Building an Intel Core i7 system just got cheaper

Building a system based on Intel's new Core i7 silicon powerhouse is going to cost you and in this climate if you really don't need the power, you can get a lot of horsepower for a lot less money. But if you're working in an industry where time is money then investing in a Core i7 platform can save you time and pay for itself.

Going Core i7 is expensive. The CPUs start off at around $300 and go all the way to $1,000. Along with the CPU you'll also need DDR3 RAM and a Socket 1366 motherboard. The pennies quickly add up.

MSI has made building a Core i7 cheaper by introducing the MSI X58 Pro motherboard.

The MSI X58 Pro is a fully-featured Core i7 motherboard. It supports 24GB of DDR3-1333, two PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots supporting Crossfire, six SATA ports, 12 USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire port and two gigabit Ethernet ports.

This is the first sub-$200 Socket 1366 motherboards I've seen, and ZipZoomFlyhas it listed for $190.