MSI has launched two new motherboards, the P55A Fuzion and 870A Fuzion, which come with the Lucid Hydra 200 chip. The Hydra technology is similar to CrossFire or SLI, except graphics cards from two different companies (i.e. Nvidia and ATI) can be linked together in a hybrid configuration. In other words, just about any two cards from either camp can be paired up to boost performance.
As indicated by their names, one is for Intel's LGA1156 processors and the other supports Socket AM3 chips. Both have two PCIe x16 2.0 (full bandwidth) and PCIe x1 slots, four DIMM slots, six SATA 3Gb/s ports, two SATA 6Gb/s ports, six USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, 7.1 channel audio, gigabit Ethernet, as well as MSI's "Military Class components" and OC Genie overclocking tool. It's worth noting that the 870A Fuzion can also unlock "unused" cores in AMD processors.
The new Fuzion boards should be available soon and are priced at a surprisingly reasonable $190 (Intel) and $160 (AMD), considering the Big Bang Fuzion's hefty $350 fee.
