquantia AQC107 chip, which we already see in most enthusiastic range boards. Along with this, we have a second RJ-45 managed by a more normal 10/100/1000 Mbps Intel I211-AT chip for less demanding networks.

And the set in charge of managing the sound input and output is made up first of a new generation Realtek ALC4050H codec to manage the front panel, Mic-in and S / PDIF. Along with this, the well-known Realtek ALC1220 that gives us 7.1 audio quality in high definition with support for DSD (Direct Stream Digital) with a capacity of 120 dB SNR at 32 bits. A specially dedicated DAC is included for headphones with up to 600 Ω input impedance and automatic detection. Everything can be managed using Nahimic 3 from the system.

I / O ports and internal connections

Finally we are going to see the configuration of ports of the rear and internal panel of the MSI Creator TRX40, of which we have already had a preview at the beginning.

Starting with the rear I / O panel we have:

• BIOS Flashback button Clear CMOS button PS2 keyboard / mouse connector 2x Wi-Fi antenna outputs USB Type-C 3.2 Gen2x2 (20 Gb / s) 5x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (blue) 4x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (blue) 2x RJ-455x 3.5mm audio jack S / PDIF port

An excellent connectivity in general, and we already see that the presence of this USB Type-C 20 Gbps port is not lacking, which has become quite popular in new generation boards that do not have Thunderbolt 3. We have a total of 10 USB ports, all of them 5 Gbps or more, which is great.

Going to the internal ports, the configuration is as follows:

• 9x fan headers and cooling pump 4x LED headers (demo LEDs, 5050 RGB, ARGB, and Corsair LEDs) 1x front audio connector 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C2x USB 3.2 Gen12x USB 2.0TPM3x temperature sensor headers (included) Management buttons Board: Power and Reset

Along with these, we have some jumpers to modify the boot of the board, as well as profiles for OC. The vast majority are at the bottom as we see in the image. Likewise, we see a wide variety of internal ports to extend USB connectivity, which is benefited by having two less SATA ports connected to the chipset.

testing bench

Now we will see a little more detail what the BIOS interface of the MSI Creator TRX40 offers us and especially its overclocking and power capacity with the Threadripper 3970X.

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	AMD Threadripper 3970X
Base plate:	MSI Creator TRX40
Memory:	32 GB G-Skill Royal X @ 3200 MHz
Heatsink	Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3
HDD	ADATA SU750
Graphic card	Gigabyte RTX 2080 Super
Power supply	Cooler Master V850 Gold

We would like to keep this processor, although for now it will not be possible. However, it is the most powerful platform and hardware today, and you should get the best out of the board.

BIOS

This time we have an extremely complete and intuitive interface for this BIOS that MSI offers on this and other boards. It is practically the same in options as the X570 platform, with normal and advanced modes where the functions are expanded. In addition we see it more stable and settled in this 3rd of Threadripper than the first versions for Ryzen 3000, something that is very positive.

From the main panel we can manually activate the A-XMP profile for the Quad Channel that we have assembled, and also give a visual view of detailed information on its different dashboards. From here we will activate options such as lighting, storage mode, audio panel, and we can change the starting order of the board and manage fan profiles, although we will have the complete interface in advanced mode.

Overclocking and VRM temperatures

MSI has only used a fan in its chipset, something practically mandatory on these boards. But the good thing is that it has dispensed with these in the VRM being good in the face of the noise they generate. In your case, a successful and complete passive system that uses a large part of the surface of the plate to place a heatpipe and heatsinks that take care of the heat generated by MOSFETS and CHOKES.

We have been able to put the 3970X at a maximum frequency of 4.3 GHz @ 1.3 V, which is not bad considering its maximum capacity of 4.5 GHz for the best of cases. The MSI Creator TRX40 has reliably powered this CPU above 500W showing a spectacular Cinebench R20 score.

Despite the prolonged stress process we have done it at 4.1 GHz, consuming just over 450W for a few hours. Starting from a base temperature of 34 ⁰C, we have obtained maximum surface areas of 56 ⁰C on chokes, which is good enough to be a passive system with real phases. At 4.3 GHz the temperature has remained practically the same, only increasing that of the CPU itself.

Final words and conclusion about MSI Creator TRX40

MSI has done a great job with this board belonging to the Creator series. It is not one that has too much lighting, but why do we need it? In its absence we have a simple but effective design, with a passive VRM heatsink that distributes the work perfectly through a long heatpipe.

In this case we don't have to worry too much about noise as we only have a chipset axial fan that does a great job quietly. With a Threadripper set at 4.1 GHz for several hours, the VRM delivers just 56 ⁰C on the surface. The voltage and power management have been very uniform and constant, making it clear that Infineon's MOSFETS are on another level. However, its capacity has reached 4.3 GHz @ 1.3V in a stable way.

We recommend reading our guide on the best motherboards

The BIOS is also very well worked, more stable than the first versions of the X570 platform and with perfect hardware management and integration with Ryzen Master and fans.

Something that always stands out in the Creator series is connectivity in all its form. We have 4 PCIe x16 slots for SLI and CrossFire 3-way, along with 3 M.2 PCIe 4.0 slots expandable via the Spander-Aero Gen4 M.2 card with 4 extra slots taking full advantage of the 64 lanes of the CPU. To this we add triple network connectivity with Wi-Fi 6 and 10G LAN or the 10 USB 3.2 ports, reaching Type-C at 20 Gbps.

Finally the price of this MSI Creator TRX40 ranges from 742 euros in online stores and the surprising 948 euros in PC Components. They are abysmal differences, but what he makes clear is that it is a very expensive platform, especially for TOP boards like this, which also includes an expansion card.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ VRM AND EFFECTIVE PASSIVE HEATSINK	- PRETTY HIGH PRICE
+ USB-C TO 20 GBPS AND LAN TO 10 GBPS
+ OVERCLOCK PERFORMANCE AND CAPACITY
+ EXPANSION CARD +4 M.2 INCLUDED
+ STABLE AND HIGH OVERCLOCKING BIOS

The Professional Review team awards him the platinum medal:

MSI Creator TRX40

COMPONENTS - 93%

REFRIGERATION - 90%

BIOS - 91%

EXTRAS - 93%

PRICE - 83%

90%